Cannabis is one of the fastest growing and most lucrative industries in the world today. Poised to become a $31.4 billion-dollar industry, cannabis is now medically available in 29 states in the United States, and totally legalized (for recreational and medical use) in nine states and the District of Columbia. All but four states have approved access to non-psychoactive cannabis extracts, produced for medicinal use.
With the shift in legality around cannabis, we are also observing a shift in culture. If you’re in Los Angeles, dispensary and cannabis delivery billboards are everywhere. In Colorado, dispensaries and cannabis businesses are frequented by tens of thousands of customers, daily. The entertainment industry, too, is taking notice, with new shows popping up regularly that explore the in’s and out’s of the marijuana realm.
However, in spite of all the statewide changes and enormous public support, marijuana is still federally illegal. Cannabis products that are produced in FDA approved facilities and taxed by the government, still can not cross state lines. And in Texas you could be arrested for having the exact same product that is medically and recreationally celebrated in your home state.
While federal policy appears to be softening and federal laws may soon shift, they have not shifted yet. Dispensaries, even in states where cannabis is legal, find it near impossible to work with banks, or find merchant processors that won’t shut them down for selling marijuana.
Many of these businesses went from processing just a few orders — in cash — to having a huge boom in sales. This dramatic increase in sales requires a more sophisticated payment processing system. However, federal laws governing fiat currency have conspired to make that incredibly difficult. Because both banks and merchant processors are governed by unique sets of federal guidelines and restrictions, they are, in many cases, legally unable to accept deposits or process transactions for legally operating cannabis businesses.
To address this problem, CannCo's is creating a blockchain-powered ecosystem that will provide the following services for the cannabis industry and eventually other developing and underbanked markets:
With the launch of our native token, the CannCoin, we will aim to revitalize and restructure the cannabis market by offering robust financial services that have been largely unavailable until now. Given the successful track record of those behind CannCo and our unique blend of experience in the cannabis market, product and software development, and financial markets, we believe we are poised to deliver essential products and solid returns to our investors.
The cannabis industry’s growth is accelerating at an exponential rate. However, with rapid growth comes an ever-increasing set of challenges. This problem is made worse by the fact that the major Fortune 500 players, like banks and software companies, who would normally step into an emerging market with solutions to these problems, are fundamentally precluded from participating in the cannabis market. So, as long time cannabis entrepreneurs who have watched and participated in the market since its infancy, we feel it is our responsibility to ensure that the cannabis industry’s growth is not hindered by a lack of effective infrastructure or business intelligence.
Once deployed, CannCo will ensure that businesses have unfettered access to the critical infrastructure they need to grow rapidly and provide consumers with a safe and consistent experience. Join us in developing a clearer framework for how cannabis businesses operate.
CannCo Brands & Development ("CannCo Brands"), was established in early 2017 and has since acquired or entered into agreements to acquire 3 established, revenue generating business in the cannabis market: Growth Circle, a media, marketing & IR company, serving cannabis brands; Stoner Days, a merchandise manufacturer; and THC Finder, a geo-targeted, mobile marketing platform for dispensaries. All three companies are managed or owned by CannCo Brands currently and all three are revenue generating and profitable. In addition, CannCo Brands has established two subsidiaries to enter the blockchain space - CannCo Network, which will develop platform technology and applications allowing users to access and leverage the blockchain data repository, and CannCoin, which will issue and manage a crypto asset utility token and related blockchain data repository. CannCo Network has already hired lead software architects and developers and has begun development on both the software platform and mobile applications. In addition, CannCoin has begun early stage development of the underlying smart contracts which will power the first version of the crypto asset, which will operate as an ERC token. Both projects are in development but have not yet reached alpha stage. Under the direction of CannCo Network's software development team, CannCo Brands will begin redevelopment of the THC Finder mobile application, with integrated CannCoin wallet in May of 2018, with an anticipated alpha version target release date in August of 2018. During that time, CannCoin anticipates launching the initial, fully developed CannCoin token for sandbox testing in June of 2018. The public release of a fungible crypto asset is projected for in the first quarter of 2019, which will mark the launch of the fully functional transaction platform.
Investment: Common Stock & CannCoins
$0.10/share of Common Stock│When you invest you are betting the company’s future equity value will exceed $8M.
Perks*
CannCoins (the "Tokens")
The Offering includes 10 Tokens for every $1 invested. In addition, the following bonuses apply, and these tokens are subject to the Bonus Rates and Terms noted below.
