Who Is Koi CBD? A Brand File on One of Hemp's Original Names
One of the oldest CBD brands still standing — a named, family-owned company that posts real lab reports from an ISO-accredited lab and has been independently ranked among the most transparent in the industry. The asterisks are an old FDA letter and independent tests showing it tends to over-fill its potency.
By The Kind Buds Desk · 11 min read · Updated 2026-06-28
Kind Buds Brand Transparency Score
A genuinely transparency-forward veteran: named family founders, a public ISO-accredited lab, and an independent Top-10 transparency ranking. A strong C, just shy of a B — held back by an old FDA letter, two old consumer suits, and independent tests showing it over-labels potency about a quarter of the time.
An opinion grade from our transparent 6-pillar methodology, built on publicly sourced facts.
Among the best here: public COAs with batch lookup, an ISO/IEC 17025-accredited lab (Encore) named, and an independent audit ranking it Top-10 most transparent — but that same audit found ~23% of products over-labeled, and lab quality isn't uniform across the newer THCa line.
Claims cGMP and ISO 9001:2015 facilities and describes in-house finishing, but the certifications are self-asserted (not independently shown) and who owns the extraction facility isn't disclosed.
Clearly labels full-spectrum / broad-spectrum / isolate per product and asserts US-grown hemp — but the specific growing states are stated inconsistently across its own sources.
Strong for a private company: a named, family-owned LLC with public founders (the Ridenours) and a CMO, bootstrapped, no opaque holding structure.
Small named team (~11–50), a single verifiable California HQ; a Glassdoor profile exists but with too few reviews to read.
No recalls, and verifiably NOT named in any delta-8 sweep — but an old (2019) FDA CBD warning letter, two old consumer lawsuits (one dismissed, one unverified), and a middling Trustpilot on low volume.
Koi CBD is one of the original names in hemp — founded in 2015, reportedly out of a Los Angeles garage, back when most of today's brands didn't exist. It's grown into a broad line of CBD, delta-8, delta-9, THCa, topical, pet, and mushroom products, sold direct, in thousands of retailers, and through a wholesale program. Longevity in this industry usually means one of two things: a brand that cut corners and survived on marketing, or one that did the boring transparency work early. We ran Koi through our six-pillar Brand Transparency Score and it lands at a C (77/100) — a strong C, right on the doorstep of a B, and decisively in the "did the work" camp.
What earns Koi that grade is unusual in these files: it tells you who runs it (a named family), it posts real Certificates of Analysis from an ISO-accredited lab, and — the part that's genuinely rare — an independent third-party audit ranked it among the ten most transparent CBD brands. The asterisks that keep it from a B are honest ones: an old 2019 FDA warning letter, a couple of old consumer lawsuits, and the fact that the same independent testing that praised its transparency also found it tends to put more cannabinoid in the bottle than the label claims, about a quarter of the time. Here's the receipts-first reality.
The short version
- Our grade: C (77/100). A strong, near-B score for one of hemp's most established and genuinely transparent brands.
- The real strength: independently verified transparency. Koi posts COAs from a named, ISO/IEC 17025-accredited lab (Encore), offers batch lookup, and was independently ranked among the Top-10 most transparent CBD brands.
- Named, family-owned, and findable. Koi is a California LLC founded in 2015 by a named family team (the Ridenours), bootstrapped — none of the anonymous-ownership games common in this space.
- The honest catch: it over-labels. The same independent audit found ~23% of Koi products tested outside ±10% of their label — skewing toward more cannabinoid than claimed, which matters for dosing.
- The record is old, not clean. A 2019 FDA CBD warning letter (the common 'drug-claims' type) and two old consumer lawsuits (one dismissed, one with an unverified outcome) — but no recalls, and Koi was NOT named in any delta-8 enforcement sweep.
| What the public record shows | |
|---|---|
| Legal entity | KOI CBD, LLC (California) |
| Founded | 2015 (CA LLC registered ~2016) |
| Founders named? | Yes — Brad & Malinda Ridenour, Brent Brunner |
| HQ | Norwalk, California |
| Makes its own product? | In-house finishing; extraction facility ownership undisclosed |
| Lab testing | Public COAs + batch lookup; ISO-17025 lab (Encore) named |
| Independent check | Ranked Top-10 most transparent (Leafreport); ~23% over ±10% label |
| Funding | Private, family-owned, bootstrapped; no investors disclosed |
| FDA / lawsuits | 2019 CBD warning letter; two old consumer suits (allegations) |
| Recalls / delta-8 sweep | No recalls; NOT named in any delta-8 sweep |
Koi CBD at a glance — the verified facts
The short version
Koi is what a transparency-forward hemp veteran looks like — not perfect, but accountable. It tells you who owns it, posts verifiable lab reports from a named accredited lab, and has the rare distinction of an independent audit confirming it's among the most transparent in the category. Our score rewards exactly that kind of verifiable openness, which is why Koi sits at the top of the C tier, a hair under a B.
