SynBiotic SE, as soon as one of many largest and most promising hashish corporations in Germany, has introduced plans to file for insolvency and had its shares suspended on the Xetra and Frankfurt inventory exchanges.
It follows a 12 months wherein it had already misplaced six of its subsidiaries to insolvency, wind-down or disposal, seen its auditor refuse to difficulty an opinion, and wherein its administration had warned that the group’s continued existence relied on additional capital that by no means materialised.
The group, which at its peak boasted 12 subsidiaries and a notional market capitalisation of round €85m at pre-crisis analyst valuations, blamed a persistently troublesome hashish market, a failure to safe financing in time, and a block on versatile capital measures after shareholders at its final annual assembly refused to approve the creation of recent authorised capital.
One in every of Germany’s unique gamers
5 years in the past, when Enterprise of Hashish first coated the corporate, SynBiotic was within the technique of finishing what it described because the ‘most vital merger within the European hashish sector’ to this point, an €11.2m merger bringing Hanf Farm, Hempro Worldwide, Hemp Manufacturing facility and MH Medical Hemp beneath one roof.
The vendor, Daniel Kruse, was already a long-standing determine within the European hemp business, a previous president of the European Industrial Hemp Affiliation (EIHA) and the proprietor of a number of the sector’s longest-trading manufacturers. The deal introduced in his portfolio of manufacturers, in addition to Kruse himself, who got here into the SynBiotic construction as a part of the merger.
Its then-CEO and founder Lars Müller was weighing whether or not to maintain shopping for corporations or begin constructing in-house ‘way of life manufacturers’, noting that fundraising had turn into a lot simpler within the aftermath of Germany’s announcement it meant to legalise hashish. Full-year 2021 income steerage had simply been raised to €15m, up from €5.4m in 2020.
The group’s cap desk was uncommon for a European hashish play. SynBiotic had been backed since September 2021 by Christian Angermayer’s Apeiron Funding Group, the household workplace whose different well being and biotech stakes embody Compass Pathways and ATAI Life Sciences.
In November 2022, Cover Development founder Bruce Linton, the Canadian government who had taken his firm to a NYSE itemizing and secured Constellation Manufacturers’ multi-billion-dollar entry into the hashish sector, joined the SynBiotic register as an investor. By 2023, the group additionally carried the identify of German media entrepreneur Frank Otto, of the Otto household, who invested €3m via a share package deal and joined the Verwaltungsrat alongside new chairman Oliver Conrad.
In the identical August 2023 strikes that introduced in Otto, SynBiotic acquired a majority stake in CBD and way of life model proprietor CannaCare Well being, bringing in its Canobo CBD vary and WellnetIQ community advertising and marketing arm. In the identical week, Kruse took over from Müller as CEO, with Müller shifting to managing director of the corporate.
A 12 months later, SynBiotic took a 50.20% stake in Greensby UG, a European platform connecting sufferers, pharmacies and telemedicine suppliers within the hashish market. CCO Emilio Ropero informed Enterprise of Hashish the deal would enable the group to ‘optimally serve all market contributors, from sufferers to shoppers.’ Inside weeks, the group had additionally moved its registered seat from Munich to Düsseldorf and lined up a 100% acquisition of Croatian CBD isolate producer Ilesol Prescription drugs.
By early 2024, SynBiotic had positioned itself because the built-in European hashish play its earliest buyers had guess on, with manufacturers, platforms and distribution spanning medical hashish, industrial hemp and CBD.
With CanG set to rework the market in April 2024, SynBiotic seemed poised to capitalise. On the floor, the group’s numbers adopted. Consolidated gross sales jumped from €3.9m in 2023 to €14.3m in 2024, up 270.5%, and working money circulation turned briefly optimistic at €0.7m.
What goes up…
Nevertheless, these consolidated figures masked what was taking place one degree up on the SynBiotic SE holding firm. Whereas Germany’s hashish market was being quickly remodeled, with affected person numbers, prescriptions and import tonnage skyrocketing, the guardian on the high of the construction was quietly haemorrhaging money.
As a substitute of driving this wave of progress, SynBiotic discovered itself structurally uncovered. Its medical hashish backbone ran via its WEECO Pharma import and wholesale platform, which was instantly compelled to compete on the decrease finish of the market, the place costs had been plummeting.
The CanG shopper progress went to the operators that truly owned the telemedicine clinics and the web pharmacies filling their prescriptions. SynBiotic offered wholesale into that chain however didn’t run any a part of it, which left it absorbing the import value strain with none of the buyer progress that was flowing above it.
The primary whiff of hassle for buyers got here in October 2025, when SynBiotic practically halved its outlook for full-year 2025, slashing its consolidated gross sales expectations from €30m to €17m and its revenue outlook from €1.7m to a lack of €1.5m.
However the true extent of its monetary struggles solely turned clear in December 2025 when its accounts for the earlier 12 months had been filed, notably with its auditors refusing to log off.
SynBiotic SE’s 2024 single-entity accounts, which cowl the holding firm by itself somewhat than the buying and selling subsidiaries beneath it, present it closed 2024 with simply €2,506.59 in money on the financial institution. The guardian recorded €7.18m in subsidiary impairments, a €9.12m loss after tax, an amassed loss carryforward of €49.98m, and a €13.4m capital increase required simply to maintain it solvent via the 12 months.
The group’s auditors, Forvis Mazars GmbH & Co. KG, refused to difficulty an opinion on the accounts, citing the corporate’s strained liquidity place and an incapability to type a conclusion on the assumptions underlying administration’s liquidity plan.
To bridge 2025, SynBiotic signed a contract with IRIS Capital Funding for €2.4m in interest-free convertible notes, alongside two additional small capital will increase of as much as €187,500 and €200,000, each accepted in the identical week the auditors refused to present an opinion. That very same week, its Austrian subsidiary Bushdoctor GmbH filed for insolvency.
From mid-2026, it started to dismantle its portfolio. First, Hempro Worldwide, one of many unique 2021 Kruse acquisitions, filed for insolvency on the Amtsgericht Münster in June 2026. Then, in July, SOLIDMIND Group and Lean Labs Pharma adopted, with the group citing CBD and hemp product income declines and regulatory uncertainty. By August, Hanf Farm had ceased operations totally, and Hemp Manufacturing facility had wound down its hemp meals and feed arm.
On the similar time, its home dealer NuWays AG had positioned its SynBiotic ranking ‘Beneath Evaluation’, having lower its goal to €5.50 the earlier December. Sources had been now targeting WEECO Pharma, MH Medical Hemp, and Ilesol Prescription drugs, with WEECO alone estimated at round 90% of FY2026 gross sales.
The corporate cited a persistently troublesome hashish market, alongside shareholders voting to dam the creation of recent authorised capital throughout its final annual assembly, successfully closing the final financing route obtainable to administration.
SynBiotic expects a provisional insolvency administrator to be appointed and operations to proceed initially. On the time of writing, no courtroom determination had but been printed in Germany’s official insolvency register.
