Cannabis Delivery Startup Grabs $10 Million

Given the Uberization of everything and the general lack of enthusiasm for going outside typical among marijuana connoisseurs, it is unsurprising that Eaze exists or that it was able to snap up $10 million in venture funding.

Eaze helps medical pot patients order cannabis (or cannabis enhanced products) via the Web and then have it delivered to their front door. The firm has announced that it has put together $10 million in Series A funding – in a round led by DCM Ventures with participation from Fresh VC, 500 Startups, and other strategic investors. Eaze had already raised $1.1 million in seed money.

So what are they doing with the money?

Funions. Lots of Funions.

Just kidding – Eaze says it will use the money to expand its reach in the Bay Area, where the firm currently operates.

Weed delivery is not exactly a new concept –  it is just that in the past, the person who one called to bring their pot to their front door was generally referred to as a “drug dealer,” as opposed to “pharmaceutical distributor.”

CEO and founder Keith McCarty says that his businesses focus is on offering medical cannabis patients the best possible experience by working with “only the best” dispensaries to highlight the top products for customers to purchase. Eaze is also a product curation service – instead of overwhelming their likely easily confused customer base with a long list of complicated options that they are unlikely to be able to remember anyway, Eaze narrows the selection to the flowers, edibles, and concentrates most likely to succor the desperate and ill.

One brave TechCrunch writer – who is apparently living with the scourges of insomnia and anxiety – reported that the service was perhaps in need of further refinement. The speed of delivery – at less than 15 minutes – was good. But apparently selection left something to be desired, and paying in cash was something of a “bummer” (currently banks are staying away from processing pot payments from cards – since federal law basically prohibits it – even if the product is state level legal).

Eaze does not provide “last mile delivery” infrastructure, instead relying on its dispensary partners to actually make the delivery. In that sense Eaze is more a order placing platform.

However, what Eaze represents – namely that VC are getting increasingly comfortable with funding pot just like any other product – indicates that weed is no longer looking like a risky investment.