Source: potnetwork.com
Washington DC-based cannabis industry analytics firm, New Frontier Data, announced on Wednesday the acquisition of industrial hemp industry authority, Hemp Business Journal. Hemp Business Journal’s operations will be integrated into New Frontier’s Denver offices. Terms of the deal are yet to be made public.
According to a story by The Cannabist, Giadha Aguirre de Carcer, New Frontier Data’s founder and Chief Executive Officer claims that the two companies have little operational overlap. The combined companies will have 30 full-time equivalent employees.
Hemp Business Journal was founded in 2014. It was later backed by Colorado-based startup accelerator, Canopy Boulder. New Frontier’s acquisition of the company marked the first “exit” of a Canopy-backed company, officials for the accelerator told The Cannabist. The second Canopy Boulder backed company to be acquired followed on the heels of the Hemp Business Journal deal, with LED lighting company VividGro’s acquisition of home-growers' app WeGrow.
Sean Murphy, the founder of Hemp Business Journal, commented on the acquisition:
We built Hemp Business Journal to be the premier resource of hemp market data and intelligence and I am proud to say we have achieved that. New Frontier Data is an ideal partner to build upon our foundation of data and expertise, to expand our reach and analytical resources, as well as deepen our breadth and expand our market coverage. We are excited about the work our teams will be doing in the years ahead to help investors, entrepreneurs and governments better understand the opportunities created by this unique plant.
New Frontier Data Founder & CEO Giadha Aguirre de Carcer had this to say in the statement:
As legalization has expanded across the country, much of the focus has been on the medical and adult use applications of cannabis. However, with the intelligence and data gathered by Hemp Business Journal, we are beginning to understand the full extent of the opportunity presented by hemp not only nationally, but worldwide. As one of the most versatile plants in our agricultural economy, the applications of hemp, ranging from bio-plastics to textiles to food and body care products, the activation of hemp markets in the U.S. and around the world represents an opportunity for tremendous economic impact. Through this acquisition, we are excited to now have data and market intelligence across the entire global cannabis industry from industrial hemp to medical and adult use cannabis.
Although consumer demand for hemp products is increasing, creating high-growth opportunities in the industry, all the legal issues and bureaucratic obstructions involved have kept institutional investors and Fortune 1000 companies from getting involved. But supply chains are maturing, and federal laws are loosening.
Hemp is slowly moving towards becoming a staple crop in the US with benefits for a variety of industries, such as automotive, food, biofuels and textiles.
Under the 2014 Farm Bill, some US states are allowed to grow hemp for research purposes. But as with marijuana, many states are forging ahead with their own hemp laws.
“Hemp is a truly remarkable plant,” Sean Murphy explains. “If cultivated and used in products on a global scale this plant could revolutionize the global economy — as a food source to address hunger and malnutrition, as a bio-material to stop plastic pollution, as a medicinal to help people of all ages, and as a natural fiber and fuel source to build a more sustainable common home for us all.”
“There really is a massive expansion and understanding of how hemp can be applied beyond the CBD, pharmaceutical application,” Aguirre de Carcer said.
According to Hemp Business Journal, the U.S. hemp industry was valued at $815 million in 2017 and is projected to grow to $2.5 billion by 2022.
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