Cilo Cybin’s listing on the AltX market was transferred to the main board of the JSE on Tuesday, 30 September 2025. This follows the consolidation of the group’s interests centred around Cilo Cybin Pharmaceuticals, the SAHPRA-licensed facility in Gauteng. Cannabiz Africa publisher Brett Hilton-Barber caught up with CC founder Gabriel Theron to find out what’s in store for the group next.
BHB: CC is now on the main board of the JSE with the foundations in place for the group to grow. You’ve said this gives you a platform to attract new capital to scale up manufacturing and look for new investments, particularly in the in biotechnology, biohacking, and pharmaceutical businesses beyond medical cannabis. That’s a wide range, where do you start?
GT: Our financial backer, a Unicorn Status Biotech company in Malaysia, guided us in terms of our strategy to first focus on the cannabis sector and to solidify a strong revenue generating division. Thereafter we will venture into the Psychedelic realm as well as the monitoring wearable devises.
BHB How much capital are you looking to raise and where are you looking to spend it?
GT Currently we will not be actively raising capital, we are profitable and we have cash in the bank. We have already invested in the equipment needed for our expansion, and we have enough to setup 3 factories if needed. Now we are focused on obtaining EU-GMP manufacturing accreditation.
BHB: What new markets are you looking at entering and with what product? Presumably the interesting new markets are international?
GT: We are looking at Europe, UK, and Israel.
BHB: Are there any deals imminent?
GT: Unfortunately I’m not at liberty to answer this question currently.
BHB: What’s your domestic market strategy given the current limitations? Is a local market product range on the cards?
GT: We will slowly roll out our compliant CBD range of products again. But further than that we will remain on the sideline for all intent and purposes until the regulatory environment allows for us to engage.
BHB: You’ve also talked about scaling up manufacturing at CC’s Gauteng facility? What are you currently producing and what kind of expansion are you looking at?
GT: We are planning to scale out bottling packaging line to 2500 units per hour, THC extraction to around 250kg of biomass extraction per day. And up to 20kg thc distillate per hour production. Obviously we will only manufacture based on demand.
BHB: To what extent is CC looking to buy cannabis from local growers as opposed to doing its own cultivation?
GT: We will actively start entering into long term supply contracts for trim with local producers very soon.
BHB: What’s your view of how South African cannabis is faring on international markets?
GT: I think quality and price points are South Africa’s biggest downfall. Only a hand full of suppliers can delivery product continuously as the quality specification required. I believe we can definitely compete in the global markets as we can produce at better rates than Canada. But cannabis flower is fast becoming a commodity that is more accessible and prices will come down. South Africa has huge potential, if only we can all start working together, and understand that the cake is bigger than all of us combined can supply.
BHB: And back home, what’s your take on the South African cannabis landscape?
GT: It’s sad that’s it’s been almost 8 years from the constitutional court ruling, and we have not move forward in the local landscape at all. The cannabis industry can bring so much relieve to us as a country, and if we really moved quickly as government back then, we could have been the strongest cannabis player in the world. It took Cilo Cybin 7 years to get to where we are today, and many a time we almost did not make it.
Only now we can say we have picked up momentum and the future is looking great. But many cannabis companies in South Africa are closing down, or can’t manage to keep their doors open, and some reverting to selling to the illicit market. I hope that we see that the government implement a similar model to Australia whereby doctors can prescribe, and patients can collect form the pharmacies, without a regulatory approval process like Section 21. We can only wait and see …
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