Flame burns bright for company that handles cannabis finances

A Southwest Florida cannabis financial services firm, riding industry boom, is preparing for a big year.

By Beth Luberecki
| 4:00 p.m. December 29, 2022
| 0 Free Articles Remaining!

Green Check Verified CEO Kevin Hart (who grows his beard every year for obvious Christmas reasons) has the Bonita Springs firm ready for a big year in 2023.. (Stefania Pifferi.)

Entrepreneurs

One Big Thing

Green Check Verified officials are particularly excited about the acquisition of PayQwick, announced in early September. The deal is based on both need and scale. “Green Check Verified addresses the lack of financial services from banks and credit unions,” the company says in a statement, while PayQwick focuses more directly on serving the demand for cannabis businesses.”

The combined entity will serve over 3,000 cannabis operators and over 120 banks and credit unions in 38 states. The combined entity will process and certify more than $4 billion annually, representing over 15% of the US cannabis industry, officials say. “From the beginnings of our conversations with PayQwick, we quickly realized how much our companies had in common, and how we could unite to help innovate the cannabis banking industry,” Green Check CEO Kevin Hart says in the statement.

The legal cannabis industry keeps expanding. And Green Check Verified keeps growing right alongside it.

The Bonita Springs-based fintech firm founded in 2017 harnesses the power of data and technology to connect financial institutions and legal cannabis businesses in need of banking services — and keep up with all the rules and regulations required to do so. “The challenge for both sides of the industry has been a supply and demand problem,” says company founder Kevin Hart. “Our focus when we launched Green Check Verified was to solve the supply problem. There weren’t enough banks and credit unions willing to serve the cannabis industry.”