MariMed, Indiva And Other Cannabis Companies Pitch Investors

Six cannabis executives made their pitch to investors last week at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference in Chicago.

MariMed

Bob Fireman, CEO and president of Marimed Inc MRMD, began his presentation by highlighting the industry's responsibility to patients and their medical conditions.

Children with epilepsy need precision-dosed products like MariMed's, the CEO said.

"It better be consistent. It better be the same. Or, that mother is going to haunt me for the rest of my life."

Fireman detailed the company's work to reach its goals, including the assembly of a scientific board of directors, working with hospitals and conducting clinical trials.

Indiva 

Medical cannabis licensed producer Indiva Ltd NDVAF has consumer packaged goods executives who hail from major players, including NESTLE S A/S ADR NSRGY, General Mills, Inc. GIS and Clorox Co CLX.

Indiva's pre-rolls and hundreds of SKUs rank as top products in the space, said President and CEO Niel Marotta, attributing some of the achievement to an executive team with years of experience in developing consistent products.

Driven Deliveries

Mergers and acquisitions were a common point of discussion during the two-day Cannabis Capital Conference.

Driven Deliveries Inc DRVD CEO Christian Schenk said the August 2019 acquisition of California-based online retailer Budee helped expand its tech infrastructure and customer base.

The purchase added 65,000 customers to the company's Southern California market, the CEO said.

The most significant part of the deal may be Budee's tech stack, he said.

"We've been working the last month to integrate the scheduled delivery with the express delivery [and] time logistics, all in our custom-owned, custom-built ... tech stack."

Medicine Man

M&A activity helped shape other companies that presented at the conference.

Colorado brands were brought together to create what Medicine Man Technologies Inc MDCL co-founder and CEO Andy Williams believes will be the cannabis equivalent of another iconic Colorado brand.

"This story about cannabis pioneers in Colorado coming together through acquisition, medicine and technologies to build what we believe will be the Coors ... that emerged from the alcohol prohibition."

Lift & Co. 

Other brands in the cannabis space use their technology to serve the market.

Lift & Co Corp LIFT CEO Matei Olaru spoke about the company's offerings. Lift's website has cannabis product reviews; the company presents conferences of its own and the Canadian Cannabis Awards; and it offers Lift & Co. Rewards, which offers Canadian cannabis users product discounts.

The company's latest offering is a retail certification program that helps retailers educate and train staff.

"What we can do right now for the top 50 brands in the Canadian market is predict sales volumes with a 95-degree confidence level," the CEO said.

Related Links:

Why A Veteran Tech Investor Set Her Sights On Cannabis

Canadian Cannabis Extraction Execs Talk Tech, Staffing, Innovation