Marijuana Business Magazine September 2019

Marijuana Business Magazine | September 2019 78 Growing Momentum LINE OF BUSINESS Cultivation, processing and exports HEADQUARTERS St. Ann, Jamaica WHY TOWATCH Jacana was founded by Alexandra Chong, a Jamaican serial entrepreneur best known for establishing Lulu, a mobile dating intelligence app with more than 6 million users. Chong sold Lulu in 2016. Since raising $20 million earlier this year, Chong has methodically built the business. Jacana now has roughly 60 employees, including former MJardin and USA Hemp horticulturalist Marco Malatrasi as head of cultivation, plus sales teams in London and Toronto. The company’s board includes Microsoft’s former chief marketing officer and senior vice president, Mich Mathews-Spradlin, and Robert Leechman, a former executive board member at The Coca-Cola Co. Jacana has cultivation and export licenses as well as a 100-acre farm and an 8,000-square-foot processing facility that are both operational. With all its ducks lined up and access to capital—something other Jamaican medical cannabis companies lack—Jacana could become one of Jamaica’s most successful cannabis companies. Jacana Canopy Growth LINE OF BUSINESS Cultivation, processing/ manufacturing and retail HEADQUARTERS Smiths Falls, Ontario WHY TO WATCH Following the ouster of co-founder, co-CEO and public face of the company Bruce Linton, Canopy will be a must-watch company. For starters, the move could portend an executive-hiring-and-firing trend among big North American cannabis companies that have surrendered shares and board seats to big players from alcohol, tobacco and other industries in exchange for capital. In Canopy’s case, it was alcohol producer Constellation Brands, which acquired 40% of the company and holds four of seven board seats, that pushed for the change. Company boards packed with mainstream stakeholders such as Constellation will be far less tolerant of losses— Canopy racked up hundreds of millions of dollars in losses under Linton—so longtime cannabis C-suiters should take note. How Canopy fares under new leader Mark Zekulin, a co-founder and co-CEO along with Linton, also will shed light into whether the recent losses were because of Linton, or deeper issues with the company and/or the industry. Canopy’s performance also could have global impact, since it has a presence in several cannabis markets around the world. Canopy’s SpectrumTherapeutics subsidiary is in Australia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Lesotho, Peru, Poland and the United Kingdom. Some of Canopy’s other foreign operations: • Spain, where it has a partnership with Spanish pharma company Alcaliber S.A. • Jamaica, where Tweed JA has a joint venture with Grow House, a licensed Jamaica grower and manufacturer.