Kirkland-based cannabis payments company POSaBIT is acquiring three cannabis technology businesses for a total of $4 million in cash.
POSaBIT is acquiring all three companies from parent company Akerna Corp. (Nasdaq: KERN). The companies announced the deal on Friday and expect it to close in the second quarter.
"We are acquiring high-quality software assets at an attractive valuation,” Ryan Hamlin, CEO and co-founder of POSaBIT, said in a news release. “This acquisition will increase merchant locations that we serve to nearly 900 and create a meaningful opportunity to accelerate adoption of our fully compliant PIN debit payments solution, an important driver of future revenue growth."
In the deal, POSaBIT is acquiring the cannabis business software firm MJ Platform, which focuses on midsize U.S. cannabis businesses, as well as a similar platform called Ample Organics, which is aimed at midsize Canadian cannabis businesses. POSaBIT is also acquiring Leaf Data Systems, which offers compliance technology for governments.
POSaBIT, founded in 2015, helps cannabis businesses accept debit card and ACH payments, which is tricky given that cannabis is federally illegal and cannabis businesses are a difficult target for financial institutions to serve. The company also offers a mobile point-of-sale system it calls Pocket POS.
Akerna, meanwhile, was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Denver. According to the company, Akerna has tracked more than $20 billion in cannabis sales since it launched, and the company was the first cannabis software company listed on the Nasdaq.
POSaBIT raised almost $3.8 million in June through a private placement. The company had raised less than $10 million before the private placement.
POSaBIT went public on the Canadian Securities Exchange in 2019. In its third quarter 2022 financial results, released in November, the company said in generated $10.3 million in revenue during the quarter, up 62% from the same period in 2021.
