Seattle-based online cannabis marketplace Leafly on Tuesday announced Suresh Krishnaswamy as the company's first chief financial officer.
Krishnaswamy is taking the CFO role as Leafly prepares to go public on the Nasdaq through a merger with Merida Merger Corp. I, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
“We are focused on one promise: to be the marketplace of choice for the cannabis community. Suresh’s extensive experience with online marketplaces and digital payments will provide Leafly the financial leadership and strategy needed to keep this promise to our customers,” Leafly CEO Yoko Miyashita, who took over the CEO role in August 2020, said in a statement.
Krishnaswamy started with Leafly in late September, according to a company spokesperson. Prior to joining Leafly, Krishnaswamy was an adviser for the executive services firm NextLevel, which was acquired by Illinois-based E78 Partners in a deal announced Tuesday. He spent almost two years at NextLevel. Prior to that, he was the chief financial officer at the renewable energy tech company Drift. According to his LinkedIn page, Krishnaswamy was also a treasury and pricing strategy consultant at Seattle-based Remitly for about eight months.
Leafly's website allows consumers to shop and research cannabis products. The company, founded in 2010, laid off more than 140 employees in early 2020, but Miyashita recently told the Business Journal the company is back to hiring. In August, she said Leafly had about 170 total employees with plans to hit between 220 and 250 by the end of the year.
More than 125 million consumers use Leafly every year, according to the company.
Leafly is one of a handful of Seattle companies that have chosen the SPAC route to the public markets. Porch went public in December through a SPAC merger, while Rover did so in August.
"I’m excited to bring my experience with emerging e-commerce companies to Leafly’s next chapter. For a company that started as a spreadsheet a little more than a decade ago, I’m amazed at the business Leafly is today and energized to use my expertise and leadership to take Leafly through this next phase of growth,” Krishnaswamy said in a statement.
