It's not seed funding anymore. Eaze, the medical marijuana delivery service that launched last summer just ahead of several other competitors, is beginning to blossom.
Today an email to customers announced that the company has raised $10 million in funding, with Quartz reporting that DCM Ventures led the round with participation from Snoop Dogg’s weed fund (not his personal weed fund, mind you, his investment arm, Casa Verde Capital) plus Fresh VC and 500 Startups.
Last November, Eaze partnered with San Francisco dispensary SPARC, which SFist dubbed "The Apple store of dispensaries" when it opened in 2010. So, just to drive the point home, that's the Apple and Uber of weed teaming up for market domination.
Further, as Forbes emphasizes, the dual support of the medical marijuana community and the tech community is a vote of confidence for the "high tech" sector. "I wish I was more strategic — I think I just got lucky,” founder and CEO Keith McCarty demurs. “In terms of timing, if I had a crystal ball last year I’m not sure I could have done it any better.”
In his email, the CEO wrote that with the new funding he can "add more team members like engineers, marketers, product managers, customer support specialists and more to provide bigger and better services." Not sure if you need to be a medical marijuana patient for those positions, as you must be to become an Eaze caregiver (driver).
Eaze hopes "to be in every market as quickly as possible that allows for medical marijuana and even recreational use of marijuana,” McCarty told Quartz, specifying that he's looking to Nevada, Arizona, Washington, Colorado, and Oregon. That would be some Uber-style growth, but let's hope that the analogy has its limits. Otherwise, of course, we're going to come up on some serious surge pricing next Monday (4/20).
Previously: Eaze, The Uber of Pot Delivery, Partners With S.F.'s SPARC Dispensary