8 ms·

Eaze, cannabis delivery company, raises 27M

37 points by jack_hanford 9y ago

fasdfdsafas 9y ago
Damn, I live in Seattle and actually have to walk across the street to get my weed.
nicodjimenez 9y ago
I hope they can invest at least some of this money into 5 minute drone deliveries.
- javajosh 9y ago
  Marijuana delivery by drone is already illegal or will be in the next 5 minutes. (Which is too bad because it is a very elegant solution.)
  - TaylorAlexander 9y ago
    High value, light weight. Sounds perfect. Customers would appreciate the Wow factor too.
    - nkrisc 9y ago
      Sounds perfect for intercepting!
  - mysterydip 9y ago
    There was a news article earlier this week IIRC that California banned marijuana delivery by drone.
  - djtriptych 9y ago
    Too loud.
conductr 9y ago
Maybe I'm missing something, but why are X delivery companies a thing? Why not have just a delivery company? This is a case where I can't even think of any special handling being required, but I wouldn't be a customer so may be ignorant to something.
- Apocryphon 9y ago
  In the case of Eaze it's delivery for a market with a very unique regulatory and logistical nature. As opposed to say, food.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - tikhonj 9y ago
    I might be missing a joke, but food also has a unique regulatory and logistical nature. Amazon and Walmart.com have had trouble expanding to groceries for this very reason, and that's why they've been partnering with or acquiring grocery delivery startups. Food essentially requires its own supply chain and has its own health regulations. Consumer preferences for food shopping also seem to be distinctly different from preferences on other classes of products.
- code_duck 9y ago
  Of course… Many types of delivery companies already exists for specific needs. Shipping companies like UPS or the post office aren't going to bring you a pizza or deliver a shed into your backyard.
  - conductr 9y ago
    I see distinction between what I consider shipping and delivery (UPS, Fedex vs Postmates, Grubhub). But UPS/Fedex doesn't care (within laws) what you are shipping. It's not like you can be the Fedex of Birthday cards, that makes no sense but it's exactly what is happening in the delivery world. Maybe this is natural as consumers are getting used to on demand delivery so companies need to focus on something and be known for it. But, eventually I'd expect to just have one app where I could get anything delivered without having to use app A for groceries and app B for restaurants and...
aphextron 9y ago
There's something really disturbing about this given the fact that people are still rotting in jail in this country for selling a dime bag in the 90's. The time for federal prohibition to come to an end is far overdue.
- chrshawkes 9y ago
  Is that exaggerated or do you really have confirmation of somebody serving time in prison for minor pot dealings? I would be willing to be most serving time in prisons for pot were moving quite a bit of product, which would still be illegal even in legalized pot states today.
  - ryen 9y ago
    There are many cases of extended time served for small personal amounts of marijuana. Especially after "tough on crime" effort and 3-strikes laws that permeated throughout the country starting in the 90s. Obama vacated many federal sentences before his term ended, but that didn't cover prisoners in state and county prisons. Plenty of press and articles around this over the past few years.
    - taheca 9y ago
      I think that this is true, but didn't Obama have a massive wave of Pardons of people like this before he left office?
      - techntoke 9y ago
        Didn't Google invent a search engine? People are still being incarcerated for long periods of time for minor marijuana offenses (well under a pound). This isn't news.
  - techntoke 9y ago
    Really not hard to see the injustices here, and if you want court documents, then you can get them. Plenty of news sources as well: http://norml.org/laws/item/indiana-penalties-2 http://norml.org/laws/item/indiana-penalties-2
sbinthree 9y ago
Why would (largest regional pharmacy retailer) supply chain not be able to win this market? Already has all those hard assets in place with ops, people, efficiencies, etc.
- htormey 9y ago
  Distribution. Many cities have different rules about if and where you can place a shop that can sells Marijuana. The corner store beside your house is not going to be selling weed anytime soon. Hence delivery is very handy.
swampthinker 9y ago
That delivery spike on 4/20 is amusing to see. I suspect it will become the equivalent of Christmas sales volume for Cannabis vendors.
trollopTheJope 9y ago
weed dood
40acres 9y ago
It's a bit surprising to see that they've raised so much. Given that Eaze is only available in California and they will need a very local approach to deal with city by city and state by state regulations which have slight differences. I can definitely see an Uber/Lyft dynamic emerge in the marijuana delivery space.
sremani 9y ago
Can the VC be implicated for financing distribution of controlled substances ? There could be enough grounds for Banks to terminating their relationship with Bailey Capital et al. Why would a venture capital firm expose themselves to this, when its not even legal in half of the country?
- aphextron 9y ago
  >Can the VC be implicated for financing distribution of controlled substances ? There could be enough grounds for Banks to terminating their relationship with Bailey Capital et al. Yes, and yes. >Why would a venture capital firm expose themselves to this, when its not even legal in half of the country? Because selling weed is basically printing money
edoceo 9y ago
Gets them another 27mo of runway, according to the other article that they burn 1m/mo. Wow, how can they be burning that much?
- KGIII 9y ago
  Doritos, I presume.
- WalterSear 9y ago
  Ridiculous growth, from what I've been told.
- cpursley 9y ago
  > Wow, how can they be burning that much? In their case, "burn rate" is a good thing.
philfrasty 9y ago
I wonder if the increasing cannabis accessibility leads to an increase in smoking? Lots of friends of mine never smoked but started „smoking“ cannabis, usually combined with tobacco (vapors not used once). Kind of a sad development in my opinion when lots of countries are pushing hard for a smokefree life.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
koverda 9y ago
Glad to see some increasing activity for funding in the cannabis space. Prohibition is lifting, and it is exciting to watch it happen.
mikeh1010 9y ago
Congrats to Eaze! I run a popular networking event for CannaTech professionals in Denver and while it's a little scary to see Silicon Valley coming after this area that Colorado has been dominating, it's a good thing for the industry in general. Stigma and risk has kept a lot of top talent away and it's exciting to see that finally starting to change!
kingnothing 9y ago
Serious question: Are the investors not at risk for being charged with a federal RICO case given that marijuana is illegal at that level in the US? Legally, it's no different than them investing in a heroin or cocaine ring.
dig247 9y ago
I get the need for runway given the burn rate at 1 mil/month. I just can't understand the investors motivation. What does annual revenue really look like? Meadow raised just over 2 mil and is close to profitability. It all just seems a tad excessive in terms of cap raise, burn and realistic growth. But again, just keep raising capital, eventual you can IPO and dump it on a bunch of retail guys.

