 | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| CSE: WIKI | |
| Industry | Cannabis consumer information |
| Founded | January 22, 2014 |
| Founder | Dan Nelson |
| Headquarters | |
| Parent | Nesta Holding Co. |
Wikileaf Technologies is a Seattle business providing data services to the cannabis industry and information to consumers. The company provides price indexes and cannabis strain reviews and information. [1]
Wikileaf was founded in Seattle's South Lake Union area in 2014 by Dan Nelson, [2] some months before adult use legalization in Washington state under Initiative 502. [3] [4] [5] That Spring, it was also featured as one of Entrepreneur Magazine's Most Brilliant Business Ideas of 2014. [6] By 2016, with seven employees, it was acquired by Nesta, a Canadian fund. [7] The company provides an online resource for medical and recreational marijuana patients and consumers where users can compare marijuana dispensary prices and menus as well as research cannabis strains. [8] Wikileaf displays menus and prices for recreational and medical dispensaries in eleven states. [9] [3] The company has been dubbed "The Priceline of Pot" [10] although their price comparison model is a "reverse auction". [11] Users specify how much they are going to spend on their next marijuana dispensary visit and, then, all the marijuana dispensaries within his/her radius put forth the most amount (in grams) they can at this price point.
Wikileaf was acquired by Nesta Holding Co. Ltd. on May 2, 2016 [12] for an undisclosed sum. Nesta is private equity firm located in Ottawa, Canada working with partnerships and brands within the cannabis community. It was founded in 2015 by Chuck Rifici, co-founder and former CEO of Canopy Growth Corporation (formerly Tweed Marijuana Inc.). [13]
In 2017, Wikileaf launched the first in-flight cannabis commercial to Virgin America. [14] In 2018, the company cracked down on illegal dispensaries on their platform. [15]
In 2019, Wikileaf raised $6.8 million in funding and announced their plans to open satellite offices in markets with high dispensary densities as well as newly legal states. [16] Through a reverse takeover of an existing Canadian company, it became listed on the Canadian stock exchange in late 2019. [1]
Wikileaf is currently providing dispensaries with free menu pages to showcase their products and prices. They plan to start offering companies that want increased exposure the opportunity to do so at a cost and will also have additional geo-targeted advertising opportunities for dispensaries looking to increase their exposure beyond their menu page.[ citation needed ]
Cannabis consumers can use the site in three primary ways.
Wikileaf has launched its mobile app for Android on October 17, 2016 and for Apple on Nov 09, 2016.[ citation needed ]
Marc Scott Emery is a Canadian cannabis rights activist, entrepreneur and politician. Often described as the "Prince of Pot", Emery has been a notable advocate of international cannabis policy reform, and has been active in multiple Canadian political parties at the provincial and federal levels. Emery has been jailed several times for his cannabis activism.
Dana Albert Larsen is a Canadian author, businessman, philanthropist and activist for cannabis and drug policy reform. Larsen currently operates businesses and non-profit societies in Vancouver including The Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary, The Medicinal Mushroom Dispensary, The Coca Leaf Cafe, Pothead Books, and the Get Your Drugs Tested centre.
WeedMaps is a tech company serving the cannabis industry, founded in 2008 by Justin Hartfield and Keith Hoerling.
Leafly is a website focused on cannabis use and education. The company says it has more than 120 million annual visitors and over 10 million monthly active users. Leafly provides a wide range of information on cannabis, including 1.5 million consumer product reviews, more than 9,000 cannabis articles and resources, and over 5,000 verified strains in its database. Leafly additionally provides 4,500+ retailers and 8,000+ cannabis brands with e-commerce tools such as digital storefronts, embedded menus, point-of-sale integrations, targeted advertising, and more. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington and from 2012 to 2019 was owned by Privateer Holdings, a private equity firm focused on the emerging legal cannabis industry. Leafly is now a publicly traded company with 160 employees.
Diego Pellicer Worldwide Inc. is a Seattle-based company which has a premium brand of cannabis. It is a publicly traded company that sells cannabis products over the counter. The company was founded by Jamen Shively who named it after his great-grandfather. Ron Throgmartin is the CEO of the company.
