B2B Wholesale Cannabis Platform LeafLink Unveils 2021 Winners

LeafLink, the national wholesale marketplace for the cannabis sector, has unveiled its annual cannabis industry awards. The 2021 LeafLink List honors businesses within its community for its expertise and innovation. This year, the list features more than 230 winners from 30 North American cannabis markets across 33 overall categories and 54 market-specific categories. Among the categories are Top Selling, Fastest Growing, Best Customer Service and Community Favorites. Retailer awards include Top Buyers, Industry Innovators and Early Adopter.

Examples of winners included MUV, Raw Gardens, LivWell Enlightened Health, Terrapin Pennsylvania and Jeeter in the Top-Selling category. And in the Best Customer Service category, The Greenery Hash Factory, Kreative Konfections, Nebula, Fire Dept. Cannabis and Medically Correct, came out on top.

Despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, LeafLink, like many other businesses in the space thanks to being deemed essential early on, experienced tremendous growth this year. “Since March of 2020 [at the start of the pandemic], we’ve seen the cannabis industry thrive,” said Ryan G. Smith, CEO and co-founder of LeafLink. “Monthly orders through LeafLink’s platform have increased 112% since then. As new markets legalize and current markets grow and mature, LeafLink is focused on supporting our community of brands and retailers as they focus on expansion by leveraging our unified platform for commerce, payments, and logistics.” 

In addition to showcasing Early Adopters, the awards highlight the year’s most dominant product trends. As of September 2021, the wholesale cannabis industry had grown by 65% year-over-year, according to the news release announcing the winners. LeafLink’s five Top Performing retailers purchased 9.3% more in 2021 compared to the top retailers in 2020. And, this year’s five Top Performing Brands sold 41% more in 2021 compared to 2020.

LeafLink List 2021 was created by analyzing orders through the LeafLink marketplace from January 1st to September 30th, 2021.

Founded in 2015, LeafLink serves 30 markets across the U.S. and Canada. Its backers include such prominent venture capital firms as Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, Nosara Capital and Lerer Hippeau. According to the company, LeafLink has raised more than $131 million to date.