附近上门

A company that tracks and traces cannabis plants and products across the supply chain has just raised $50 million in a growth funding round led by global investment giant Tiger Global Management and .

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Lakeland, Fla.-based was founded in late 2013 to serve Colorado鈥檚 cannabis enforcement division. (For those who didn鈥檛 know, Colorado was the first state to ). It鈥檚 not your traditional tech startup, having been spun out of 25-year-old Franwell Inc. It plans to use the money to hire and perform facility upgrades, according to , managing partner of Casa Verde Capital.

The large funding amount and caliber of Metrc鈥檚 investors are worth noting and certainly a validation for the growing cannabis industry. Tiger Global is one of the world鈥檚 most prolific investors, having put money into the likes of , , , and . On Tuesday, 附近上门 News reported it had raised a $3.8 billion venture fund. Back in January, our very own Savannah Dowling reported that despite a massive potential for growth with adult-use legalization, mainstream VC firms appeared to be hesitant to invest in cannabis companies.

鈥淲e believe this is a landmark transaction, as it supports one of the leading cannabis technology platforms in the U.S.,鈥� Wadhera said via email.

From Seed To Sale

Metrc currently services 11 states and Washington, D.C. and, according to a press release, 鈥渁llows cannabis industry operators to report required events and information and enables regulators to oversee license holders鈥� activities to monitor and enforce compliance.鈥� The company uses Radio Frequency Identification (鈥淩FID鈥�) technology and serialized item tracking in its effort into industry operators鈥� inventories. It has more than 50 employees, according to Wadhera.

, CEO of Metrc, said in a press release that Franwell has decades of experience building RFID technologies in industries such as fresh food and pharmaceuticals, and he is now applying that knowledge to the cannabis space.

Metrc recently won the track-and-trace contracts for Massachusetts and California, which it describes as 鈥渢he largest legal cannabis market in the world.鈥� To date, the company has registered more than 85,000 users and tracked more than 20 million plants and 19 million packages.

鈥淭he advent of seed-to-sale tracking and the richness of the data it yields has made the cannabis industry the most organized and transparent in the world,鈥� Wadhera said in a press release. 鈥淲e are excited to continue supporting compliant cannabis operations through our partnership with Metrc.鈥�

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