Kanna closes $500,000 funding round as it connects cannabis workers, companies

Oklahoma City-based Kanna closed a half-million dollar funding round to secure its viability as an employment service for the cannabis industry.

Kanna connects employers with workers in the industry, which in Oklahoma is still a relatively new marketplace. After launching, the website quickly drew about 1,000 interested workers for jobs like trimming, retail, delivery, budtending and packaging.

The next step, said founder Farhaj Mayan, is to hire software engineers, continue developing the company's software and connect with farms and other cannabis businesses to expand its client base.

Turnover in the cannabis industry is quite high, Mayan said, with roughly six out of every 10 employees moving on after a few months. A big challenge facing companies is finding trustworthy talent, and that's where Kanna hopes it can find its niche.

On its website, hirekanna.com, people can take a Cannabis 101 or Trimming 101 course. Mayan said much of the capital from this funding round will go into creating more online classes.

"You can't go to OU and get a full-time cannabis grower's degree, unfortunately, but hopefully we can set the standard for that and help people unlock jobs," said Mayan. "Essentially what's different about Kanna is we provide this education platform to our workers where they can hop on and learn about different jobs in the industry."

Kanna also helps prospective employees with their background checks and licensing with the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority.

For employers, Kanna created an automated hiring process for on-demand workers. The company also offers tax and banking support. By the end of this year, Mayan hopes to be able to place 2,000 or 3,000 people in the Oklahoma cannabis industry.

Employers face numerous challenges as new small business owners. It can be hard to find a financial institution willing to lend or even handle money from an industry that's still federally illegal, leaving most transactions cash-based. Verifying an applicant's resume is another challenge, because previous employment might be with an off-grid grower operating before Oklahoma adopted medical marijuana laws.

"For a lot of these new business owners that are coming to market, it's very hard for them to vet without a lot of context and an experienced consultant to say whether this candidate is the right fit for their enterprise," said Mayan. "It's an interesting niche, but I love the fact that Oklahoma is so supportive in giving a chance for a lot of people who traditionally wouldn't have had a chance to enter the industry."

Mayan and the Kanna team moved to Oklahoma from Austin this spring, and participated in the Thunder Launchpad accelerator program. He's worked closely with Launchpad partner and StitchCrew founder Erika Lucas, who he said helped lure him to the Sooner State.

In the latest round of Thunder Launchpad companies, Kanna joined dozens of other technology-focused startups helped by the program since 2018. AgBoost, for example, offers data analytics for the agriculture industry and recently partnered with Oklahoma's beef producers to connect ranchers directly with meat-buying families. Another veteran of the program that launched in February, Suma, matches moms with careers that are flexible enough to accommodate their life at home.

Kanna stands in rare company as a Launchpad alum who left the Austin, already a solid mid-tier tech hub, for Oklahoma City's emerging tech startup ecosystem.

Mayan plans to focus on this state, specifically Oklahoma City and southern Oklahoma, for the next two years. He's already eyeing places like Missouri, Florida, Michigan and Illinois as possible locations to scale the business.

"Primarily nascent states, and not the mature markets like Colorado and California, because I think the supply side of labor is a lot more fragmented there. And from a legislative perspective, I think they'd be willing to listen to the growing pains and build infrastructure that really supports business owners," he said.