BLAZE is business software for licensed cannabis retailers, delivery operators and related regulated merchants — not a flower, vape or edible brand. Founded by Chris Violas and Manh Do, it connects point of sale, inventory, e-commerce, payments, marketing, analytics and delivery so operators can manage the customer transaction and the compliance record in one system.
Origins and ownership
Violas came to cannabis after a serious injury cut short his Division I college athletic career. He later ran a delivery service on California's central coast and found that the available software fragmented inventory, compliance and customer management. While working at Amazon Web Services he brought the problem to AWS colleague Manh Do.
The pair began working together in 2015. Violas is co-founder and chief executive, Do co-founder and chief technology officer. BLAZE's own timeline dates the company to 2015 and the BLAZE name to 2017.
Where it operates
The retail suite covers a web-based, hardware-agnostic Retail Point of Sale, inventory and purchasing workflows, tax and compliance handling, INSIGHTS analytics reporting, customer check-in, a Customer Facing Display and a Self-Serve Kiosk. BLAZEPAY adds cashless payments and ACH. Operators connect state traceability systems and third-party services through integrations and a headless API.
BLAZE lists licensed-operator service across twenty U.S. states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. It also supports regulated liquor and CBD retail in Canada.
The e-commerce side supplies Online Menu, a website builder, mobile apps, Scan to Shop and an AI Budtender assistant. Marketing tools cover customer outreach, loyalty and wallet passes. Delivery products include a driver app and a dispatch hub, keeping orders and inventory connected to the retail system rather than re-entered in separate software.
Company
BLAZE raised seed funding in 2019, passed 500 retail stores in 2020 and closed an $8 million Series A in 2021. It acquired Vancouver-based Greenline in 2022, extending its point-of-sale footprint into Canada, then acquired cannabis e-commerce platform Tymber in 2023. In 2024 it launched BLAZEPAY as a payment facilitator alongside a browser-based POS, and in 2025 it moved to an AI-first retail platform.
Security and compliance controls
BLAZE's security page states that it holds SOC 1 Type II and SOC 2 Type II reports, runs on AWS, supports business-associate agreements for applicable HIPAA workflows, and uses encrypted transport, backups and key-management controls.
How BLAZE sells
BLAZE sells subscriptions and implementation services to licensed operators. It does not run a dispensary chain and carries no consumer cannabis product catalog; its footprint is measured in store adoption, funding rounds, acquisitions and platform modules.
BLAZE announced an AI-first company direction in October 2025, introducing BLAZE Labs and Herbie, an AI budtender intended for retail e-commerce. Its year-end update also described product recommendations and the Lighthouse analytics dashboard. Those tools sit inside a broader operating suite; they do not replace the operator's duty to configure taxes, permissions, inventory, state traceability and responsible consumer information.
Product details
A retailer can use individual modules or connect a larger stack, but the practical fit depends on state requirements, store count, delivery model, payment setup and existing integrations. Buyers should confirm supported hardware, implementation scope, data migration, service terms and the exact reports included in their subscription. Security attestations describe controls at a point in time, so prospective customers can request the current reports during procurement.