Growing cannabis on an industrial scale involves managing margins and continuously complying with compliance laws. For many growers, large and small, this is the constant input of data from seed to sale.
Canix's solution uses a robust enterprise resource planning platform with a strong bias towards reducing the time it takes to enter data. This platform integrates seamlessly with common accounting software and Metrc, an industry-wide regulatory platform, through the use of RFID scanners and Bluetooth-enabled scales.
Canix was launched in June 2019 and in just over a year (and during a pandemic), it has acquired over 300 customers in more than 1,000 growing plants and monitoring the movement of 2.5 million plants.
The founders of Canix are upfront with the goal of the software: to reduce the cost of labor. During an interview with ProWellTech, the founders pointed out how growers could increase margins by improving labor costs.
Growers generally rely on enterprise resource planning platforms to monitor and forecast their crops, and Canix manages billing, costing and reporting while maintaining company compliance. In addition to monitoring current inventory, Canix includes forecasting functionality. Starting with plant clones alone, these forecasting capabilities will help growers predict yield 90 days away.
Before understanding Canix, it is essential to know the landscape of legal cannabis cultivation in the United States. Growers must adhere to strict supervision, including sending documents every time a plant moves within the plants and its life cycle. This involves a lot of data entry, and most states require growers to submit this information to Metrc.
Metrc itself is a startup. The company was launched in 2013 and now tracks cannabis operations in 13 states. In October 2018, Metrc raised $ 50 million. The platform is designed to track cannabis from seed to sale with a deep focus on compliance. It is not a corporate resource planning platform, although some growers use it as such for the sake of simplicity. Although detailed and built for a modern farming operation, for some growers, data entry into Metrc is often a labor-intensive job requiring growers to hire staff to stay compliant.
Canix is designed for commercial operations that have a cannabis license. Several startups, including MJ Platform and BioTrack, are building similar platforms for this market, but Canix says the company's focus on improving data entry sets it apart.
Stacey Hronowski and Artem Pasyechnyk founded the company after identifying a flaw in Metrc.
"I started it Canix when I was consulting for a Bay Area cannabis company, "said Stacey Hronowski, co-founder and CEO." I was writing software that would connect their CRM and distribution systems and reduce double data entry every time they created a invoice. The company asked me to look into the system connection I built to Metrc. I started looking at Metrc and was very surprised to find that growers were writing barcodes on paper. It was then that the initial idea for Canix it happened. "
Hronowski met Canix co-founder Artem Pasyechnyk through a mutual friend on Facebook and they started building a platform. After the beta received positive feedback, the pair expanded into a full-scale operation.
Canix has attracted the attention of several critical investors in its short life. The company was part of Y Combinator's summer 2019 program and, in May 2020, raised $ 1.5 million worth of seeds from Floret Ventures, Yleana Venture Partners, Altair VC, Mava Ventures, Nano LLC and Andrew Freedman (formerly Colorado Cannabis Czar).