Individual Token Bonus Rates: Individual Investors who participate in the CannCo Regulation CF crowdfunding campaign, may be eligible to receive bonus tokens, if they contribute more than the minimum investment. The size of the bonus will depend on the size of the investment, and the bonus thresholds are as follows:
Group Token Bonus Structure: In addition to whatever individual token bonuses an investor may receive for their individual investment, the entire investor pool may receive an additional token bonus, for their performance in helping CannCo reach certain investment milestones. Additional token bonuses are as follows:
CannCoins
Description: CannCoin Tokens will be an ERC20/223 Token built on the Ethereum Blockchain and function as the primary medium of exchange usable within our own proprietary CannCo Network platform, and will be used as an exchange medium between consumers, retailers, and upstream supply chain partners.
The token is currently intended to be listed exchanges, but this may change, pending approval to list on such exchanges, changes to the regulatory landscape, or any other reason. Security Tokens may be eligible for trading on SEC approved alternate trading platforms as they become available. There is no guarantee that such a trading platform will be available at that time.
The right to tokens is contingent upon the successful development of such Tokens and to the extent applicable, the blockchain upon which they function. There is no guarantee that successful development will ever occur.
*All perks will be delivered after the campaign is completed, and upon availability of the Tokens. See Offering Summary below for additional terms.
While marijuana seems socially ubiquitous and largely accepted legally, the reality is marijuana still maintains a federal designation as a Schedule-1 controlled substance.
Federal Law 280E state that “any business that engages in the distribution of Schedule-1 or Schedule-11 controlled substances are barred from tax deductions, such as for leasing property or paying salaries.”
This means that dispensaries may have to fork as much as 70% in federal taxes. What’s more, banks and credit unions in “safe states” for marijuana gravely fear penalization from federal authorities for working with dispensaries. For this reason, virtually all banks turn dispensaries and cannabis business away rather than doing business with them.
The result is that cannabis businesses are left to work in cash, which is not efficient, sustainable, secure, or ultimately scalable.
Dispensary and marijuana business owners face challenges unlike any other industry, because they do not have the ability to scale in the way that traditional businesses do. This is the result of a myriad of federal restrictions and a complex framework of state and local legislation, which often conflicts and creates even great jurisdictional and operational confusion.
On a more basic level, many people who entered into the cannabis industry were not necessarily business people to begin with. They either loved cannabis or saw an amazing opportunity and were ready to jump aboard. In either case, they did not realize the innumerable challenges that lied in wait.
Our mission is to make doing business easier for people in the industry, with a streamlined approach and a full suite of interconnected infrastructure solutions. Leveraging blockchain technology and a cryptocurrency powered ecosystem make this possible.
The ecosystem depends on consumers and producers utilizing the CannCoin token. The CannCoin token will move through the supply chain, from consumer to producer, which will strategically position CannCoin as the standard currency to leverage and utilize as working capital for the entire industry. CannCoin will be used to process payment for transactions at the retail level, and then utilized by merchants to pay suppliers, vendors, service providers and even employees.
CannCo will develop a CannCoin digital wallet, which will be both integrated into numerous 3rd party dispensary finder applications, as well as launched as a standalone wallet app. Each wallet will be pre-loaded with an initial coin gift.
CannCo Brands & Development (CannCo Network and CannCoin’s parent company) currently owns multiple revenue-positive subsidiaries and has entered into additional strategic partnership agreements with key established businesses at every stage of the the legal cannabis supply chain, creating a fully functional end-to-end ecosystem before the product is launched.
These companies will serve as the initial ecosystem participants from day one of our platform launch, which will provide both proof-of-concept and immediate market utility, which has yet to be accomplished in the cannabis cryptocurrency space. CannCo’s founders have combined five decades of experience in the California cannabis market, software development industry, and national financial markets.
Our numerous profitable companies that are actively participating in the cannabis supply chain give us an insider look into the nuances of this growing industry, as well as immediate feedback to support our agile software development platform, ensuring that products meet the demands of industry participants.
Our team has extensive corporate C-Level experience in management, marketing, software, and product development, which will enable us to ensure that product and platform development stay on track and on a budget, and most importantly, that the company is successfully grown, effectively marketed, and ethically managed.
U.S. Legal Cannabis Market Statistics
Licensed Cannabis Businesses
CannCo has a vision that is focused and achievable, and our core team has the relevant expertise and experience to carry it out. Beginning with the cannabis industry in California, we believe that we will be able to fuel rapid adoption and deployment of our platform. The cannabis industry overall is incredibly tight knit and notoriously difficult to penetrate. However after decades of experience founding and growing some of the largest companies and most successful brands in the industry, we are armed with an intimate understanding of the consumer’s needs and unprecedented reach into the marketplace.
