Denver's Leafwire, an online cannabis business network connecting startups with investors, announced that it has closed a $1 million seed round that will aid the launch of its new marketplace feature.
Leafwire was founded in 2018 to help cannabis businesses network with investors and other entrepreneurs. With regulations varying state to state, Leafwire attempts to take the friction out of investing, giving each party the specific information they need.
The platform allows entrepreneurs to search for investors using filters like stage of investment, location and preferred type of cannabis businesses. On the flip side, investors can search for companies based on size and stage of raise, company type and location.
Leafwire currently has more than 16,000 members and the company expects to surpass 25,000 members by the end of the year.
The seed round included investments from Network Ventures, Silverleaf Venture Partners, KEY Investment Partners and One East Partners.
In addition to the funding, Leafwire announced that it would be launching a new marketplace feature that will act as a business directory, with categories ranging from legal services and payment processing, to domain names and packaging.
"We built Leafwire to create a safe place where cannabis business professionals can connect, share ideas, find employees and find investors, something that is taken for granted in other industries," Leafwire CEO Peter Vogel said in a statement. "Cannabis is a unique industry and we built Leafwire for that reason; to serve the needs of all cannabis industry professionals."
In the coming weeks, Leafwire will add another service to its platform, saying in a release that it will debut a cannabis-focused job board.
Jordan Youkilis of KEY Investment Partners said the firm initially invested in Leafwire after seeing how valuable the platform was for sourcing deal flow. With the marketplace and job board additions, he anticipates that value will increase.
"Leafwire has helped to connect us with dozens of dynamic entrepreneurs we wouldn't have otherwise met. We expect the value provided by Leafwire to continuously increase," Youkilis said in a statement.
