Leaf shape A new feature launched this week iOS app It allows users to take advantage of changes in Apple App Store rules to place orders and pick up goods.
Apple previously banned apps from directly facilitating cannabis orders. This means that Leafly users who help people find cannabis stores must complete any orders on a mobile web browser.
Apple made a change Earlier this summer. There are still limit On the application, to ensure that they are legal and are geographically restricted in a given jurisdiction where weeds are legal.
Other applications, such as delivery services Eze And Leafly’s competitors Miscellaneous sketches New rules were also used.
Leafly CEO Yoko Miyashita said in a statement: “Apple’s decision to update their guidelines is a big step forward in ending outdated policies that restrict access to legal marijuana.”
Apple has been scrutinized by developers and politicians for its approach to the App Store.The tech giant said this week It will allow the “reader” application to link users to their own registered website.
Changes related to marijuana should give Leafly a boost. The company will go public through the SPAC transaction announced last month, which will bring the company’s valuation to $385 million.
Leafly’s online marketplace was established in 2010, with more than 125 million visits per year, and more than 7,800 brands using its services.This Seattle startup also served as Educational Resources.
Investor introduction It shows that Leafly reports 2020 revenue of 29.6 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 21% year-on-year, and a loss of 8.1 million U.S. dollars, which is less than 30.9 million U.S. dollars. It expects revenue in 2022 of $65.3 million.
Leafly’s revenue mainly comes from monthly subscription fees paid by cannabis retailers to list and access e-commerce tools on the platform. It also makes money through advertising.
Miyashita is a former executive of Getty Images. After joining in 2019, he served as the company’s general counsel and took over as CEO in August 2020. Leafly was spun off from Privateer Holdings, a Seattle cannabis investment company, in 2019.
The company currently has about 160 employees and has survived some layoffs in January 2020, layoffs 18% of its employees, or 54 positions. The CEO at the time Tim Leslie Attributed to the “technology and market reality of the cannabis industry”. Two months later, the company laid off another 91 employees, citing uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The company raised $23 million in new funding in June because of increased sales in the cannabis market, as more and more states legalized cannabis during the pandemic and dispensaries were declared an essential business . To date, Leafly has raised $38 million.