A lack of any effective infrastructure, combined with extraordinary need and a very finite, accessible group of industry participants, make cannabis the perfect test bed for a blockchain powered, end-to-end supply chain and banking infrastructure. However, we definitely see applications for our technology far beyond the cannabis market. As CannCo receives wider adoption, we will also begin to explore other exciting applications of our technology, in closed loop financial ecosystems. For example, our platform could be used to facilitate transactions at leading music festivals, or to provide banking, trading and other services to underserved communities and emerging economies.
We're excited about the potential of our technology, and we want you to be a part of it. Invest in CannCo, and help us use the power of blockchain to have an appreciable, positive impact on the world.
A crowdfunding investment involves risk. You should not invest any funds in this offering unless you can afford to lose your entire investment. In making an investment decision, investors must rely on their own examination of the issuer and the terms of the offering, including the merits and risks involved. These securities have not been recommended or approved by any federal or state securities commission or regulatory authority. Furthermore, these authorities have not passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this document. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not pass upon the merits of any securities offered or the terms of the offering, nor does it pass upon the accuracy or completeness of any offering document or literature. These securities are offered under an exemption from registration; however, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has not made an independent determination that these securities are exempt from registration.
I wanted to send along an update that was distributed to previous successful crowdfunding investors:
I wanted to give you a heads up – we are projecting that we will be able to start receiving cash into client accounts in the March timeframe. Our first revenue stream will be the deposit and transfer of cannabis cash. We will be charging fees for deposit and transfer.
This will mark the initiation of revenues from the Cannabis ecosystem that you invested in.
We are currently designing the “Canncoin” as a revenue sharing token that will get a revenue share from the fees we will be charging on the platform.
This coin will likely be on the ethereum network, so you should all have a wallet set up that can receive the coin. We will be registering the coin with the SEC – so this might take a little while, but you should think of the coin as an investment, as it will be the mechanism by which you will receive dividends, as our ecosystem builds in revenue.
The other component of your investment is the shares you purchased in Geopulse Exploration, Inc (“Cannco”). Geopulse is a public company, (ticker: GPLS). Some of you have mentioned the desire for more updates, we regularly publish press releases to the market – so you should set up a google alert for our stock. We have to be careful regarding our disclosures as some of our work and developments is proprietary, and we don’t want to disclose too much of our strategy to our competitors – who are watching our every move.
We have just begun an auditing process for the Company to become fully reporting with the SEC. This step will give us a broader audience within the public markets and that will help the shares move higher.
The “Equity” component of your investment has risen 100% in recent months, and I am confident that as we ramp revenues the shares will respond even more. I have recently done an analysis of the Cannabis coins that launched in the market around the time you invested in Cannco and I am pleased to report that we are currently the highest valued enterprise in the space – most of the cannabis coins are down 90% from their highs. Many of the competing companies have gotten mired in SEC investigations and other issues and have run out of cash, and we are on the cusp of launching our ecosystem – this should be a good year.
We will be publishing press releases regarding developments under Geopulse Explorations Inc. first because it is a regulatory requirement. As always I am available at Marcus@canncoin.io if you have any questions or requests.
If you want to have a chat with me directly about a potential investment or anything else, just drop me a line.
Best regards,
Marcus
Dear Investors:
I wanted to provide an update – we have been active here in California working on developing our products for the Cannabis industry as well as working with tech developers to design and build the products we will be launching. Our stable coin has been approved for use by an FDIC insured bank - we think we will be the first offering this product and service to the cannabis industry. We will keep you posted as we make progress with these efforts.
As far as our Token issuance from the Crowdfund - we will be tracking those here at the Company until they are issued. We are in the process of designing them and deciding how they will be registered and where they will trade. The Security Token space is nascent and developing - your tokens will be some of the first available in the STO space, but be patient so we can make the best token product for you.
We are also in the process of designing a stable-coin, that will be used as a means of exchange in the Cannabis industry. Your canncoin tokens will likely be receiving a dividend from the revenues generated from those fee-generating businesses.
Again – thanks for your interest and looking forward to providing more updates to you soon.
Marcus
Hello everyone! It's been a busy couple months since the closing of our StartEngine campaign, and we wanted to Thank you all for participating in our offering – we appreciate your sharing in our vision for the benefits technologies can bring to this industry and we're excited to update you on our progress!