What keeps it from the B is real and worth knowing: an old FDA letter, two old lawsuits, and — most usefully for a buyer — independent evidence that Koi tends to over-fill its potency, so the label can understate what's actually in the bottle. We'll separate sourced fact from marketing throughout, and credit the genuine work Koi has done.
Who's behind it? (A named family — and they'll tell you)
The operating entity is KOI CBD, LLC, a California limited liability company based in Norwalk, founded in 2015 and registered as an LLC around 2016. Crucially, Koi doesn't hide its people. It's a family-owned business with named, public founders: Brad Ridenour (CEO) and Malinda Ridenour (CFO), with Brent Brunner as co-founder and CMO — a "brother, sister, and cousin" team, per the company's own telling, all findable on LinkedIn and in trade-press interviews.
Lab testing — its strongest suit, with one honest flaw
This is where Koi genuinely shines, and where we can credit independent verification rather than just Koi's own word:
- Public COAs + batch lookup. Koi runs a public Lab Results page with per-product reports and a batch-number lookup.
- A named, accredited lab. Its primary testing partner is Encore Labs (Pasadena, CA), which is genuinely ISO/IEC 17025:2017-accredited — a real, checkable credential, not a vague "ISO-certified" hand-wave. (Koi's blanket "ISO-certified labs" marketing is looser than that, and the newer THCa-flower line appears to use other, lesser labs, so we don't extend the credit to the whole catalog.)
- Independent transparency ranking. The third-party auditor Leafreport — which buys and tests products itself — ranked Koi among its Top-10 Most Transparent CBD brands, and found 77% of Koi products within ±10% of their label. That outside validation is rare and meaningful.
Manufacturing and sourcing — claimed well, documented partly
On manufacturing, Koi says its products are made in cGMP and ISO 9001:2015 facilities and describes an in-house "single-vessel" finishing process with a fast farm-to-bottle turnaround. That's a more specific quality claim than most brands make — but the certifications are self-asserted (we found no independent certificate or registry entry to confirm them), and importantly, ISO 9001 is a general quality-management standard, not a food-safety one. Who actually owns the extraction facility (versus the in-house finishing) isn't disclosed.
On sourcing, Koi clearly labels each product as full-spectrum, broad-spectrum, or isolate — a real transparency plus — and asserts US-grown hemp. The soft spot: the specific growing states are stated inconsistently across Koi's own interviews and pages (Kentucky, Colorado, Oklahoma, Oregon all appear in different places), so the precise origin story doesn't fully line up.
Funding and people
On funding, Koi is privately held and family-owned, and by all available evidence bootstrapped — its Crunchbase profile shows no funding rounds, and we found no outside investors, acquisitions, or any sourced evidence of foreign funding (so we assert none). For a private company, that's a clean, legible ownership picture. On people, it's a focused operation: independent databases put it at roughly 11–50 employees at a single Norwalk HQ, and a Glassdoor profile exists but has too few reviews to draw a workplace conclusion from. No red flags; just a small, named company.
The record: old scars, no recent fires
Koi's regulatory and legal history is real, but it's old and mostly resolved, and we weight it as such:
- 2019 FDA warning letter (allegation). Koi received the common 2019-era FDA letter over unapproved drug claims / CBD-as-food — the same category of letter dozens of CBD brands got that year. It's an allegation about marketing claims, never an adjudicated finding, and it predates much of the industry's compliance cleanup.
- Two old consumer lawsuits (allegations). A 2019 mislabeling class action (Fausett) was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice with no liability finding; a separate 2020 suit (Shipman) alleged a failed drug test after relying on a "0% THC" claim — and its outcome isn't public, so we report it as filed, not as anything proven.
- What's genuinely clean: no recalls, no FTC action, and — verified against the source — Koi was NOT named in any FDA/FTC delta-8 enforcement sweep (be careful: a company called "Delta 8 Hemp" was, and it's unrelated to Koi).
On customer sentiment, Koi advertises tens of thousands of on-site reviews, but those are self-reported; the independent Trustpilot sits around 3.4 stars on relatively low volume, with the usual mix of praise for service and complaints about subscription billing. A middling-but-thin third-party rating, which we treat as a minor, not a major, signal.
