Washington, D.C.-based New Frontier Financials has a new platform for its marijuana industry data analytics. The startup's new Equio system combines the Big Data analysis of the young legal marijuana industry that the company offers to clients with an interface to make that information easier to access and understand.
"It's an amazing breakthrough for the industry," New Frontier founder Giadha DeCarcer told DC Inno in an interview. "Equio makes it possible to really see what's happening in the cannabis industry."
The platform includes tools to help map customers geographically and in terms of census data to help companies and investors better plan out their business models. It was built in partnership with NAG Inc., which is behind the visualization and mapping tools. NAG is best known for its work for the NSA and Google to turn geospatial data into useful real-time maps.
"NAG has done some amazing work for us," DeCarcer said. "Our clients will be amazed by the tools they've been able to create using our data and analytics."
The idea of using visualization for data analytics isn't a new one. But what stands out is seeing it applied to marijuana as it would be to any other industry. New Frontier, not to mention its investors, are confident that the industry is only going to grow in size and legitimacy. That's why, among the data involved, is a look at the legal and regulatory status of marijuana in each state in different ways as part of measuring other aspects of the industry.
New Frontier's "Bloomberg of weed" services have already attracted close to $600,000 in seed funding, DeCarcer said. There are plans in the works for a larger, institutional funding round to come. Lawmakers, investors and businesses all need to know as much as possible about the cannabis industry to plan for its growth and regulation, which has led to a somewhat frenzied period of growth for the startup, which charges tiered subscriptions for access to its new platform in addition to the cost of its analysis reports.
"Things happen fast when there's any kind of revolution," DeCarcer said. "Data is what everyone is looking for."
Check out how Equio looks in the demo below.
