Snoop Dogg just invested in an Uber-for-weed startup, Eaze
Eaze is an on-demand marijuana delivery startup that works by connecting California's medical marijuana patients with local dispensaries. The startup raised a $1.5 million round in November and says it can provide delivery within 10 minutes.
The on-demand trend was made popular by Uber - press a button and you can have anything at your doorstep in a few minutes. The business model has yieled a few billion-dollar startups, including grocery delivery service Instacart.
Founded by Keith McCarty, an early Yammer employee, Eaze is one of several startups in the booming marijuana category as investors scramble to get into deals just ahead of the drug's potential legalization. Recently Alaska, Washington D.C., Colorado, and Washington state have all passed laws legalizing recreational marijuana.
Earlier, Privateer Holdings raised a $75 million round to fund marijuana startups - the biggest private funding in the legal weed business to date. There's more than half a dozen startups providing marijuana delivery services, including Dave, Canary, Meadow, Grassp, and Nestdrop.
Though it doesn't have a timeline, McCarthy tells Quartz that Eaze plans to expand to areas of the Bay Area, offering its services to people wherever recreational and medical marijuana are legalized. The company will hire 50 more employees over the next 50 days.