37 points by jack_hanford 9y ago

fasdfdsafas 9y ago

Damn, I live in Seattle and actually have to walk across the street to get my weed.

nicodjimenez 9y ago

I hope they can invest at least some of this money into 5 minute drone deliveries.

javajosh 9y ago
Marijuana delivery by drone is already illegal or will be in the next 5 minutes. (Which is too bad because it is a very elegant solution.)
- TaylorAlexander 9y ago
  High value, light weight. Sounds perfect. Customers would appreciate the Wow factor too.
  - nkrisc 9y ago
    Sounds perfect for intercepting!
- mysterydip 9y ago
  There was a news article earlier this week IIRC that California banned marijuana delivery by drone.
- djtriptych 9y ago
  Too loud.

conductr 9y ago

Maybe I'm missing something, but why are X delivery companies a thing? Why not have just a delivery company? This is a case where I can't even think of any special handling being required, but I wouldn't be a customer so may be ignorant to something.

Apocryphon 9y ago
In the case of Eaze it's delivery for a market with a very unique regulatory and logistical nature. As opposed to say, food.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- tikhonj 9y ago
  I might be missing a joke, but food also has a unique regulatory and logistical nature. Amazon and Walmart.com have had trouble expanding to groceries for this very reason, and that's why they've been partnering with or acquiring grocery delivery startups. Food essentially requires its own supply chain and has its own health regulations. Consumer preferences for food shopping also seem to be distinctly different from preferences on other classes of products.
code_duck 9y ago
Of course… Many types of delivery companies already exists for specific needs. Shipping companies like UPS or the post office aren't going to bring you a pizza or deliver a shed into your backyard.
- conductr 9y ago
  I see distinction between what I consider shipping and delivery (UPS, Fedex vs Postmates, Grubhub). But UPS/Fedex doesn't care (within laws) what you are shipping. It's not like you can be the Fedex of Birthday cards, that makes no sense but it's exactly what is happening in the delivery world. Maybe this is natural as consumers are getting used to on demand delivery so companies need to focus on something and be known for it. But, eventually I'd expect to just have one app where I could get anything delivered without having to use app A for groceries and app B for restaurants and...

