FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Chicago, January 24, 2024 – 1871, a nonprofit global innovation hub, announces its list of the 2024 cohort members for its second annual Cannabis Innovation Lab, in partnership with Grown In and supported by Hoodie Analytics.
Kicking off the 2024 Innovation Lab year and running in parallel with 1871’s first-ever Web3 Innovation Lab, the Cannabis Innovation Lab offers a cutting-edge platform for growth-stage entrepreneurs and startups in the cannatech industry.
This dedicated space fosters innovation, collaboration, and growth, providing cohort members access to resources and industry-specific expertise from VCs, corporate partners, and industry enthusiasts to drive industry transformation.
Grown In’s CEO, Brad Spirrison, returns for their second year of partnership, playing a vital role as the Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) for the 2024 lab. This year’s focus areas are Cannabis Beyond Consumption, Finance, Seed-to-Sale Supply Chain, Health & Wellness, and All Things Consumer.
The 17 selected cohort participants will collaborate with one another and the entire canna tech innovation ecosystem through 4 immersive weeks of curated programming, workshops, and problem-solving sessions.
Cohort members have solutions spanning the canna tech sector and covering the 2024 focus areas. Connect with the 2024 cohort and discover their innovative startups at our upcoming public immersive weeks.
2024 Cohort Members
Acute on Chronic | Rebecca Abraham, CEO & Founder
Acute on Chronic is an innovative health tech impact start-up that combines traditional plant medicine with AI innovation while utilizing a dedicated team of registered nurses to provide compassionate care to unlock the power of plant medicine. We’re on a mission to help individuals and healthcare professionals harness the incredible therapeutic potential of medical or adult-use cannabis, botanicals, and psychedelics.
Cannabis Lab focus area: Health & Wellness
Anami Technologies / GreenSpace | Michael Wilson, CEO & Founder
Greenspace is a location-based software that allows customers to aggregate their data, manage their IP, and organize it all to their dispensary addresses. It includes a file management system that provides expiration functionality to manage time-sensitive items like licenses, leases, and other documents that expire or require reminders. Greenspace Pro has an integrated project management system to help manage licensing, construction, compliance, and audits with a fully integrated communication tool that aggregates all communications to a specific location, eliminating the need for texts and emails.
Cannabis Lab focus area: Finance
BonsaiBakery | Joshua Hernandez, Founder
BonsaiBakery is a horticultural think tank dedicated to normalizing Ruderalis, and Cannabis as house plants.
Cannabis Lab focus area: Cannabis Beyond Consumption
Budscout AI | Tim Macal, CRO
Budscout is a team of experienced executives, data scientists, engineers, and problem solvers leveraging robotics and AI to change the paradigm in cannabis cultivation. Budscout helps cultivators improve labor efficacy and efficiency while providing real-time plant health insights and localized environmental data to increase yield and quality.
Cannabis Lab focus area: Seed-to-Sale Supply Chain
Cannatrac Financial Corp | Terry Patton, Chairman & Founder
Cannatrac Financial Corp is innovating the future of financial services for the cannabis industry and beyond. The CannaCard App has evolved from payment and rewards to playing a vital role in the historic insurance reimbursement and cost-saving card programs for medical cannabis. These products and services are pioneering groundbreaking advancements in the intersection of finance and healthcare within the cannabis sector. With a strategic eye on medical cannabis rescheduling and global expansion, Cannatrac is poised to reshape the landscape of financial solutions in this rapidly evolving industry.
Cannabis Lab focus area: All Things Consumer
CannaHauler | Nicholson Medlock, CEO & Founder
CannaHauler is a Transportation Management System and Load Board for the cannabis industry. We help our customers save money, improve efficiency, and get paid faster.
Cannabis Lab focus area: Seed-to-Sale Supply Chain
Canurta Inc. | Akeem Gardner, CEO
Canurta is leading the world in the research and production of rare, multi-target polyphenols for complex inflammatory and neurological conditions. Combining advanced bioinformatics and proprietary manufacturing processes, Canurta can transform these compounds into active, high-quality biopharmaceutical ingredients with proven clinical activity and superior safety assurance.
Cannabis Lab focus area: Health & Wellness
Cubbington’s Cabinet | Jennifer Weiss, CEO & Founder
Cubbington’s Cabinet is a Chicago-based, woman-PhD-owned company on a mission to improve the quality of life for people and pets by providing a trustworthy source for quality, lab-tested, accurately labeled, and responsibly produced plant-based wellness products, including hemp-derived cannabinoids. Along with our own line of premium CBD, we offer carefully curated products conscientiously sourced from innovative, socially responsible businesses led by women, BIPOC, and other historically marginalized people.
