New Frontier Financials, a D.C.-based startup offering data and analytics for the marijuana industry, has closed a $250,000 seed round from a combination of investors and crowdfunding on the cannabis-focused platform CannaFundr. Legal marijuana is still in its infancy, but lawmakers, investors and businesses all need to know as much as possible about it to plan for its growth and regulation. There's so much demand for New Frontier's "Bloomberg of weed" approach to information and analyses of the cannabis industry that the company is already close to closing a $2 million Series A round.
"We're barely stopping to celebrate the seed round," said New Frontier Founder and CEO Giadha DeCarcer. "This industry is moving at the speed of light and so are we."
DeCarcer, a serial entrepreneur, came up with the idea of a marijuana industry analysis firm last year when she realized there was no clear place to look for the kind of information that businesses and stakeholders need to be informed and active in the development of the trade. DeCarcer divides New Frontier's clients into four groups: financial institutions and investors, government agencies and lawmakers, academic and corporate researchers and the owners and operators working in the marijuana industry. Every aspect of the industry is surveyed and analyzed for the company's industry reports and other products.
"We've got our finger on the pulse," DeCarcer said, "Regulation, financial trends and more. We take data and turn it into actionable intelligence."
And the demand for that intelligence makes New Frontier's services a hot commodity. Forward thinking is an integral part of the marijuana industry at this early stage, DeCarcer said, and it informs New Frontier's plans for its next round of funding.
"Money is cheap in this area right now," DeCarcer said. "Data is an easy sell to investors who have been lacking it.We're assessing the strategic value of every investor."
New Frontier is more than just another company for DeCarcer. Creating and getting it off the ground is also the core of the documentary series DeCarcer created called "Love & Business, 90 Days to Launch" on what it's like to be a woman launching a startup in D.C. while simultaneously attempting to find a balanced personal life. The series is currently under negotiation to air on television, which probably won't be a bad advertisement for the company itself.
"This is as great of an ending as I possibly could have hoped for," DeCarcer said.
