A San Francisco based cannabis startup has announced they have received 2.1 million dollars in funding to grow their software company.
The cannabis startup, Meadow, has received investment from a collection of sources including Joe Montana’s investment fund Liquid 2 Ventures, Reddit’s CEO and founder Steve Huffman, , and Justin Kan, creator of Justin.TV and Twitch.
Meadow was formed in 2015 and has worked on software to help facilitate online cannabis deliveries to California dispensaries. They are now seeking to expand their focus into dispensary sales software and online physician recommendations.
Last year, Meadow received a modest $120,000 in funding. They seem to have used the initial investment wisely as others looking to enter the cannabis industry have taken notice. Although interest is picking up for Meadow, the company wants to be steady in their approach.
“It’s been a slow roll. … We’re not looking to get bought,” CEO and co-Founder David Hua said. “They have to believe in the vision.”
As other companies are vying for much larger investments in the cannabis industry, Meadow seems to be making the most of their opportunity while resisting the urge to spend big money. The 2.1 million is “what we need, for what we wanted. If I got $10 million today I wouldn’t know what to do with it. It’s what we need to get to where we want to with each checkpoint we want to hit.” Hua said.
David Hua seems to have a clear path for Meadow in mind. “We plan to connect the entire cannabis supply chain, from farm to flame,” he stated. “We started with the last mile, facilitating access between dispensaries and patients. Going forward, we’ll continue building Meadow Platform to fuel operational efficiency and regulatory compliance from farmers to patients. We have the opportunity to build technology that will become the backbone of this industry–in California and beyond–and we’re thrilled to have an incredible group of forward-thinking investors backing our mission.”
The announcement comes during a time where many of the large tech companies, such as Microsoft, are looking to turn their attention to the cannabis industry. Other startups also have lofty goals requiring mega funding and huge overhead. Meadow’s fiscally sound approach may help keep them in the industry for a long time to come.
