Debra Borchardt
Cannabis cloud commerce platform company Treez is buying the payment solutions company Swifter. The value of the transaction was not disclosed. However, it does follow Treez Series C funding round of $51 million in April 2022. At the time the company said it would use the new funds to expand its footprint, pursue market expansion opportunities and invest in partnerships that would connect each link in the supply chain.
“The acquisition of Swifter further solidifies our position to offer a comprehensive suite of financial services and digital payments solutions to cannabis dispensaries,” said John Yang, CEO of Treez. “Together, we’re tackling the challenges faced by dispensaries in normalizing the cannabis retail experience by bringing forward scalable fintech and payment solutions to optimize the customer experience and meet consumers where they are today.”
Swifter is already established in the cannabis industry with existing multi-location operating retail cannabis clients. the company also brings to the table credentials as a Y Combinator company, making them an attractive investment for Treez. Swifter noted in the statement that it was selected as part of the 2020 class at the Y Combinator accelerator that offers seed investments to startup companies, with a roster of alumni including Airbnb, Doordash, Dropbox, Instacart, and more.
“We are thrilled to be joining the Treez team, which has a deep expertise in cloud commerce technology,” said Sowmya Rao, Co-Founder of Swifter, who will remain with Treez as Director of Payments. “By bringing Swifter’s payment technology platform to Treez we hope to provide cannabis retailers with the solutions they need to offer a better and more typical retail customer experience, increase revenue and ultimately drive to profitability.”
Treez said in the statement that with this acquisition it will be able to provide embedded partner-powered fintech solutions that will ultimately lead to more transparency, stability and better processing rates for retailers. Additionally, Treez said it will be able to leverage and further build upon the Swifter technology to allow more traditional banks and fintech providers to more easily enter the space as legislation efforts like SAFE banking get closer to passing.
The company was founded in 2016 by John Yang and Shareef El-Sissi. It is based in San Francisco.
