On your doorstep in 10 minutes.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Eaze, a startup that allows medical marijuana patients to order cannabis products straight from their smartphones and them delivered to their doorstep, announced a significant $10 million Series A round of funding that was led by DCM Ventures with participation from Fresh VC, 500 Startups, and Snoop Dogg’s Casa Verde Ventures. The new funds come on top of $1.5 million in seed funding the company garnered last year.
Currently, the startup, which connects medical marijuana patients in the San Francisco Bay Area with local dispensaries, boasts a delivery time of 10 minutes. The additional capital will go toward expanding the platform into more legal marijuana markets, including Nevada, Arizona, Washington, Colorado, and Oregon, according to Digital Trends.
Eaze acts as a middle-man between buyer and seller, but it also helps to facilitate more efficient deliveries by providing logistical support. The app provides a driver-side app to help route deliveries based on proximity of the driver and inventory that is in stock. It also automatically updates routes in the case of a driver being waylaid or a customer canceling an order.
Eaze founder and CEO Keith McCarty told TechCrunch the company works with “only the best” dispensaries to highlight the top products for customers to purchase. Rather than providing an exhaustive list of products, Eaze focuses narrowing options down to the flowers, edibles, and concentrates users are most likely to actually buy.
According to the author of the TechCrunch feature:
I tried Eaze over the weekend, hoping to find medicinal marijuana products to treat my insomnia and anxiety. And while I was impressed at the speed of delivery (15 minutes from order being placed to drop-off), I was a little disappointed at a few other features of the service.
For one thing, I actually like a wider variety of products to choose from, so I was a little disappointed by the selection available on Eaze. For another thing, I was bummed that I would have to pay in cash — especially in today’s world of digital and mobile payments.
As the company looks to the future, its chief executive is fired up at the prospect of marijuana-related business proliferating through mainstream channels.
“It signals that technology services can be successful service the cannabis category,” McCarthy explained to Forbes. “It also signals that regulatory landscapes are loosening up, and venture capitalists see the broader market continuing in that direction.”
Investment in marijuana-related startups has usually been limited to angel investors and other high-wealth individuals, and many startups find it difficult to raise money from more sizable investors. Traditional venture capital firms are often restricted by their limited partners when it comes to investing in legally hazy, gray areas like marijuana.
“I wish I was more strategic — I think I just got lucky,” McCarthy commented to Forbes. “In terms of timing, if I had a crystal ball last year I’m not sure I could have done it any better.”