Marijuana Business Magazine January 2019

Marijuana Business Magazine | January 2019 108 Terra Tech-Golden Leaf Merger Terra Tech Corp., a California-based, vertically inte- grated cannabis company, intends to merge with Toronto-based Golden Leaf Holdings. The deal is valued at roughly $125 million. Under the agreement, Golden Leaf would merge with an unnamed, wholly owned subsidiary of Terra Tech to create a new, wholly owned subsidiary. The new entity would control 41 cultivation, processing, distribution and retail licenses in California, Nevada and Oregon. Completion of the transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including due diligence, a definitive agreement and various regulatory and cor- porate board and shareholder approvals. California MJ Supplier Closes $46 Million Round California marijuana supplier Indus Holding Co. closed a $46 million Series B funding round. Pro- ceeds will be used to finance continued expansion of the firm’s cultivation, extraction, manufacturing and distribution operations. Cannabis Biotech Firm Lands $10M for Strain Research Colorado marijuana biotech firm Front Range Biosciences secured $10 million in private funding to accelerate production in California, Canada and Colorado. Front Range, which uses tissue-culture technology to make “plantlets” for both hemp and marijuana producers, plans to invest some of the money in investigating new strains of cannabis. The company’s investors in the Series A round included Phyto Partners and WelCan Capital, both cannabis- focused venture capital funds, and Salveo Capital, an Illinois-based private equity fund. L.A. Extraction Firm Extracts $6 Million Los Angeles-based mari- juana extracts firm Field closed a $6 million funding round. The raise was led by cannabis investment fund Navy Capital, Serruya Private Equity—a private equity holder in Liberty Health Sciences and Canadian canna- bis firm Aphria—as well as MedReleaf executives Eitan Popper, Igor Gimelshtein and Tarik Ouass. Field also announced it has formed an advisory board that includes Richard Kimball, former partner at Goldman Sachs and senior trustee at the Brookings Institution, as well as Joshua Zad, founder and CEO of Alfred Coffee and Alfred Tea. E-commerce Platform Lands $5 Million A Los Angeles B2B logistics and e-commerce platform, Wayv, raised $5 million. Wayv allows marijuana retailers to buy from a network of licensed cannabis companies, receive next-day deliveries and integrate real-time tracking, regulatory and compliance features. The round was led by Craft Ventures, a tech-focused fund co-founded by former PayPal executive David Sacks. Virginia Issues CBD Licenses Virginia awarded its first five CBD licenses. The win- ning applicants, called “pharmaceutical processors,” have one year to become operational. They are: • Columbia Care, a multistate cannabis producer based in New York. • PharmaCann, based in Oak Park, Illinois. • Green Leaf Medical, based in Frederick, Maryland. • Dalitso, which plans to open in Manassas, Virginia. • Dharma Pharmaceuticals, based in Bristol, Virginia. Merger Will Lead to New Nasdaq-Listed Entity Seed-to-sale software tracking provider MJ Freeway and MTech Acquisition are merging, with plans to launch a new holding company set to list on the Nasdaq. Under the deal, Denver-based MJ Freeway and MTech—a special purpose acquisition firm in Florida— will become subsidiaries of a new holding company dubbed Akerna. The merger, which is subject to approval by equity holders of each company, is slated to close in early 2019. The deal’s price tag wasn’t dis- closed. (See related story on pages 51-52.) Vape Giant Lands $20 Million in Funding San Francisco-based Pax Labs, a vaporizer company, closed a $20 million funding round. Launched by the founders of e-cigarette maker Juul, Pax Labs vaporizers allow users to control the device with a mobile application. Cloning Acquisition Deal Kirkland, Washington-based cannabis equipment supply company GrowLife acquired a majority share of EZ-Clone Enterprises, the California-based creator of multiple award-winning products designed for the commercial cloning of cannabis cultivation. Company News | U.S. & Canada