The bottom line
In our view, Koi is one of the more trustworthy names in hemp — a named, family-owned veteran that does the transparency work and has the independent receipts to prove it. If you want a brand where you can verify the people, the lab, and the test results, Koi clears that bar better than almost anyone in these files. The reasons it's a C and not a B are honest and useful: an old FDA letter, two old suits, self-asserted (not shown) factory certs, a fuzzy sourcing-origin story, and independent evidence that it over-labels potency about a quarter of the time.
If you buy Koi, our practical advice: pull the COA for your specific batch (the lab is named and accredited, which is exactly what you want), stick to the core CBD/delta line where the testing is strongest rather than assuming the same rigor on every newer SKU, and remember the potency on the label may run a little low versus what's actually inside. A C (77/100) — a strong, near-B grade for a brand that earned its longevity honestly. The full methodology shows every point; if Koi documents its facility certifications and tightens its label accuracy, this is a B (see the notice below).
Questions, answered
Is Koi CBD legit?
Yes — and it's one of the more verifiably legitimate brands in hemp. Koi CBD, LLC is a named California company founded in 2015 by a public, family founder team (the Ridenours), it posts real lab reports from an ISO/IEC 17025-accredited lab (Encore), and it was independently ranked among the Top-10 most transparent CBD brands by the third-party auditor Leafreport. We grade it a C (77/100) — a strong, near-B score. The caveats are honest ones: an old 2019 FDA warning letter, two old consumer lawsuits, and independent tests showing it over-labels potency about a quarter of the time.
Who owns Koi CBD?
Koi is operated by KOI CBD, LLC, a privately held, family-owned California company based in Norwalk, founded in 2015. Its founders are public and named: Brad Ridenour (CEO) and Malinda Ridenour (CFO), with Brent Brunner as co-founder and CMO. By all available evidence it's bootstrapped — its Crunchbase shows no funding rounds, and we found no outside investors, acquisitions, or any sourced evidence of foreign funding. Named, verifiable family ownership is one of the biggest reasons Koi scores well: you can look up exactly who runs it.
Are Koi CBD's lab tests trustworthy?
More than most — with one honest caveat. Koi posts public COAs with a batch-lookup tool, and its primary lab, Encore Labs, is genuinely ISO/IEC 17025-accredited (a real, checkable credential). The independent auditor Leafreport, which buys and tests products itself, ranked Koi among the Top-10 most transparent CBD brands and found 77% of its products within ±10% of the label. The caveat: the other ~23% missed that window, skewing toward MORE cannabinoid than labeled — so dose carefully. Also, Koi's newer THCa-flower line appears to use lesser labs, so the strongest testing applies to its core CBD/delta products. Always pull your batch's COA.
Did Koi CBD get an FDA warning letter?
Yes, but it's old and worth understanding in context. Koi received a 2019 FDA warning letter — the common 'unapproved drug claims / CBD-as-food' type that dozens of CBD brands received that year — which is an allegation about marketing claims, not an adjudicated finding of harm, and it predates much of the industry's compliance cleanup. Importantly, Koi was NOT named in any of the later FDA/FTC delta-8 enforcement sweeps (a separate company called 'Delta 8 Hemp' was, and it's unrelated to Koi), and we found no recalls. So: an old marketing-claims letter, not a recent safety action.
Is Koi CBD's potency accurate?
Mostly, with a known skew. The independent auditor Leafreport found 77% of tested Koi products fell within ±10% of their stated potency — a solid result — but about 23% fell outside that range, and the misses tended toward OVER-labeling, meaning the product contained more cannabinoid than the label claimed (for example, a '500mg' gummy measuring north of 600mg). That's safer than being short-changed, but it still means the number on the box isn't always exact, which matters if you're dosing precisely. The fix from a buyer's side is simple: check the COA for your specific batch, which Koi makes available.
How did you research this, and is it fair to Koi?
Every claim is from a public source — Koi's own site, its California business registration, the FDA database, court dockets, its lab partner's accreditation, and the independent Leafreport audit. We gave Koi full credit for its genuine strengths (named family founders, a named accredited lab, batch lookup, and an independent transparency ranking) and were careful with the negatives: we labeled the FDA letter and lawsuits as allegations, noted that one lawsuit was dismissed and the other's outcome is unverified, and explicitly did NOT attribute any delta-8 enforcement sweep to Koi, which it wasn't part of. If Koi documents its facility certifications and tightens its label accuracy, we'll update the file — see the notice at the foot of this page.