Cannabis Lab focus area: Health & Wellness
Cultivation Connect | Alex Wisniewski, CEO & Co-Founder
Cultivation Connect provides an easy entry to precision agriculture for cannabis cultivators. Cultivators connect their choice of data logging sensors or control applications with our software tool to enhance their ability to independently detect issues and generate insights. By analyzing genetic, nutrient, and environmental data, Cultivation Connect enables data-driven cultivation decisions resulting in higher yields, better quality, reduced costs, and minimized waste.
Cannabis Lab focus area: Seed-to-Sale Supply Chain
Drop Fleet | Vanessa Gabriel, CEO & Co-Founder
Drop Fleet is a delivery management solution supporting businesses in efficiently allocating and monitoring their local deliveries. It enables seamless communication between businesses, drivers, and customers while prioritizing adherence to regulatory standards. Drop offers a robust web-based dispatcher platform and reporting dashboard, user-friendly iOS/Android mobile apps for drivers, automatic real-time customer notifications with tracking, and versatile APIs for seamless integration with 3rd party software, all with a strong emphasis on delivery compliance.
Cannabis Lab focus area: Seed-to-Sale Supply Chain
Finli is a Certified B Corp on a mission to bridge the access gap for businesses (micro, small, mid-sized) and financial technology. We are a provider of digital back office that allows business owners and managers to focus on what they do best and offload administrative burdens such as customer management, billing, inventory management, contract management, pricing, and payment.
Cannabis Lab focus area: Finance
Flourish Software | Conrad Schwabe, Account Executive
Flourish is a leading seed-to-sale supply chain and retail management platform built specifically for the cannabis, CBD, and hemp industries. Companies that cultivate, extract, manufacture, distribute, or retail cannabis, CBD, or hemp use Flourish’s software to drive their supply chain and retail operations, manage costs, and stay compliant. Flourish is deployed nationally, fully integrated with Metrc and Biotrack, and is proud to offer the industry’s leading API and integration capabilities.
Cannabis Lab focus area: Seed-to-Sale Supply Chain
Function Botanicals | Alastair Greer, CEO & Founder
Function Botanicals is a digital health company that combines quality, precise cannabis products with condition-specific dosage protocols designed to find your personalized and most effective dose.
Cannabis Lab focus area: Health & Wellness
Keep It Compliant | Shawn “Pepper” Roussel, LA Barred Attorney/Agricultural & Food Law LLM and Agricultural Economics MS student – University of Arkansas at Fayetteville
Green Pepper Solutions is a solo practice by Pepper Roussel, a food law attorney and agricultural consultant. Green Pepper Solutions fills the critical space between advocacy and implementation, thereby providing the best opportunity for long-standing social change with the force of law.
Cannabis Lab focus area: Seed-to-Sale Supply Chain
Kore Compliance, LLC | Ray Jorgensen, CEO
Kore Compliance is a FinTech software company focused on a frictionless cannabis consumer experience around delivery and pre-order. The Budtendur product imitates ubiquitous software (e.g., PayPal, Zelle/Venmo, DoorDash/UberEats) that won’t work in cannabis due to federal illegality. Budtendur is a disrupting technology as it replaces a myriad of single-thread products for the price of one.
Cannabis Lab focus area: All Things Consumer
Moodi Day | Biyerem Okengwu, CEO
Moodi Day is a rewards platform for consumers to learn and share candid feedback with each other about cannabis products. Our mission is to normalize cannabis by increasing access to real experiences from everyday people about products available in licensed dispensaries.
Cannabis Lab focus area: All Things Consumer
Outlaw Technology, LLC | David Eagleson Sr., CEO & Founder
Outlaw is the industry leader in data capture automation. With our custom software deployed on our RFID handhelds and touchscreen tablets, we are able to capture and update via API integration to a wide range of software databases. The Outlaw goal is to eliminate pen and paper to drive efficiency and accuracy, thereby allowing our customers to do more with less.
Cannabis Lab focus area: Seed-to-Sale Supply Chain
About the program
Cohort members will participate in 4-weeks of hybrid programming, alternating each week for virtual and in-person experiences in January, February, March, and April 2024. The program culminates with a capstone-like event, the 2024 Cannabis Innovation Summit, open to public participation on 4.18.24.
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For inquiries about involvement in partnering with us or learning more about sponsor options for the Cannabis Innovation Summit, connect with our team.
About 1871
1871, a nonprofit global innovation hub, exists to inspire, equip, and support early-stage, growth-stage, late-stage, and corporate innovators in building extraordinary businesses. 1871 is home to ~500 early-stage startups, ~250 growth and late-stage companies, and ~60 corporates, and is supported by an entire community focused on accelerating their growth and creating jobs in the Chicagoland area. The member experience includes virtual and in-person access to workshops, events, mentorship, and more. The nonprofit organization has 350 mentors available to its members, alongside access to more than 200 partner corporations, universities, education programs, accelerators, venture funds, and others. Since its inception in 2012, more than 1,050+ alum companies are still active, have created over 14,700 jobs, and have raised more than $3.7 billion in follow-on capital.C
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