Our team recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Howard Marks – CEO of Start Engine, where we learned firsthand about his vision of the future, and you guys are it! He is creating a community and ecosystem to solve the problems companies face in raising capital in the U.S., and you guys are the pioneers that are trailblazing a new way to support growth and entrepreneurship in the United States – thank you for helping bring that vision to reality... not just for CannCo, but for the entire Start Engine community in general.
Here at CannCo, we have been making great strides as well, building our team and preparing for our initial product launches and the beta test of our first stablecoin enabled B-to-B products. We will be sharing details soon. We recently finalized our partnership with an FDIC-insured bank to act as custodian for our stablecoin, which will make us one of - if not the first - FDIC-insured digital payment system for cannabis in the world. We are onboarding our first customers now and we can't wait to share more over the coming weeks as we roll the product out.
We've also received a number of inquiries about when shares and tokens will be delivered. As a reminder, your equity investment in CannCo entitled you to both shares in the company and Tokens, which have yet to be issued. The shares were issued to you at the close of our offering, by book-entry conducted by Start Engine, who acts as the transfer agent for your investment. Your Start Engine Account should now show the shares, and if you are having trouble seeing them or logging in to your account, please contact Start Engine's technical support and they will be happy to show you. Regarding the tokens, we are still in the process of designing the securities that will ultimately become your Security Tokens. We, along with the rest of the crypto community, have been awaiting "No Action" guidance from the SEC, which, according to industry attorneys, has been forthcoming for over a year. As soon as the guidance is issued, we will finalize our token structure and deliver those to you as well. Until then, you have been issued a SAFE agreement, which is a contract guaranteeing you the tokens when they are issued. We will update you with more detailed information as it becomes available.
We will be announcing developments on this channel as well as our social media channels and other means, so please follow our social channels and feel free to reach out to us directly as well. Thank you all again and we look forward to sharing more exciting news soon!
In order to support the exponential increase in activity at the CannCo offices, we have made some exciting new hires!
To help scale development and ensure our products are secure, reliable, and loved by our customers, James Iacabucci, has taken the role of CannCo’s Chief Technology Officer. Prior to CannCo, Mr. Iacabucci co-founded Xtiva Financial Systems, where he architected and helped build Xtiva into the leading incentive compensation tool for the broker-dealer and wealth management community. Twenty years later, Xtiva now boasts over 90 enterprise customers, processing over $400 billion in production across more than 150,000 brokerage books. As CTO of CannCo, James is leading the designing and development of CannCo’s blockchain empowered solutions, including a dedicated development team at Applicature, a world-class blockchain software firm with 80+ employees at offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Kiev.
Additionally, Bret Johnson joined the CannCo team February of 2019, as VP of Business Development, where his roles include oversight of Brand Development, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Acquisition. Bret brings 10+ years of industry experience and relationships to the CannCo team and is actively building CannCo’s exclusive community of merchant clients. As a highly active and visible member of both the cannabis and blockchain communities, Bret is representing CannCo in public forums both at home and abroad. In 2018, Bret organized and produced the world renowned blockchain conference, ChainXChange, in Las Vegas, featuring Steve Wozniak, Bob Shapiro, Paul Krugman, Tom Lee, Michael Terpin, Alex Mashinsky and many other financial leaders and technology pioneers.
[The following is an automated notice from the StartEngine team].
Hello!
As you might know, CannCo Brands has exceeded its minimum funding goal. When a company reaches its minimum on StartEngine, it's about to begin withdrawing funds. If you invested in CannCo Brands be on the lookout for an email that describes more about the disbursement process.
This campaign will continue to accept investments until its indicated closing date.
Thanks for funding the future.
-StartEngine
Hello everyone! Just a quick update to fill you in on some exciting developments on the CannCo front! Our team has been extremely busy in the first quarter of this year, making big strides and reaching exciting milestones in the tech development, operations, marketing and investment arenas.
FUNDRAISING SUCCESS!
On the investment front, we recently surpassed the $535,000 mark, which was the second milestone we had set for the Company during this RegCF campaign. This means that everyone who has invested will be receiving an additional token bonus! As of the time of this writing, we’ve reached $572k in total investment, which has been contributed by almost 700 of you (698, to be exact!), for which we’re grateful and humbled beyond words.
We’re also excited to announce that we’re in the process of launching our Series A investment round, which will be structured as an SEC Regulation D, 506(c) offering, targeting $5M-$10M in investment, at a slightly increased valuation to the current raise. .
