Based in San Francisco, Eaze is one of the first companies to raise serious amounts of money from an investor class wary of the possibility that the federal government might intervene.
How it works is that Eaze delivers marijuana on demand to medical patients by coordinating with dispensaries in the vicinity, Quartz reports. The company first raised $1.5 million last November and has since brought in $10 million in a new series A round. Snoop Dogg’s weed fund Casa Verde Capital invested in the round, along with DCM Ventures.
“It signals that technology services can be successful servicing the cannabis category,” said Eaze founder Keith McCarty, according to Forbes. “It also signals that regulatory landscapes are loosening up, and venture capitalists see the broader market continuing in that direction.”
Investors have shed a great deal of reluctance about Eaze because the company doesn’t actually grow or sell the drug. Moreover, Eaze plans to expand at a near-breakneck pace by hiring 50 employees in just 50 days. The hope is to be able to provide patients with their medication within a 15 minute time-frame. On-demand delivery is an idea popularized by companies like Uber.
While it’s currently located in San Francisco, founder Keith McCarty hopes to expand to other jurisdictions—first throughout the rest of California and then to other states.
“The plan is to be in every market as quickly as possible that allows for medical marijuana and even recreational use of marijuana,” McCarty said, according to Quartz.
Investors are banking that medical marijuana is here to stay and the recent financing of Eaze will likely lower fears that have plagued other investors considering the cannabis industry.
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