Seattle startup Headset just raised an additional $3.2 million as the 5-year-old company expands its business intelligence platform used by customers across the growing legal cannabis industry.
Headset is similar to market data services from firms such as Nielsen and IRI. The company operates data platforms for cannabis retailers and suppliers, as well as a tool to analyze cannabis market data.
“Our real-time market intelligence data helps cannabis operators, CPG companies, financial services and more navigate the competitive landscape, find opportunity and understand the cannabis consumer through our aggregated point-of-sale derived data which includes sales, inventory, pricing, demographics and basket analytics,” said CEO Cy Scott.
The fresh cash will be used to help Headset expand into other states and provinces where cannabis is legal, including markets where the company expects new laws to be enacted with the upcoming election.
Headset is riding a wave of increased consumer spend on marijuana amid the pandemic. State such as Colorado and Illinois are seeing record monthly sales as more people stay at home and pot shops stay open as they are considered “essential.”
Headset’s own research shows average sales of cannabis products in adult-use markets up 25% this year.
Scott described the latest Headset financing as a “small insider bridge round” as it gears up to raise its Series B round in 2021. Total funding to date for the 45-person company is just under $18 million. Investors include Poseidon Asset Management, AFI Capital Partners, Hypur Ventures, Salveo Capital, and others.
Scott started Headset in 2015 with Brian Wansolich and Scott Vickers; the three previously co-founded Leafly, a marijuana strain and dispensary resource platform that was acquired by Seattle-based marijuana investment firm Privateer Holdings in 2011.
Other Pacific Northwest cannabis startups are also raising cash. Bend, Ore.-based Dutchie just raised $35 million from the likes of former Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz and hip-hop star Snoop Dogg. Dutchie, which helps cannabis dispensaries facilitate online orders, has seen a 700% surge in sales volume during the pandemic.
In an interview with TechCrunch this past June, investor Karan Wadhera described the cannabis industry as “non-cyclical” and signaled optimism for cannabis investing after a rocky 2019.
The global cannabis market is expected to reach $42.7 billion by 2024, according to a January report from Arcview Market Research.
