Burns & Levinson Represents Sweed in Merger With Leaf Trade to Create Fully Integrated Solution for Cannabis Operators

BOSTON, April 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Burns & Levinson today announced that it represented Sweed, the cannabis industry's leading all-in-one retail operating platform, in its merger with Leaf Trade, the leading wholesale cannabis marketplace in the U.S. with nearly $3 billion in annualized orders. The merger provides groundbreaking technological solutions transforming wholesale and retail operations for multi-state cannabis operators (MSOs) and dispensary groups with multiple locations solving industry-wide operations challenges. The combined platform will enable businesses to manage their entire retail operations in a single place. The deal was announced on March 28, 2023.

The Burns & Levinson deal team was led by partner Frank A. Segall, who chairs the firm's Cannabis Business & Law Advisory Group and Business Law Group, and partner Mark Manning.

Sweed streamlines retail operations and saves cannabis companies a significant amount of time and money. With Sweed, cannabis businesses own their consumers through a private-label eCommerce experience, in-store kiosks, and native apps. They do not have to share their customer's data with other conglomerates. Sweed is built on a proprietary data engine that allows cannabis operators to transform their cross-channel eCommerce, marketing, and loyalty programs into truly data-driven solutions increasing efficiency and monetization. Technology like this was previously only available to businesses focused on software development at scale but with the Leaf Trade and Sweed partnership it will be available for all cannabis businesses within retail and wholesale at a fraction of the cost.

"We were thrilled to work with Sweed, and their entire management team, to bring this transformative deal to fruition," said Segall. "Mergers can be especially complex, especially in a highly regulated industry, but we were able to navigate through all of the critical issues to complete this pivotal business transaction. We look forward to supporting the company's ongoing and continued success in the marketplace."

Burns & Levinson was the first major Boston corporate law firm to develop a cannabis business practice, and has been advising cannabis businesses, entrepreneurs and investors across the country for nearly a decade. The firm has unrivaled experience in cannabis and hemp/CBD business formation and corporate structuring, private placements, venture capital, M&A, securities, banking issues, fund formation, debt and equity financing, restructuring and receiverships, real estate acquisitions and leasing, intellectual property protection, 280E taxation issues, and cannabis litigation. The firm is well-known for its role in the cannabis banking industry and is among the top law firms in the country handling M&A and high-level corporate and financing deals in the private and public markets in the cannabis market.

About Sweed

Sweed is a technology company whose private label platform provides point of sale (POS), inventory management, eCommerce, in-store kiosks, last-mile delivery, analytics, loyalty, marketing, and payments. The platform specializes in serving dispensaries with multiple locations and vertically integrated cannabis companies. Sweed engages customers in feature development partnering with their internal technology teams to quickly solve their key operational challenges. sweedpos.com

About Leaf Trade

Leaf Trade is a technology company driving the future of business operations in the cannabis sector as a trusted partner to the largest cultivators and brands across over 25 markets, including the majority of the enterprise multi-state operators. Leaf Trade leverages technology to streamline business operations throughout the entire ordering, payment, advertising, and post-sale reporting process, giving business partners the powerful tools they need to grow, excel, and scale in the highly regulated and increasingly competitive cannabis industry. leaftrade.com

About Burns & Levinson LLP

At Burns & Levinson, we provide high-level, client-centric and results-oriented legal services to our regional, national and international clients. We are a full-service law firm with over 125 lawyers in Boston, Providence and London. Our areas of expertise include: business/finance, business litigation, cannabis, divorce/family law, venture capital/emerging companies, employment, estate planning, government investigations, intellectual property, M&A/private equity, probate/trust litigation, and real estate. We partner with our clients to solve their business and personal legal issues in a collaborative, creative and cost-effective way. For more information, visit Burns & Levinson at www.burnslev.com. Our cannabis industry blog can be found at www.cannabusinessadvisory.com.

SOURCE Burns & Levinson