Apple just ended the marijuana industry as you know it

The marijuana industry has just changed 360 degrees as tech companies are now buying MSOs and cannabis licenses.

The cannabis industry hit the headlines recently when software and delivery company EAZE bought an MSO. Ho-hum, there’s nothing to see here, just a software and TECH company that isn’t being bought by an MSO, but the exact opposite, a data and delivery company that is buying a marijuana operation in several states .

Let that sink in.

A technology platform backed by billionaire Peter Thiel and Privateer Holdings has just bought cannabis licenses in several states. The entire deal flow in the cannabis industry has changed forever.

Wait what do you mean

The big fish are supposed to devour the small fish in the shop. The big publicly traded cannabis companies have all the cash and equity to make multi-billion dollar deals. So how does a relatively small tech and delivery company swim upstream and buy an MSO? First, it tells us that investors are shifting their value proposition from “let’s invest in pharmacies” to “let’s invest in technology that can cost-effectively deliver and create cannabis orders, digging around margins”. EAZE recently raised $ 35 million to facilitate this buyout.

Weedmaps, now publicly traded with a market cap of $ 1.7 billion, is a great technology platform that helps you find and buy weed. Did I mention that with sales of half a billion, they’re also the most successful cannabis company in human history before it ever sold marijuana?

Akerna, a publicly traded menu management and hope e-commerce platform, has just announced a new ordering and dispensing platform for pharmacies.

Still not convinced?

Leafly, the second largest weed website on the Internet after Weedmaps, is also going public through a SPAC fund and is targeting a valuation of $ 300 million. Did you know who Leafly belongs to? Peter Theil and Privateer Holdings, the same people who own EAZE and just bought an MSO. Before the spin-off, you are also behind Tilray. How long do you think it will be, at least in selected states, before there is an “Order Now” button next to all of the No. 1 pages in Google that come from the Leafly Strain Guide?

How did we get there?

How did we come to this day, why didn’t we all see it coming? Well, if you’re a regular reader of Cannabis.net, we’ve told you in over 5 articles that the future of cannabis is a Shopify game. In the end, cannabis will be a commodity much like its cousin’s broccoli and kale. It’s a plant that will grow in 12 to 16 weeks, indoors or outdoors. Brick and mortar pharmacies are only protected by an archaic moat known as state legalization with federal restrictions. The walls are crumbling to keep cannabis illegal as politicians and business people recognize the enormous potential in a full-fledged, global cannabis industry.

With all of these recent moves, the investment world tells you one thing. Data, delivery and traffic are the new Golden Gooses, not grows, dispensaries and the actual product. In a price race to the bottom, margin compression is inevitable over the next few years as the world legalizes cannabis. The winners will be the ones who can get an order and process it for pennies per dollar. Sales will be exposed to massive price pressure from local and international competition. So if you can’t raise prices, the only way to improve your margins is by lowering your profit. How can one get orders for free or super cheap while the other pays millions for ads and clicks to Google and Facebook?

Basically, the people who have all the traffic are now also considering ways to take the order.

The race to create a fully controlled single ecosystem for cannabis ordering and delivery has begun, think of the Amazon weed app.

What caused this tectonic shift in the marijuana industry? How did it all happen so quickly?

Apple.

A decision by the phone and ecosystem giant to allow cannabis apps on the iOS store changed marijuana forever, and not many people understood the implications of that announcement. I’m sure even some in the industry thought, “Cool, Eaze and Dutchie are working on my iPhone now, that’s neat” and then kept scrolling their news feed.

That was the earthquake that will end the cannabis industry 1.0 and begin the marijuana industry 2.0.

When all else fails, follow the money.

Apple makes the decision to allow marijuana apps in the iOS store. Within 100 hours, Weedmaps announced that they can now process orders within their app (i.e. no external browser or URL required). Within 1,500 hours, EAZE announced that they will purchase a full MSO, Green Dragon, and will now have cannabis licenses in 2 states. Within 1,600 hours, Akerna or MJ Freeway Cannabis Menu Management announced a new ordering platform and delivery options. Let me remind you that Leafly, Weedmap’s little brother, has already filed papers to go public with a valuation of nearly $ 400 million.

Investors now rely heavily on technology and transport, not on pharmacies and stationary products.

The little fish are about to turn the tide and, if possible, buy up licenses and MSOs. They are the key to fat margins and healthy profits as global margins are compressed when fully legalized.

Pharmacies play checkers; Cannabis sites and technology platforms play chess.

The world will want to order cannabis in two clicks, just like Amazon taught us to do.

That’s just the beginning of this shift, we’re going to look back at the cannabis industry and say, “Is the BA before Apple or AA after Apple’s decision to allow weed to be ordered from the App Store?”

Next, well-capitalized cannabis tech companies will buy more licenses and turn this into a traffic and sales funnel game. Dutchie is well positioned and capitalized to get into the licensing game. Sites like Jane, Cannabis.net, Dispensary.com, and anyone with traffic and hosting online menus will be takeover targets. Cannabis sites with strong domain authority on Google will be in high demand, so look for sites like Leafwire, The Fresh Toast, Ganjapenuer that are in the game. You can even see High Times rescued from their plight by this newfound investor thirst. Could MJ BIZ itself be purchased based on traffic and domain authority? Jeff Bezos, engineer, owns the Washington Post, so why can’t Peter Theil own the industry version of the Wall Street Journal?

Cannabis has great investment potential in the long run, but who knows when the US will finally legalize it? Tilray just bet that with the MedMen acquisition, it will happen pretty soon. Meanwhile, the most successful cannabis company in history is a technology and menu management platform, and others like EAZE, Dutchie, and Akerna are emerging. All deal with technology, menu management and traffic.

In the coming weeks or months, note that Dutchie will take a similar step into vertical marijuana integration by purchasing pharmacies or licenses in multiple states. Why can’t Akerna buy a few licenses in different states to increase its intrinsic value and revenue stream?

The new green rush has started and looks a lot like the NASDAQ.

THE FUTURE OF CANNAIS IS CLEAR, READ MORE …

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