LeafLink, the largest marketplace for wholesale cannabis, today announced $10 million in Series A funding to accelerate its rapid growth and expansion across North America. The round was led by Nosara Capital, a London-based venture capital firm that invests globally, to support LeafLink’s standardization of the cannabis supply chain. Additional participants are previous investors from both inside and outside the cannabis space, including Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Casa Verde Capital, Wisdom VC, Phyto Partners, TIA Ventures, and Brand New Matter.
LeafLink will use the funds to enhance and expand its core B2B marketplace to further support cannabis commerce, which currently includes order management tools for cannabis retailers and brands, as well as a CRM, data reporting, order status tracking, and a fulfillment queue for vendors.
“Cannabis is one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S., and therefore needs and deserves the tools available to any other multi-billion dollar industry,” said Ryan G. Smith, Co-Founder and CEO of LeafLink. “This is a unique opportunity to define, rather than disrupt, an industry that is scaling rapidly.
B2C marketplaces have become the norm for consumer purchasing, but it’s exciting to introduce LeafLink’s B2B marketplace technology in an industry that does not have to lean on the ‘old way’ of ordering, and can truly become one of the most efficient tech-first supply chains in the world.”
Since launching in March 2016, more than 1700 retailers and 400 cannabis brands have joined LeafLink across six states: California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Arizona. Twenty of LeafLink’s brands use the platform in multiple states. The company is on track to do $500M in annual orders through its platform in 2018, and will launch in 10 new states through 2018. “Through its order management tools, CRM, and reporting,
LeafLink has streamlined the ordering process for its network of licensed retailers, producers, processors, and distributors. Our technology allows these companies to grow their brands in a compliant, transparent, and efficient way,” Zach Silverman, Co-Founder and CTO of LeafLink, said.
LeafLink’s Series A round is among the largest for a technology company in the cannabis space. “Nosara Capital is incredibly excited to lead LeafLink’s Series A round as we think it is the most scalable opportunity in the sector and the company will come to define the cannabis industry. We are excited about our financial investment and operational involvement in the company,” said Ian Loizeaux,
Founding Partner at Nosara Capital.
LeafLink, which has offices in New York, California, and Colorado, will double the size of its engineering, sales, client support, and marketing teams to support platform and market growth.
For more information about LeafLink, please visit https://leaflink.com/.
About LeafLink:
Serving over 400 brands and 1,700 retailers across six states, LeafLink is the largest marketplace for wholesale cannabis. Retailers who previously called, emailed, or texted 30+ sales reps to place orders now save a day per week shopping all of their cannabis brands in one cart on LeafLink. Leading brands use the platform to streamline their orders as well as all elements of their wholesale activity, leveraging its CRM, reporting tools, fulfillment and shipment queues.
