Race For Retail Heats Up: Marijuana Retailer National Access Cannabis To Raise $75 Million

“As the legal marijuana industry matures, brands will be where the big money is made.”
 
That’s what the Seed Investor wrote on our Five Key Takeaways John Boehner’s American Cannabis Summit.  
 
Marijuana is now fully legal in Canada. The regulations are set. And now the race to win the next (and biggest!) race in legal marijuana can begin.
 
And my how fast it’s going to get.
 
The race took another big step forward this week when National Access Cannabis Corp (META/NACNF) announced a C$75 million capital raise to fund a major expansion.
 
National Access Cannabis (which we’ll shorten to “NAC” here) is a pure-play on the Canadian marijuana retail industry.
 
NAC unveiled its first branded store in Winnipeg, Manitoba on Canada’s Legalization day on October 17.
 
The store will be the first of 14 which care planned to be opened around Manitoba by early 2019.
 
In all NAC has publicly laid out of a goal of creating 200 retail locations throughout Canada and an online purchasing option for customers.
 
The C$75 million funding – once completed – will go a long way to helping the company reach its expansive long-term goals.
 
The key part about this news is not actually the size of the financing (the big money in legal marijuana is in retail), it’s who is taking it.
 
NAC also announced that C$40 million of the C$75 million financing deal will be taken by “three of Canada’s top licensed producers.”
 
This is a clear indication of that building brands and retail distribution is the next big thing for legal marijuana in Canada.
 
The top licensed producers including Aurora Cannabis (ACB/ACB), Canopy Growth (WEED/CGC), and Aphria (APH/APHQF) have spent years and billions of dollars building out sprawling marijuana growing operations throughout Canada.
 
But now they must find customers for it all.
 
The retailers with the brands and distribution networks are the only solution for the big licensed producers and it’s why the big licensed producers are funding the retailers, so the latter can build out fast.
 
The race is on and the retailers are in prime position to be winners in the newest race in Canada’s legal marijuana boom.