April 2016
When we started Meadow in 2014, it was with a vision to make medical cannabis more accessible to patients in California.
That seed of an idea soon grew into Meadow Delivery — what started as a medical cannabis delivery e-commerce site that quickly featured more than 45 California dispensaries and delivery partners spanning across 38% of California zip codes.
In February 2015 the business expanded to include Meadow MD, a platform for medical cannabis doctor’s recommendations. Using Meadow MD, thousands of patients across California connected with independent physicians from the comfort of their homes.
The next branch of growth came with the launch of the Meadow Platform in November 2015, a cannabis retail software suite for dispensaries and delivery services in California.
Today we’re incredibly thrilled to announce even more exciting news.
Meadow has closed $2.1 million in seed funding from a group of incredible investors, including David Lee, YC partner Justin Kan, Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman, Reddit co-founder and YC Partner Alexis Ohanian, Angel Investor and Entrepreneur Hiten Shah, Slow Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, SOMA Capital, and Poseidon Asset Management.
We’re so grateful for these investors and their belief in our business, our growth trajectory and our values.
Today we’re also announcing the launch of our Cannabis Point-of-Sale and Inventory Management systems, the newest additions to Meadow Platform. These systems have been built specifically for cannabis businesses, incorporating feedback and best practices from patients, dispensary partners, legislators and regulators across California.
Why Does Cannabis Software Matter?
The cannabis industry is rife with complication.
Regulations governing medical cannabis businesses can be difficult to navigate and are often in flux. Therefore, many established companies have not built tools for cannabis businesses or developed services tailored to their needs.
Some have even dropped cannabis business clients once they learned the nature of their business.
This is where Meadow comes in. We understand, appreciate and value the cannabis industry and the far-reaching medical applications of cannabis. We also have our finger on the pulse of industry regulations.
We’re creating solutions specifically for cannabis companies.
What Are We Going To Use the Money For?
We’ll continue to scale getmeadow.com and Meadow MD to continue to provide our patients with access to medical marijuana.
We’ve seen and experienced the benefits of medical cannabis firsthand and will continue to service our patients and partners with the highest quality products and services.
“We plan to connect the entire cannabis supply chain, from farm to flame. We have the opportunity to build technology that will become the backbone of this industry — in California and beyond — and we’re thrilled to have an incredible group of forward-thinking investors backing our mission.” — CEO David Hua
Here’s what some of our investors have to say:
Justin Kan — Y-Combinator Partner & Spokesperson, Founder Justin.tv/Twitch
With Meadow you have the combination of the right team, with the right product, at exactly the right time. We’re coming to a tipping point. Support for marijuana legalization has hit an all-time high. At YC we see software disrupting old industries all the time. Meadow is disrupting this budding new industry by bringing the dispensaries, customers and patients all to one platform.
Alexis Ohanian — co-founder, Reddit, Y-Combinator Partner
We’re just beginning to unlock the medical, social, and economic benefits of cannabis and the results are already striking. Meadow is building world-class technology for a massive industry that’s only just starting to grow — the stakes have never been higher.
Hiten Shah — co-founder at Quick Sprout and Crazy Egg, Angel Investor
I invested in Meadow because I believe in the team, their mission and the medicinal benefits of cannabis. I believe in David Hua and his team’s ability to create the best software for the cannabis industry that touches both cannabis businesses and the consumers interacting with them. I’m really excited to see this industry move forward with it’s potential to improve the lives of countless people. I believe Meadow will be a big part of the industry’s future with their software skills and, equally important, their compassion for the industry and it’s consumers.
Emily Paxhia — Founding Partner & Director of Relations, Poseidon Asset Management
Our decision to invest in Meadow was based on the quality of the founders who brought true technology solutions to an underserved market. We also strongly believe Meadow’s platform and strategy works well with the regulations and optimizing the B2B experience. We appreciate that the team focuses on the quality of the product and understands how critical the political process is to the growth of a company in the cannabis industry. Their passion for the industry is translated into user-friendly and elegant platforms, which make the experience for patients and customers pleasant and efficient.
Jeff Ferguson — President and co-founder @ PipelineDB, Angel Investor
I invested personally in Meadow because they are doing for the emerging cannabis industry what Uber did for transportation — take control of it by building great software.
A Rising Tide Lifts All Ships
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our investors and our patients. Thank you for your support! We’re so excited to continue to grow with this dynamic industry, and we’re grateful to provide quality medicine to our patients.
The cannabis movement and social justice are at the core of Meadow’s values and DNA. We’d like to thank everyone who has joined us in advocating on behalf of cannabis. We’d also like to thank those who join us at education events — let’s continue to hone our swords together.
A special thanks to our teachers, mentors and partners. We stand on the shoulders of giants.
A heartfelt thank you to: Steve DeAngelo, California Growers Association, Debby Goldsberry, the faculty at Oaksterdam, California Cannabis Industry Association, and The ArcView Group.
And a thank you to all of our partners, who are on the front lines everyday: The Apothecarium, SPARC, Vapor Room, and all of our other dispensary and delivery partners. We wouldn’t be here without you.
Stand with us on the right side of history.
To learn more about Meadow, check us out on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube.
