By Michael Teich

NorCal is on a mission to be a juggernaut in the California cannabis market, and the company has $27 million dollars in fresh funding to help it achieve that goal.

"It brings our total capital raise since inception to well over $50 million. We'll be deploying that capital across the value chain," said NorCal CEO Doug Cortina in an interview on Cheddar.

That's good news for the cannabis workforce: Cortina expects to ramp up its hiring in the wake of the investment.

"Anything from drivers, to bud-tenders, to corporate folks, we are expanding at a rapid pace. Today we have well over 500 employees, and can see that number almost double as we end the quarter," he said.

NorCal owns and operates assets including indoor cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, and retail. While the company has ambitions to expand beyond California, Cortina said that won't happen until it grows its share of its hometown market. California, the fifth biggest economy in the world, recorded $2.5 billion in sales in 2018. Sales are expected to more than double to $5.4 billion by 2020, according to Eight Capital.

"We would like to get to double digit market share here over the next 12, 18 months. However, from there, we're obviously very focused on the larger market, and frankly not just domestically, but globally," Cortina said. "As we sit here today, no company in California really represents more than 1 percent or 2 percent of the overall market," he added.

Delivery is a crucial part of NorCal's growth, and its partnership with Eaze has helped the company get its products into the hands of more consumers.

"We are seeing that business grow quite considerably. We started working with Eaze in October 2016, and month over month growth is well above 10 percent. Today we do, just in San Francisco, well over 800 deliveries a day," Cortina said.

For full interview click here.