Founders of a Burlington company that plans to use blockchain technology to verify cannabis products from seed to store shelves say they have filed a patent application for their technology and raised more than $1 million.
Josh Decatur, the co-founder of Trace, said Tuesday the company has raised $1.1 million from angel investors in Vermont and New York since it started a year ago. He said the company is launching its product with test users.
Eventually, Decatur said, Trace will make money by selling other products related to its technology and providing analytics and data. “Our monetization strategies will be built around how we are creating efficiency in the real world,” he said.
Trace is built on the promise of the huge testing and certification needs of the cannabis industry, which has flowered rapidly since many states and then the federal government started lifting restrictions on the industry. New businesses are forming quickly around the money to be made in processing cannabis into products such as CBD – a compound that many say has health-giving effects – and THC, the chemical best known for producing a high.
There is intense pressure for the industry to develop testing and analytical capabilities so that consumers can know that the products they are buying contain the promised ingredients.
Right now, they probably don’t, said Eli Jager, the marketing director for Trace.
“Everyone is lying constantly about the provenance of their product,” said Jager. “They will just buy it from anyone and package it however they want. It’s a problem in itself, and becomes a slightly larger problem when there are things like mold and mites that have real health impacts.”
Anne Wallace Allen
About Anne
Anne Wallace Allen is VTDigger's business reporter. Anne worked for the Associated Press in Montpelier from 1994 to 2004 and most recently edited the Idaho Business Review.
Email: awallaceallen@vtdigger.org
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