The Daily Hit: December 20, 2019

Its time for your Daily Hit of cannabis financial news for December 19th, 2019. 

On the Site

CuraLeaf Says 2019 Was Great, 2020 Will Be Even Better

Debra Borchardt at Green Market Report sat down with Curaleaf’s CEO Joe Lusardi at MJBizCon in Las Vegas last week. There were talks of Curaleafs acquisition with Select, a premium cannabis product company known for their vapes, the cannabis market in Illinois and other states, and Curaleaf’s 2020 hopes. Lusardi says that he “thinks it’s also important to know that the Select brand is not just the vape brand, it’s a family of products.”, and we will be seeing gummies, tinctures, sprays, and more from Select. He says that Illinois is the next big market, and he knows by looking at the state’s numbers. The CEO touched on Massachusett’s market not living up to 2019 expectations, but thinks 2020 will be a good year for the state. Curaleaf just opened their first adult-use store in the state in November. Lusardi says 2020 will be a fantastic year for Curaleaf. “We’re opening stores, we’re executing on our business. We’re turning all of the investment we’ve made into cash-generating assets. So this is the best year in our company history. I mean, it was really a great year, operationally. 2020 sets up to be even better.”

Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart Launches Hash-infused Pre-roll

Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart is expanding his cannabis brand Mind Your Head with the launch of Space Ticket, a 1-gram hash-infused pre-roll. Space Ticket is inspired by the transformation and enlightenment that fans experience at live shows. Mind Your Head Space Ticket is a potent 1-gram hemp leaf wrapped pre-roll featuring Indica-leaning strains Trinity Star and D.O.G. Chem and is infused with an aromatic, artisanal ice-water hash. Mind Your Head was launched earlier this year with its first product offering of Magic Minis, pre-rolled whole-flower joints packaged in a tin adorned with Hart’s celebrated artwork. The brand was founded on the belief that cannabis grown with care can transport minds by inspiring creativity and mindfulness. Mind Your Head operates using sustainable, just and innovative practices.

Trulieve Finds Itself in the Crosshairs

Trulieve Cannabis Corp. (OTC: TCNNF) was being touted as the most promising of cannabis stocks. Its earnings reports put competitors to shame as the company delivered impressive net incomes and others instead struggled with net losses. This week a short-seller report has accused the company of being a fraud and that comes a week after the company faced fire over unwanted texts. The stock tumbled on the news of the Grizzly Report but began to recover as others stepped up to defend the company. The stock fell from a close of $11.91 on Monday to $10.40 on Tuesday but was lately trading at $10.84. The report called out the company for a variety of bad behaviors and questioned the earnings. The summary of the allegations are as follows; Low-quality cultivation facilities that could lead to poor products, accusations that the CEO Kim River’s husband JT Burnette is involved in an FBI probe, accusations that Burnette is Trulieve’s main construction partner, alleges that Trulieve is not being truthful about its lenders and takes out small loans from insiders even as it suggests it has plenty of cash, alleges that Trulieve is marking up the product to portray profitability.

In Other News

Online Cannabis Marketplace Dutchie Secures $15 Million Series A Round

Dutchie, the leading e-commerce platform for cannabis pickup and delivery, closed a $15 million Series A round. The powerhouse team of investors included Led by Gron Ventures, Snoop Dogg’s Casa Verde Capital, Kevin Durant’s and Rich Kleiman’s Thirty Five Ventures, Sinai Ventures, Shutterstock founder and CEO Jon Oringer, DoorDash founders and early executives. Dutchie is an online platform that allows customers to order cannabis products from dispensaries for pickup or delivery. Ross Lipson, CEO and co-founder of Dutchie says “We’re thrilled to have such a great group of investors to help guide us through this next phase of the business. Scaling a company has its share of challenges, especially in an emerging new industry; however, having seasoned investors in our corner who can lend their experience and expertise will help us take Dutchie to the next level.” The company is in a period of extreme growth,  facilitating over $140 million in Annualized GMV with over 450 dispensaries across 18 states now using the platform. This latest round of funding brings the total investment to $18 million. 

 

Kaitlin Domangue

Kaitlin is a cannabis reporter for the Green Market Report, covering every angle of the industry. She also works directly with cannabis brands as a content marketer.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get the latest cannabis news delivered right to your inbox

The Morning Rise

Unpack the industry with the daily cannabis newsletter for business leaders.

 Sign up


About Us

The Green Market Report focuses on the financial news of the rapidly growing cannabis industry. Our target approach filters out the daily noise and does a deep dive into the financial, business and economic side of the cannabis industry. Our team is cultivating the industry’s critical news into one source and providing open source insights and data analysis


READ MORE



Recent Tweets

Get the latest cannabis news delivered right to your inbox

The Morning Rise

Unpack the industry with the daily cannabis newsletter for business leaders.