SXSW returns to Austin, Tex., in March, and it seems like each year delivers more cannabis and hemp (and CBD) content to the hundreds of thousand of curious attendees.
This year, “Cannabis Jumpstart: A Business Showcase,” hosted by CanopyBoulder, will see six cannabis and hemp businesses pitching onstage to venture capitalists. A panel of three industry experts will run the show.
The panel includes: Javier Hasse, Managing Director at Benzinga Cannabis; Emily Paxhia, Managing Director at Poseidon Asset Management; and Matt Nordgren, CEO of Arcadian Fund.
"Thanks to the great work by the folks over at CanopyBoulder, we were able to efficiently look through almost 100 business opportunities,” Nordgren told Benzinga. “The result will showcase a collection of diverse, proven, and capable entrepreneurs leading the cannabis and hemp industry forward.”
Here are the six businesses that will get a shot at SXSW-level visibility and capital:
- Pineapple Express – a medical and adult-use cannabis company in California.
- Sana Packaging – a plant-based hemp plastics manufacturers that uses “100% reclaimed ocean plastic and other sustainable materials.”
- Quim – a plant-based sexual wellness product manufacturer.
- Alt Thirty Six – a point-of-sale business that sets up digital payments for cannabis retail (both in-store and online).
- Oppidan Wellness – a hemp-based “personalized medicine” business.
- Asia Horizon – a China-based company with plans to process industrial hemp for CBD extraction—while also working to distribute CBD brands in Asia.
