Washington, D.C.-based startup New Frontier Data has almost completed a $5 million funding round to expand its work doing data and analytics for the legal marijuana industry. New York and Maryland-based Merida Capital Partners led the round with close to $2 million, while unnamed investors will fill the rest of the round.
"Merida as a group of investors is extremely savvy in the financial markets," New Frontier founder and CEO Giadha De Carcer told DC Inno in an exclusive interview. "They've been very important to our growth."
The funding will be used to add new staff and open an office in Denver for sales and marketing, with plans for setting up staff in California as well. The headquarters and much of the tech development will still be in D.C., though.
"We love Washington, and we want to stay close to where the legislation happens," De Carcer said. "And it keeps close to the financial corridor in New York."
As for New Frontier's platform, the plan is to expand what the startup can do with all of the data it can collect. That's also why the startup changed it's name from New Frontier Financials to New Frontier Data.
"At our core we are a big data provider and we have been developing the infrastructure, which is now finalized," "Now we have the fund to start developing new layers like a user interface platform. Those will be our core focus for the next two to three years."
"At our core we are a big data provider."
Timing matters a lot in the marijuana industry right now, as the push for legalizing medical and recreational use is picking up speed. Several states have legalization on the ballot for the November election, which could mean a lot more financial interest in how the industry is doing, which New Frontier is almost uniquely positioned to offer.
"The timing was orchestrated because we wanted to make sure we could capitalize on interest in the presidential election," De Carcer said. "We remain the only big data provider in this space. We have at least an 18 to 24 month advantage we are looking to maintain."
