Hoodie Analytics, a U.S.-based cannabis data and technology company delivering insights into market performance and competitive intelligence, announced today the close of its inaugural round of fundraising at an undisclosed amount. Hoodie also announced positions on its strategic advisory board.
Hoodie tracks over 3.5MM daily unique offers in over 8,000+ dispensaries in the US and Canada, making Hoodie one of the largest and most impactful platforms in cannabis for tracking sales metrics such as pricing, promotion, stocking status, distribution and share of shelf. Hoodie combines this with next-day insights so businesses can access market trends and data within hours, which it claims is a first for the industry.
“We founded Hoodie to close the last mile of actionable product insights. We are aiming to create a nexus of industry data: a product graph to connect all industry players together and speed up critical insights. Not only for cannabis brands but for consumers as well,” said Wes Shepherd, chairman and chief executive officer at Hoodie.
“Our core competency is processing massive volumes and a variety of data. Where we differ is that we can build applications equally well. We can deliver insights to people in a variety of roles whether it’s a brand’s salesperson or a dispensary inventory manager or even a webmaster looking to create a product locator for consumers to find their products,” Shepherd said.
Hoodie’s aim is to track every product– in every dispensary, in every state and province, every single day — and combine this data with an easy-to-use interface as its guiding principle, which aims to ensure that even the busiest salesperson is able to help their customers effectively and reliably.
“We are extremely close to this goal already,” said Kris Walker, Hoodie’s President and chief commercial officer.
“It’s amazing to have so many cannabis brands, dispensaries, and MSOs embrace us thanks to our total market coverage, our unparalleled granularity of information, and our next-day turnaround of insights.”
“Hoodie solves a major problem for the cannabis industry at large. Every day we are out of stock in a dispensary means customers and patients can’t get the medicine from 1906 they depend on,” said Peter Barsoom, Co-founder and CEO of 1906.
“We finally have a platform our sales team can use to ensure dispensaries are always in stock.”
Before Hoodie, Barsoom explained, businesses waited a week or more for market intelligence only to receive lagging information and analysis. The historical lack of mature market data and analytics is explainable given the rapid growth and fragmented nature of the cannabis industry due to a patchwork of regulatory differences at the state and national level.
Hoodie’s inaugural round of funding also marks the first investment out of Arcview’s new Seed Fund which operates with sponsorship from Entourage Effect Capital. The Hoodie executive team boasts alumni from several of the world’s most successful data analytics firms including IRI, Nielsen, NPD, and Numerator.
The funding round was led by Greenlight Ventures, Arcview Ventures Seed Fund, Entourage Effect Capital, Satori Investment Partners, and individual investors Bart Swanson, Steve Weisman, Brian Schinderle, Lorne Gertner, and Jim Belushi. The raise positions Hoodie to massively scale out its product and sales efforts.
“We are thrilled to make Hoodie Analytics the inaugural investment of the Arcview Seed Fund along with the support of Entourage Effect Capital,” said Jeffrey Finkle, chief executive officer of The Arcview Group.
“Hoodie cracked the code with tracking at nearly every dispensary. It’s the broadest suite of competitive intelligence tools that help dispensaries and brand sales teams make smarter decisions and drive revenue.”
As part of the financing, Gregg Steinberg, Jim Belushi and Lorne Gertner will join the Hoodie Strategic Advisory Board.
“Hoodie is a damn cannabis game changer! I know all my inventory in every dispensary and we see the demand for re-orders before they know it,” said Jim Belushi, founder of Belushi’s Farm.
“This data has changed everything we do on our farm. If efficiency is your game, Hoodie is the name!”
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