Our Innovation Analysts recently looked into emerging technologies and up-and-coming startups working on solutions for the agricultural sector. As there is a large number of startups working on a wide variety of solutions, we want to share our insights with you. This time, we are taking a look at 5 promising startups innovating in cannabis.
Heat Map: 5 Top Cannabis Startups
Using our StartUs Insights Platform, covering 1.116.000+ startups & emerging companies, we looked at innovation in the AgriTech field. For this research, we identified 192 relevant solutions and picked 5 to showcase below. These companies were chosen based on a data-driven startup scouting approach, taking into account factors such as location, founding year, and technology among others. Depending on your specific criteria, the top picks might look entirely different.
The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights 5 startups & emerging companies developing cannabis-based solutions. Moreover, the Heat Map reveals regions that observe a high startup activity and illustrates the geographic distribution of all 192 companies we analyzed for this specific topic.
The Flowr Corporation – Recreational Cannabis
The use of cannabis for recreational purposes is legal in a few countries like Canada, South Africa, and Uruguay. In many other countries the possession of small amounts, cultivation for personal consumption, or use of strains below a threshold potency has been decriminalized. As the global attitude to cannabis continues to shift towards the positive, the market for recreational cannabis is set to expand.
The Flowr Corporation is a Canadian startup that produces both medicinal and recreational cannabis. The FlowrTM BC Pink Kush is an Indica-dominant strain, with a distinct aroma of fresh pine and an earthy aroma with accents of fruits. The strain has a strong potency with 20% – 25% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active ingredient in cannabis, and the terpene profile include pinene, caryophyllene, and ocimene. Moreover, the strain is available both as dried flowers and pre-rolls.
Essenza – Medical Cannabis
Recreational use of cannabis is banned in a large number of countries. However, a significant portion of these do allow medicinal use of cannabis and are potential markets for medical cannabis. The purported medical benefits of cannabis include relief from chronic pain, cramps, anxiety, epilepsy, and insomnia to name a few conditions.
Greek startup Essenza is a licensed producer of medical cannabis. Their growing process and production facility meet the standards of Good Agricultural and Collection Practice (GACP) and European Union Good Manufacturing Practices (EU-GMP), respectively. The startup’s production line is capable of packing the finished product as vapes, inhalers, and capsules.
Agdaptive – Controlled Environment Cultivation
Even small variations in environmental conditions such as humidity or temperature alter the chemical composition, and subsequently the quality, of the strain. While uncontrolled cultivation of cannabis yields in varying strain quality, regulated commercial cultivation mandates a consistent product. Solutions that monitor and provide specific controlled environmental conditions allow growers to optimize the quality of cannabis.
Agdaptive is a US-based startup that develops controlled environment cultivation systems for cannabis and precision horticulture. It ensures regulated and precise carbon dioxide dosing, integrated nutrient dosing, irrigation, and air turnover throughout the tissue culture, growth, and flowering stages. Agdaptive’s solutions ensure a low cost per gram whether growing for bulk, craft, or concentrate markets. Additionally, the solutions are also modular, scalable, and energy-efficient for indoor cultivation.
CanBreed – Hybrid Seeds
There is a lack of cannabis cultivars developed for mass-scale cultivation, unlike other crops. Due to a lack of stable and enhanced seeds, growers have to rely on vegetative propagation with plant cuttings. This causes significant batch-to-batch variation as mutations accumulate, leading to inconsistent products. Furthermore, with legalization, as demand and supply increase, growers look to develop hybrid seeds to meet the rise in quality expectations.
Israeli startup CanBreed offers hybrid seeds for cannabis cultivation. The startup’s patented genetic-trait platform, YieldMax, contains all agronomic traits that ensure consistent, high-quality, and low-cost production. Moreover, the hybrid seeds are uniform and identical and enable the standardization of raw materials.
Trym – Cannabis Farm Management
Commercial cannabis farming suffers from several challenges including inconsistent product quality, lack of specialized workforce, and stringent compliance requirements. Since these challenges are unique to cannabis, regular farm management software does not fulfill the requirements of this upcoming industry. Solutions that manage and streamline all parts of the cannabis farm cycle empower growers to increase efficiency and profitability.
US-based startup Trym develops a cannabis farm management software for commercial cannabis growers. The software uses environmental sensors to collect data on temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide level, and light. The software allows users to create and track custom workflows tailored to the grower’s strains, rooms, and facilities. Additionally, the solution integrates with Marijuana Enforcement Tracking Reporting Compliance (METRC) to allow growers to easily report compliance data.
What About The Other 187 Solutions?
While we believe data is key to creating insights it can be easy to be overwhelmed by it. Our ambition is to create a comprehensive overview and provide actionable innovation intelligence so you can achieve your goals faster. The 5 cannabis startups showcased above are promising examples out of 192 we analyzed for this article. To identify the most relevant solutions based on your specific criteria, get in touch.
