Snoop Dogg Sniffs Cannabis Deal North of the Border

Seed rounds might mean something different in the cannabis industry, but for management software provider Trellis, it’s a smoke sign saying good things are coming.

Toronto-based Trellis has announced a $2 million USD seed round investment led by none other than Casa Verde Capital, a cannabis venture firm overseen by rapper Snoop Dogg. Reinvestment from canna-tech accelerator Gateway also contributed to the funding, as well as two investors outside the cannabis world, Argonautic Ventures and One Gun.

The new funding will allow Trellis to expand into brand new U.S. markets and scale to accommodate the growing need for their platform.

“We are at a pivotal point in the industry where the market is expanding with new regulations and operators are experiencing growing pains. This makes it all the more important to have strong tools and procedures in place,” said Pranav Sood, CEO of Trellis in a statement. “Our focus is on developing industry tools that help clients manage their cannabis inventory, simplify their compliance processes and support the production of safe, optimum quality product.”

Trellis, founded in 2014, gives business owners in the cannabis industry a streamlined seed-to-sale management compliant software that tracks plant growing process while ensuring ease-of-use and strong security. This means optimizing operational workflows while also prioritizing regulatory compliance. Trellis works with leading cannabis brands in Canada and California, two hotbeds of both production and consumption.

“As cannabis legalization sweeps the U.S., the compliance burden for cannabis-related businesses will become more and more rigorous. Growers, who are generally hesitant to adopt new technologies, have been thrilled with Trellis’ tracking software. We have been searching for companies with an elegant solution to address the growing pains of the industry. That is exactly what Pranav and his team have built with Trellis,” says Karan Wadhera, partner at Casa Verde Capital.

A platform update is also coming to Canadian customers, allowing Trellis users to not only manage production compliance and inventory but also order management as well. This means real-time inventory solutions will now be easily accessible through the Trellis platform.

Companies like Trellis, which have no interaction with actual cannabis plants and only focus on the enterprise aspects of the industry, will no doubt be in high demand if the Canadian federal government’s plan of widespread marijuana legalization comes into effect on July 1, 2018 as promised. This new funding will prime Trellis as a leader in management software for the hundreds of new companies that will try to take advantage of what will more than likely be a literal gold rush once the currently illegal drug is made widely available.