aphextron 9y ago

There's something really disturbing about this given the fact that people are still rotting in jail in this country for selling a dime bag in the 90's. The time for federal prohibition to come to an end is far overdue.

chrshawkes 9y ago
Is that exaggerated or do you really have confirmation of somebody serving time in prison for minor pot dealings? I would be willing to be most serving time in prisons for pot were moving quite a bit of product, which would still be illegal even in legalized pot states today.
- ryen 9y ago
  There are many cases of extended time served for small personal amounts of marijuana. Especially after "tough on crime" effort and 3-strikes laws that permeated throughout the country starting in the 90s. Obama vacated many federal sentences before his term ended, but that didn't cover prisoners in state and county prisons. Plenty of press and articles around this over the past few years.
  - taheca 9y ago
    I think that this is true, but didn't Obama have a massive wave of Pardons of people like this before he left office?
    - techntoke 9y ago
      Didn't Google invent a search engine? People are still being incarcerated for long periods of time for minor marijuana offenses (well under a pound). This isn't news.
- techntoke 9y ago
  Really not hard to see the injustices here, and if you want court documents, then you can get them. Plenty of news sources as well: http://norml.org/laws/item/indiana-penalties-2 http://norml.org/laws/item/indiana-penalties-2

sbinthree 9y ago

Why would (largest regional pharmacy retailer) supply chain not be able to win this market? Already has all those hard assets in place with ops, people, efficiencies, etc.

htormey 9y ago
Distribution. Many cities have different rules about if and where you can place a shop that can sells Marijuana. The corner store beside your house is not going to be selling weed anytime soon. Hence delivery is very handy.

swampthinker 9y ago

That delivery spike on 4/20 is amusing to see. I suspect it will become the equivalent of Christmas sales volume for Cannabis vendors.

trollopTheJope 9y ago

weed dood

40acres 9y ago

It's a bit surprising to see that they've raised so much. Given that Eaze is only available in California and they will need a very local approach to deal with city by city and state by state regulations which have slight differences. I can definitely see an Uber/Lyft dynamic emerge in the marijuana delivery space.

sremani 9y ago

Can the VC be implicated for financing distribution of controlled substances ? There could be enough grounds for Banks to terminating their relationship with Bailey Capital et al. Why would a venture capital firm expose themselves to this, when its not even legal in half of the country?

aphextron 9y ago
>Can the VC be implicated for financing distribution of controlled substances ? There could be enough grounds for Banks to terminating their relationship with Bailey Capital et al. Yes, and yes. >Why would a venture capital firm expose themselves to this, when its not even legal in half of the country? Because selling weed is basically printing money

edoceo 9y ago

Gets them another 27mo of runway, according to the other article that they burn 1m/mo. Wow, how can they be burning that much?

KGIII 9y ago
Doritos, I presume.
WalterSear 9y ago
Ridiculous growth, from what I've been told.
cpursley 9y ago
> Wow, how can they be burning that much? In their case, "burn rate" is a good thing.

philfrasty 9y ago

I wonder if the increasing cannabis accessibility leads to an increase in smoking? Lots of friends of mine never smoked but started „smoking“ cannabis, usually combined with tobacco (vapors not used once). Kind of a sad development in my opinion when lots of countries are pushing hard for a smokefree life.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

koverda 9y ago

Glad to see some increasing activity for funding in the cannabis space. Prohibition is lifting, and it is exciting to watch it happen.

mikeh1010 9y ago

Congrats to Eaze! I run a popular networking event for CannaTech professionals in Denver and while it's a little scary to see Silicon Valley coming after this area that Colorado has been dominating, it's a good thing for the industry in general. Stigma and risk has kept a lot of top talent away and it's exciting to see that finally starting to change!

kingnothing 9y ago

Serious question: Are the investors not at risk for being charged with a federal RICO case given that marijuana is illegal at that level in the US? Legally, it's no different than them investing in a heroin or cocaine ring.

dig247 9y ago

I get the need for runway given the burn rate at 1 mil/month. I just can't understand the investors motivation. What does annual revenue really look like? Meadow raised just over 2 mil and is close to profitability. It all just seems a tad excessive in terms of cap raise, burn and realistic growth. But again, just keep raising capital, eventual you can IPO and dump it on a bunch of retail guys.