Würk Raises $3.5m in Series AA funding

DENVER– WÜRK, a Human Capital Management company for the cannabis industry, announced the close of its oversubscribed $3.5 million Series AA round of financing, by existing investors. The round was led by Wurk Investment Partnership with participation from Poseidon Asset Management, Salveo Capital and The Arcview Group, among others. Wurk previously raised a combined $22 million in Seed and Series A rounds of funding.

Wurk is the leading Human Resources Information System (HRIS) platform in the cannabis industry, providing a suite of workforce management solutions and consulting services to small, mid-size and enterprise businesses. With the largest tax and compliance team in the space, Wurk helps its customers better navigate the challenges present by operating in a regulated, hyper-growth industry. Its platform has the capacity to service the cannabis industry at scale while incorporating the local laws and regulations unique to individual states. Wurk currently works with 80% of the top MSOs in the nation and holds more than 70% market share in the combined medium and enterprise cannabis HRIS technology market.

With the additional capital, Wurk will expand product integration capabilities and improve customer support across all touchpoints to enhance its value offering for customers. In addition, Wurk will invest in employee training programs to accelerate product knowledge and expertise.

“The level of demand we received for this round reflects investors’ high confidence in Wurk’s value proposition and ability to provide unequaled HCM solutions to the complex, rapidly-growing cannabis industry,” said Scott Kenyon, CEO of Wurk. “Six states have legalized recreational cannabis since the 2020 elections, and the businesses in those markets will need the robust, automated software necessary to efficiently manage and optimize their growing workforces. We are excited for the progress being made in the cannabis space and look forward to accelerating product development and the customer experience to better serve current and potential clients.”

“We are seeing an increase in capital flows to the ancillary areas of cannabis, which are essential tools for scaling a multibillion dollar industry,” said Morgan Paxhia, Co-founder and Managing Director of Poseidon Asset Management. “Wurk has done a phenomenal job working with a range of operators in our space, from smaller, newer companies up to the largest MSOs, to increase operating efficiencies and minimize compliance risks. Their value proposition is strong and we expect continued new and organic interest for Wurk’s platform in this rapidly-growing industry.”

According to the 2021 Leafly Jobs Report, the cannabis industry now employs 321,000 people in the U.S. as of January 2021. While the U.S. experienced spiking unemployment in 2020, the country’s legal cannabis industry added 77,300 full-time jobs for a 32% year-over-year increase. Job growth in the cannabis space is outpacing that of other sectors over a shorter period of time, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting 11% and 15% job growth in the information technology and healthcare sectors by 2029, respectively.

Wurk is the first payroll provider and third company in the cannabis technology industry to complete a System and Organization Controls (SOC) Audit. The company uses its expertise and trusted partnerships to provide guidance on 280E tax law, accounting and banking.

(This information is primarily sourced from WÜRK.  Highly Capitalized has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Read our Disclaimer here)