Financial services industry veteran, Adam Stettner has launched a new lending company, FundCanna to provide financing for growers, manufacturers, retailers, and all participants in the cannabis supply chain.  The company said it raised $30 million but could tap even more through its principals, investors and partners, including an extensive nationwide network built over the last 20+ years of financing American Small Businesses.

“The cannabis industry is in a rapid and dynamic phase requiring significant sources of working and growth capital that have not until now been available to it.  This lack of debt financing has hampered growth and driven up borrowing costs,” said Adam Stettner, co-founder, and CEO of FundCanna. “It is common for there to be a gap between the need to make payment and the time to turn purchases into revenue.  FundCanna will fill that gap and provide access to working capital for the licensed Cannabis Industry.  After having helped in facilitating and directly underwriting, originating, and servicing billions in small business and education loans, I am confident the skills and tools I and my team have developed will translate seamlessly to the cannabis industry.  Plainly said, FundCanna is here to solve the debt deficit in the cannabis industry.”

Stettner and his team of financial services industry executives have more than 20-years of lending experience, having facilitated more than $20 billion in funding across all credit types including business, personal, and student loans. Stettner was the CEO and founder of Reliant Funding prior to starting FundCanna.

With the cannabis banking language recently getting excluded from the NDAA, FundCanna may find its timing is auspicious. FundCanna noted in its statement that what little debt financing is available to the industry is generated by high-cost sources of capital including sale-lease backs, non-conforming asset-based loans, and other forms of debt capital that are more expensive than available to traditional, federally regulated industries.

FundCanna said it will initially launch with a suite of lending products specifically targeting distributors and their clients; these include distributors, growers, manufacturers, and retail industries plus the vendors servicing these groups.  Additionally, FundCanna will offer products to all other components of the cannabis supply chain.  The initial products will resemble factoring offerings, often seen in the garment and retail industries offering term loans of 30 to 180-days however, FundCanna offerings will be flexible and highly customizable.