SAN DIEGO, March 27, 2017 /Weed Wire/ — Canopy San Diego, Southern California’s premier seed-stage accelerator program for technology and business infrastructure companies that support the legal cannabis industry, is pleased to announce the launch of the Spring 2017 class. Canopy San Diego invests capital, mentorship, and services to accelerate the development of their portfolio companies.
The Canopy San Diego business accelerator consists of a 16-week cannabis-specific program that is designed to spur development and prepare the portfolio companies to raise outside capital upon graduation in early August.
Each company participating in the accelerator program will be given office space for up to four employees at the Canopy San Diego offices, and will receive at least $20,000 in seed capital with the opportunity for up to an additional $50,000 in follow-on funding prior to graduation. Most importantly, the companies will be given access to mentors in virtually every aspect of business development, as well as access to serious investors interested in technology companies targeting the cannabis market who use the program as their due diligence process to make decisions about where to deploy larger amounts of capital.
Between Canopy San Diego and its partners at Canopy Boulder, the accelerator network has a combined portfolio of 64 companies.
The eight companies included in the spring cohort include:
*Urban Labs is the first scalable cannabis laboratory to embrace the peer to peer economy. Turnkey technology and processes come together to de-skill a previously complex process into an affordable business opportunity for every entrepreneur. Founded by Tina Urban and Angel Stanz of San Diego, CA.
*Traffic Roots is bringing digital display advertising to the cannabis industry. They are helping cannabis companies scale their digital advertising footprint by introducing a programmatic self-serve ad platform. Founded by Christian Valdez of San Diego, CA.
*MJ Hybrid Solutions is a start-up training platform that aims to fill the cannabis sales voids with compassion to increase company profits and retain customer loyalty. The legal cannabis industry will experience a new wave of sales leaders as a result of the MJ Hybrid System. Founded by Melissa Stapley of San Diego, CA.
*EventHi is the world’s first ticketing and registration platform that is built for the cannabis culture. EventHi is an online technology that helps bring people together offline through a variety of events and social experiences in a cannabis-friendly environment. Founded by Ali Fakhri, Kenneth Gabbara, and Samir Fakhri of San Diego, CA.
*Verticann is the first turn key vertical cannabis cultivation system developed for the commercial cannabis industry. VertiCann’s innovative design reduces the cost of cannabis production by up to 50%, while increasing the canopy size by up to 500% when compared to traditional cultivation methods. Founded by Dominick Volpini and Seth Voiron of San Diego, CA.
*Ripe Metrics is a Customer Experience Management system with analytics and marketing automation to help dispensaries maximize engagement and increase Customer Lifetime Value. Founded by Aaron Davis and Ryan Friedrich of Oregon.
*Collectif is a peer-to-peer social marketplace for cannabis-friendly accommodations and cannabis-inspired experiences. Their goal is to grow and strengthen the cannabis conscience community. Founded by Colton Cranston, Rachael Green, and Zac Blechman of San Diego, CA.
*BudTendr is a Canadian mobile application which lets you purchase medical marijuana from your mobile device through licensed dispensaries. It allows customers to view dispensaries menus and lets them purchase products for pick up and skip dispensary lines. Founded by Jake Crow and Darcy McQuaid of Toronto, Canada.
“We’re excited to have such a diverse Spring class of startups that perfectly complements our Fall 2016 cohort, and gives our investors a balanced portfolio of early-stage cannabis tech companies,” said Jack Scatizzi, Managing Director of Canopy San Diego. “The founders come from a wide variety of backgrounds, each bringing their own experiences to what will be an incredibly dynamic class. It’s also great to see our hometown of San Diego so well represented in the class, with 6 of the 8 participating companies based here.”
On March 29th, starting at 5pm PT, Canopy San Diego will host a launch party for the kick-off of its Spring 2017 class. The night will include special addresses from Dr. Dave Shubert from The Salk Institute and Kelley Grimes of the Epilepsy Foundation of San Diego County, as well as networking with investors, mentors, and entrepreneurs from the Canopy San Diego ecosystem and San Diego cannabis and entrepreneurial communities. Beer, wine and light apps will be provided, with all ticket proceeds going to the Epilepsy Foundation of San Diego County. Full details and tickets can be found here.
About Canopy San Diego
Canopy San Diego is Southern California’s only seed-stage accelerator program for technology and business infrastructure companies that support the legal cannabis industry. As an accelerator, Canopy San Diego invests cash, mentorship, and services in their portfolio companies to ‘accelerate’ each company’s development. In return, they hold a 6-9.5% equity position in each company and their investors share in the success of the portfolio companies. Canopy San Diego does not invest in companies that directly grow or sell cannabis and its derivatives.
