EXCLUSIVE: Is Weedmaps The Amazon Of Cannabis?

High-growth stocks have faced selling pressure in recent weeks, as the market prepares for the Federal Reserve to potentially raise rates sooner and faster than previously expected. Meanwhile, cannabis stocks continue to take a beating as one of the worst performing sectors in the market this year.

WM Technology Inc MAPS sits at the corner of growth and cannabis, but WM Technology CEO Chris Beals isn't worried.

"When you think about the rising threat of inflation and sort of what the Fed may do, I think that's the time when growth companies like us typically want to flex and show that they can be profitable. The good news is we're already there," Beals said Thursday on "Benzinga Cannabis Hour."

During its most recent earnings report, WM Technology reported quarterly earnings of 2 cents per share, which beat the estimate of 1 cent per share.

WM Technology is a tech and software infrastructure provider for the cannabis industry, consisting of its B2C platform Weedmaps and its B2B software WM Business.

Beals described the Weedmaps business as an Amazon.com Inc AMZN-like marketplace for cannabis where users can browse a virtual shopping mall for cannabis products. Businesses using Weedmaps are able to promote their companies on the platform and appear more prominently on the marketplace. 

The WM Business side allows the company to bundle software offerings together to offer a "business-in-a-box" product that complements the Weedmaps platform. 

"For $500 a month a cannabis retailer can basically get up and running [and] participate in the marketplace," Beals said.

This is critical to the advertising reach of many cannabis companies because most are unable to advertise in other traditional ways as a result of legal restrictions.

Advertising-effectiveness centers around conversion rate. According to the WM technology CEO, Alphabet Inc's GOOGL GOOG Google Ads offers a sub-1% conversion rate and Amazon offers about a 10% conversion rate, while Weedmaps is driving an approximate 20% conversion rate.

Beals went on to talk about the company's data collect, delivery potential, 2021 highlights and more.

See the full interview here:

MAPS Price Action: WM technology has traded as high as $22.24 and as low as $6.14 over a 52-week period.

The stock closed 3.03%  lower on Friday at $6.40.

Photo: Erin_Hinterland from Pixabay.