Deloitte has made a significant bet on cannabis, acquiring leading industry consulting firm Cannabis Compliance Inc. for an undisclosed amount of money.
The professional services powerhouse has been expanding its presence in the cannabis industry over the past several years, advising companies and, more recently, partnering with Nielsen Canada and Headset Inc. to provide point-of-sale retail data and other business intelligence.
“The addition of CCI’s experienced team increases our capacity to deliver end-to-end consulting services to our cannabis clients in Canada and around the world,” Poonam Singh, managing partner of Risk Advisory for Deloitte, said in a statement.
“As the cannabis ecosystem continues to develop, businesses will become more complex, particularly in the area of regulatory and compliance in cannabis. CCI’s knowledge will help clients untangle these challenges to allow their businesses to grow and thrive,” Ms. Singh said.
Mississauga-based CCI’s 75 employees will be based out of Deloitte’s head office in Toronto.
CCI’s founder Brian Wagner will join Deloitte as a senior adviser. Dale Hooper, Sid Hathiramani and Karina Lahnakoski, respectively CCI’s CEO, CFO and vice-president of quality and regulatory, will become partners in Deloitte’s risk advisory practice.
Mr. Wagner founded CCI in 2014 to help medical cannabis companies navigate the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR) that were introduced the preceding year. CCI grew alongside the cannabis industry, and today it is the most prominent regulatory consulting firm focused on cannabis in Canada.
Mark Rendell