EAZE, MEDMEN TRY TO REBOOT
Struggling west coast giants Eaze and MedMen discussed their plans to rebuild. They are two of the best known brands in California, if not the country.
- Eaze said it had raised $35M to pivot from being a delivery technology company to a plant-touching retailer. The company says it has 600,000 registered customers. “Verticalization is Eaze’s second act,” CEO Ro Choy said. Tech Crunch
- The company raised a *$15M bridge investment from existing investors Rose Capital and DCM and an additional $20M led by an entity called FoundersJT. (An Eaze spokesperson declined to say more about that backer.) The company didn’t disclose the valuation.
- Despite many publicized difficulties, Eaze’s business appears to be growing.
- On LinkedIn, attorney David Feder expressed skepticism about Eaze’s plan. In the post, he imagines a conversation between a dispensary and Eaze:
“Dispensary: “Wait, but aren’t you my competitor, selling your own cannabis products directly to customers? Why should I give you MY customer’s name, contact info, location, basket sizes, shopping preferences and habits?”
“Eaze: “No no no. We’re totally not trying to sell OUR cannabis products to YOUR customers. Trust us. We only want to sell our cannabis to other people’s customers. Not yours. Basically, to everyone else except your customers.”
[gravityform id="5" title="true" description="false" ajax="true" tabindex=""]
On MedMen’s quarterly earnings call, the retailer discussed its “retail-first” turnaround plan.
CNN
- “We cannot continue to invest in assets that are not producing near-term cash returns,” said Zeeshan Hyder, MedMen’s CFO.
- The company reported 2Q revenue of $44.1M, up 50% from a year earlier and a net loss of $40.6M, up from $18.7M.
- As of Sunday, the stock was priced at 24 cents/share.
- In a bearish analysis, investment site Grizzle says the company “remains in a liquidity crisis.”
Quick Hit
- Entrepreneur Roger Obando, who lived through the dot-com crash, asked ‘What will happen to green rush victims?’ He recently appeared on the WeedWeek Podcast.
Green Entrepreneur
