Snoop Dogg, Kevin Durant and Howard Schultz invest in online cannabis delivery service Dutchie

Dutchie, an online cannabis delivery service for dispensaries, has raised $35 million by attracting rapper Snoop Dogg, basketball star Kevin Durant and former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz as investors.

The $35 million raised in the Series B round brings Dutchie’s total funding to date to $53 million. The investors in this latest round included Snoop Dogg’s Casa Verde Capital, Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures, Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital (Joshua Kushnur is the brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner), Gron Ventures and Schultz. The funds from the round will be used to recruit leading talent, scale up the business and launch new products.

"In one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, Dutchie is defining how the modern cannabis consumer experience should look and feel for dispensaries and customers alike," Ross Lipson, CEO and co-founder of Dutchie, said in a press release. "We have spent three years building the largest online ordering service in cannabis and now is the time to take Dutchie to the next level. We will accelerate in every aspect, from building a world class team, to delivering the industry's best product, and continuing to push the boundaries with innovative and exciting ways to connect consumers and dispensaries."

Dutchie is an online cannabis marketplace that allows consumers to order from their local cannabis dispensary. Based in Bend, Ore., Dutchie creates and maintains websites for dispensaries in the U.S. and Canada, accepts orders, processes payments and informs the local dispensary what needs to be prepared for a customer’s pick-up order. Dutchie can also arrange for local delivery of cannabis so customers don’t need to leave their homes.

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Dutchie claims to process 10% of all legal cannabis sales worldwide and powers 25% of all legal dispensaries across 30 markets and 301 cities in the U.S. and Canada. The company reports that it processes 75,000 orders a day and is facilitating over $2.4 billion in annualized sales.

Earlier this year Dutchie partnered with digital payments provider Hypur to bring contactless payments to over 1,100 dispensaries across the U.S. According to Forbes, Dutchie now handles Visa and Mastercard payments for clients in Canada. When Canada legalized cannabis in 2018, American Express, Visa and Mastercard all announced that they would allow their cards to be used for legal cannabis purchases in that country.

According to Crunchbase, a website that tracks investments in private companies, Dutchie raised $15 million in a Series A round in September 2019 that was preceded by a seed round that netted $3 million in September 2018.

While these stars are often known primarily for their prowess in a recording studio or on a basketball court, Snoop Dogg and Durant have been active investors in the payments industry. In 2019 Calvin Broadus, the true name of the rapper, acquired a stake in the Swedish company Klarna. Durant was an early investor in Postmates, which reportedly could net him a $15 million gain when Uber’s $2.65 billion purchase of the company is finalized.