If you’re already familiar with the world of cannabis, you may be familiar with Wana Brands, headquartered in Boulder, Colorado and touted as North America’s #1 edibles company, with their wide array of gummies, tarts and other tasty treats.
Now, the chief executive of the company is speaking out about the barriers for women within the cannabis industry. According to CEO Nancy Whiteman, a major part of the issue involves who gets the most funding. Women looking to raise industry capital can generally expect their valuations to be 30 to 40% less than similar companies led by men, Whiteman said.
She called the current environment “a little disheartening” talking to Yahoo! Finance at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference.
“You have this brand new industry,” she said. “You’d think that it really has the opportunity to set a new path but unfortunately at this point, it looks very much like a traditional industry.”
It’s been an ongoing conversation as the modern-day, legal cannabis industry continues to take shape in the U.S. and countries around the globe. A 2021 MJBizDaily report, “Women & Minorities in the Cannabis Industry,” found that just 19.9% of cannabis businesses are women owned. The report also noted that 36.8% of executive positions in the cannabis industry were held by women in 2019, and that number had dropped to 22.1% by 2021.
Another 2021 report from The Arcview Group found that only 8% of all cannabis CEOs are women.
The MJBizDaily report echoes the sentiments of Whiteman, stating that lack of access to capital is a key challenge for women looking to start a plant-touching cannabis business. It notes the amount of money to start can easily surpass six figures, and the networks of investors able to provide that money can be harder for women to tap into. Should they find an investor, the report says, women-owned businesses often receive less funding and fewer resources, like mentorship or strategic guidance, than men in the same position.
The report also found that less than 5% of executive positions at cannabis-focused investment firms are held by women, which further exacerbates the issue.
“What has ended up happening is that as states have adopted more limited license models, it’s become much more expensive to get in the game,” Whiteman said. “And so, it favors the people who’ve traditionally had access to capital, which are men—white men.”
As the leader of one of the leading edible brands in Colorado and beyond, Whiteman has already made a name for herself as an influential name within the cannabis industry. She’s known as “the queen of legal weed” and “the Martha Stuart of edibles,” and she was named one of High Times’ 100 most influential figures in the cannabis space for 2021. She also serves on the Marijuaan Business Daily Advisory Board and the Benzinga Cannabis Advisory Board.
The brand is now available in more than 3,000 dispensaries across the U.S. and Canada, with Whiteman overseeing every step of the process as new states began to follow Colorado in pursuing adult-use cannabis legislation.
And addressing the trials and triumphs for women in cannabis is from a new topic for Whiteman. She’s previously reinforced the importance of consumers seeing other women behind cannabis products and recognized the collaborative and cooperative spirit women bring to the industry.
Figuring out a solution isn’t simple, though, and it is up to all parties in the cannabis industry to take part.
Another Arcview Group report, “Pathways to Equity Ownership in the Cannabis Industry,” lays out a number of pathways to achieve cannabis equity in the cannabis space. It proposes sponsored equity ownership, like a larger company sponsoring a smaller company owned by a disenfranchised group without the same capital access; employee equity ownership, including employee stock ownership plans, worker-owned cooperative and employee ownership trusts; and non-accredited equity ownership, like companies using crowdfunding to issue securities.
