At a glance
MJ Freeway is a cannabis software company founded in Colorado in 2010 by Jessica Billingsley and Amy Poinsett. Its current MJ Platform combines seed-to-sale inventory, compliance, point of sale, delivery and analytics tools for licensed operators. The business later became Akerna's core software asset and was sold to an Alleaves affiliate in 2024.
Founders and the original problem
Billingsley and Poinsett founded MJ Freeway when regulated cannabis businesses had few purpose-built systems for tracking plants, inventory and sales. Their software treated regulatory reporting as part of operations rather than a separate spreadsheet exercise. The company is widely associated with early “seed-to-sale” software, though any claim that it single-handedly invented the category remains the company's own positioning.
From MJ Freeway to MJ Platform
MJ Platform launched in 2016 as the company's second-generation system and was positioned as a cannabis-specific enterprise resource planning product. It remains the main commercial brand on the active website. “MJ Freeway” refers to the company and legacy product identity; “MJ Platform” is the current modular software suite. Leaf Data Systems has also been used for government track-and-trace contracts.
Cultivation and manufacturing tools
The cultivation module tracks plant genetics, forecasts yields and calculates cost of goods. Manufacturing tools manage suppliers, customers and production workflows. These functions connect regulated inventory to operational data, allowing a vertically integrated operator to follow material from plant stages into finished goods instead of reconciling disconnected systems after the fact.
Retail, distribution and delivery
Retail and distribution modules track sales and inventory in real time, support menus and loyalty integrations, and provide cannabis-specific point-of-sale controls such as purchase-limit alerts, compliant labels, batch-level inventory and role permissions. Delivery tools provide inventory visibility and connect with routing partners. Availability and regulatory integrations vary by jurisdiction and contract.
Analytics, integrations and scale claims
MJ Freeway markets an open API ecosystem and analytics for multi-location decision-making. Its current homepage says the platform has tracked $20 billion in cannabis sales and operates across 33 states, 14 countries and three languages.
Security incidents and outages
Security history is material for compliance software. MJBizDaily reported a 2016 cyberattack that resulted in stolen client data and described further hacks and outages in 2017. Those events belong in the company record because operators entrust the platform with regulated inventory and transaction data. The current site says it uses Amazon Web Services and security best practices, but a vendor claim does not erase the historical incidents.
The 2019 Akerna merger
On June 17, 2019, MJ Freeway combined with MTech Acquisition Corp. to form Akerna Corp. The transaction made MJ Freeway a wholly owned Akerna subsidiary and created a Nasdaq-listed cannabis compliance-technology company. This was a corporate ownership change, not a product relaunch, and MJ Platform continued as the core operating software.
The 2024 sale and current ownership
Akerna's successor filings state that the sale of MJ Freeway closed on February 9, 2024, transferring the business to MJ Freeway Acquisition Co., an affiliate of Alleaves. That later filing supersedes MJ Platform's still-live FAQ, which incorrectly says Akerna remains the owner and that Akerna stock can be purchased under its old ticker. The website's ownership section is stale.
What operators should verify. MJ Platform remains online and markets cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, retail, delivery and analytics modules. Buyers should verify current jurisdiction integrations, state-contract requirements, API access, data-migration terms, support commitments, security documentation and ownership representations directly during procurement. Historical reach figures and stale FAQ language should not substitute for a current contract and security review.