BETA LAUNCH
On the product front, we’ve made a number of exciting developments, as well. Initial sections of the B2B merchant marketplace prototype were completed last month and are currently being shown to CannCo’s beta test partners for feedback. CannCo is also in the process of integrating with PrimeTrust, the FDIC-insured trust bank that will custody USD assets for CannCo’s ecosystem stablecoin. We hope to onboard our initial beta partner clients into the CannCo-PrimeTrust token service in the coming weeks and will update you all again as soon as we do!
To test this payment infrastructure, CannCo has been actively engaging a select group of beta test partners, who represent some of the most innovative and influential businesses in the cannabis community. To date, CannCo has received beta requests from over 50 companies and has approved six applicants so far, consisting of two cannabis brands, one distributor, one cultivator and two extraction lab. We expect to approve 14-19 more participants in the coming weeks and will announce all of the beta partners once the selection process is complete.
IN THE COMMUNITY
On the social front, CannCo recently attended the 31st Annual Roth Investment Banking Conference, in Laguna Beach, CA. This year marked the first time Roth added a “cannabis day” to their annual conference, during which an exclusive group of cannabis industry leaders presented their companies to the 4000+ investment funds and family offices in attendance. CannCo was honored to be included in this initial group of cannabis companies invited to attend a Roth Conference.
Also during the first quarter of 2019, CannCo also identified two pieces of pending California legislation to become actively involved in supporting. The first bill, SB34, was introduced by CA Senator Wiener, and aims to ensure free access to medical cannabis for at risk patients. CannCo is supporting SB34 by engaging it’s social community and the communities of CannCo’s strategic partners, totaling over 1 million cannabis supporters, asking them to contact their local senators or assembly members, and encourage them to support the measure. More recently, CannCo reached out to the offices of Phil Ting and Kevin McCarty, in an effort to support AB953, a bill recently introduced by the two Assemblymembers. AB953 would allow legally operating cannabis businesses to pay their state and local taxes using cash-backed “stablecoin” cryptoassets. As proposed, AB953 would require any business seeking to pay taxes with cryptoassets, to use only specific USD-backed stablecoins, with underlying assets banked at an FDIC-insured banking institution. CannCo’s ecosystem stablecoin, the CannCoin, will meet this definition exactly, as every single CannCoin in circulation will be backed by $1 USD on deposit in a custodial trust account at PrimeTrust, a federally insured financial institution. To further assist the State in their efforts to be able to accept tax payments in cryptocurrency, CannCo would require that all payments to State and local authorities be executed through CannCo’s account management portal, which will be GDPR and FinCEN compliant and will require that all users be biometrically verified before every payment. This level of identity management will help ensure that the State is properly attributing tax payments. We are working diligently to become more involved with AB953 and ultimately the State's tax collection and revenue reconciliation processes and look forward to updating everyone on that front soon!
As always, follow us on social media and subscribe to our email updates for the latest news and developments!
[The following is an automated notice from the StartEngine team].
Hello!
As you might know, CannCo Brands has exceeded its minimum funding goal. When a company reaches its minimum on StartEngine, it's about to begin withdrawing funds. If you invested in CannCo Brands be on the lookout for an email that describes more about the disbursement process.
This campaign will continue to accept investments until its indicated closing date.
Thanks for funding the future.
-StartEngine
Hi Everyone,
I wanted to give you a quick update that we are currently at the Roth Conference in Dana Point -
Roth has dedicated an entire day to a "Cannabis Track" and we have been invited to attend and network with their investors and Companies interested in the Cannabis industry. We look forward to meeting with some of the largest players in the industry.
Thanks for your interest,
Marcus
[The following is an automated notice from the StartEngine team].
Hello!
As you might know, CannCo Brands has exceeded its minimum funding goal. When a company reaches its minimum on StartEngine, it's about to begin withdrawing funds. If you invested in CannCo Brands be on the lookout for an email that describes more about the disbursement process.
This campaign will continue to accept investments until its indicated closing date.
Thanks for funding the future.
-StartEngine
[The following is an automated notice from the StartEngine team].
Hello! Recently, a change was made to the CannCo Brands offering. Here's an excerpt describing the specifics of the change:
Extended length of campaign.
When live offerings undergo changes like these on StartEngine, the SEC requires that certain investments be reconfirmed. If your investment requires reconfirmation, you will be contacted by StartEngine via email with further instructions.
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