As jobs in cannabis industry spike, despite the current pandemic, Denver’s Wurk is feeling the impacts.
According to the 2021 Leafly Jobs Report, the cannabis industry now employs 321,000 people in the U.S. as of January 2021, having added 77,300 full-time jobs over the last year for a 32% increase.
In order to keep up with that booming workforce, Würk, a human capital management company for the cannabis industry, today announced an oversubscribed $3.5 million Series AA round of financing.
The round included only existing investors and was led by Wurk Investment Partnership with participation from Poseidon Asset Management, Salveo Capital and The Arcview Group, among others. Prior to this round, Wurk had raised $22 million in seed and Series A rounds of funding.
Würk, which launched in 2015, provides small, mid-sized and enterprise cannabis businesses with services to streamline recruiting, scheduling and paying employees. The company also offers compliance services, which have become increasingly important in this fast-changing industry.
The company raised this round to expand its product integration capabilities and improve its customer support.
"The level of demand we received for this round reflects investors' high confidence in Wurk's value proposition and ability to provide unequaled HCM solutions to the complex, rapidly-growing cannabis industry," Wurk CEO Scott Kenyon said in a statement. "Six states have legalized recreational cannabis since the 2020 elections, and the businesses in those markets will need the robust, automated software necessary to efficiently manage and optimize their growing workforces.”
Wurk said it currently works with 80% of the major multi-state operators in the U.S. and aims to grow that customer base as the cannabis industry progresses across the country.
"We are seeing an increase in capital flows to the ancillary areas of cannabis, which are essential tools for scaling a multibillion-dollar industry," said Morgan Paxhia, co-founder and Managing Director of Poseidon Asset Management, in a statement. "Wurk has done a phenomenal job working with a range of operators in our space, from smaller, newer companies up to the largest MSOs, to increase operating efficiencies and minimize compliance risks.”