MedMen Enterprises is a United States-based cannabis company with operations in California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts. MedMen owns and operates 29 retail stores and 6 cultivation facilities and is currently licensed to expand its footprint to 65 retail locations. Its stock trades on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the ticker symbol MMEN. MedMen is also traded over-the-counter in the United States under the ticker symbol MMNFF. MedMen is based in Culver City, California and has more than 1,000 employees.
A marijuana vending machine is a vending machine for selling or dispensing cannabis. They are currently in use in the United States and Canada and some may be located in secure rooms in marijuana dispensaries. Some may be operated by employees after a fingerprint scan is obtained from the patient. In Canada in 2013, marijuana vending machines were planned to be used in centres that cultivate the drug. At least three companies are developing the vending machines.
Canopy Growth Corporation, formerly Tweed Marijuana Inc., is a cannabis company based in Smiths Falls, Ontario.
Chuck Rifici is a Canadian entrepreneur, former CEO of Tweed Marijuana Inc, and former CFO of the Liberal Party of Canada. He has been tagged "the godfather of Canadian weed".
Where's Weed is an American cannabis technology company known for connecting medical and recreational cannabis users with trusted local marijuana businesses in their communities.
Cannabis dispensaries in the United States or marijuana dispensaries are a local government-regulated physical location, typically inside a retail storefront or office building, in which a person can purchase cannabis and cannabis related items for medical or recreational use. First modeled in Amsterdam in the late 1970s where they were innocently called coffee shops, it would take the Americans more than a generation to successfully duplicate the idea of a retail cannabis storefront. Unlike in the Dutch coffee shops, today most dispensaries do not allow for the smoking or other consumption of cannabis. However, some dispensaries do have legal permission to set up "cannabars" to allow onsite consumption.
Cannabis in Washington relates to a number of legislative, legal, and cultural events surrounding the use of cannabis. On December 6, 2012, Washington became the first U.S. state to legalize recreational use of marijuana and the first to allow recreational marijuana sales, alongside Colorado. The state had previously legalized medical marijuana in 1998. Under state law, cannabis is legal for medical purposes and for any purpose by adults over 21.
Tokyo Smoke is a Canadian lifestyle brand owned by OEG Inc. that focuses on the legal recreational cannabis industry. The company was co-founded by father and son Lorne and Alan Gertner in 2015.
Eaze is an American company based in San Francisco, California that launched a medical cannabis delivery app of the same name in 2014.
Cannabis advertising is the advertising of cannabis products to consumers by the cannabis industry through a variety of media. It is regulated by U.S. states. Some or all forms of cannabis advertising are banned in many countries.
Women have been active in the cannabis industry, cannabis legalization, cannabis testing, and cannabis rights since the earliest days of commercialization, but they have also faced gendered obstacles impeding their growth in an industry worth over 12 million dollars since 2019. "The American cannabis industry accounted for $10 billion of 2018’s [global] figures, with the average U.S. dispensary pulling in $3 million a year."
Cresco Labs, Inc. is a publicly traded, vertically integrated cannabis and medical marijuana company based in Chicago, Illinois, with current retail operations in nine states where marijuana has been legalized for medical use. The company's stock trades on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the ticker symbol CL, and in over-the-counter markets in the United States with the ticker symbol CRLBF.
The Green Rush (2012–present) is an ongoing global economic event that began on December 6, 2012, when cannabis was legalized in the US state of Washington; Colorado's legalization took effect four days later. While still illegal federally in the United States, the actions of these two state governments signaled the opening of a market projected to be worth US$48+ billion globally by 2027. As of 2019 the cannabis industry had created over 250,000 jobs. However, cannabis companies have been a mixed investment success, with many experiencing plunging stock prices, massive layoffs, and failure to meet investor expectations.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the cannabis industry. Investor's Business Daily said the industry was affected as "customers stock up on prescriptions and recreational customers load up on something to make the lockdown a little more mellow or a little less boring".