Primo Payments: Credit Card Processing for the Cannabis Industry

Who We Are:

Primo Payments specializes in credit card processing for breeders, seed banks, and other cannabis-related, “high-risk” businesses. With over 20 years of merchant services experience, we dedicate our services to hard-working cannabis entrepreneurs who endeavor to grow their businesses in a compliant, organized, and professional way but struggle with the challenges presented by the financial services community. We help them connect with the right payment processors to successfully sell their products without looking over their shoulder for the next account shutdown or policy change that might turn off their sales at a moment’s notice. Our main goal is to take this complicated industry and simplify it for all of our customers and, most importantly, serve as an extension of your team to make sales easier.

Who We Serve, & Why?

Located in the Washington DC metro area, we began working in the local recreational cannabis marketplace, serving our community. For years, dozens of struggling business owners approached us with their challenges, trying to launch their companies the RIGHT way, and we took that challenge to heart. As a result, we dedicate our entire focus to cannabis-related businesses.

For the last several years, we have developed a specialty for serving breeders and seed banks who are compliantly selling products containing less than 0.3% THC. Though we are not limited to the hemp seed market segment, we have developed a very easy-to-implement package for folks selling seeds in the United States and internationally.

We are proud to say we serve some of the biggest names in hemp seed genetics, as well as those who are launching their first strains as startups. If you’re well established and looking to receive the best possible rates for your products, or if you’re brand new and don’t know where to start, we can support you.

Cannabis is a rapidly growing industry. The multitude of new businesses, new concepts, and entrepreneurship is exciting, and we proudly help anyone who wants to make e-commerce and physical face-to-face payment processing easier for their customers. In any industry, much less cannabis, payment processing can be complicated. This is why we strive to make this as easy as possible for our customers.

We have the pleasure of teaming up with very creative and professional brands in this industry, and it is our privilege to help these brands grow and thrive. We love to collaborate and promote our customers at leading of the industry, like the National Cannabis Festival here in DC, and cutting-edge breeders like SolFire Gardens and Exotic Genetix – to name a few of our customers.

How Are We Different?

To say we take a “consultative” approach to all of our customers is an understatement!

Our first step with any potential partner is to gain an understanding of the status of their business, what their ambitions are for their brands and their growth goals. From there, we help design a plan to grow and scale, leveraging compliant and sustainable payment processing so cash flow is easy, preventing you from having to double and triple-check your accounts to keep your payments flowing.

The reality is that for years, our customers have struggled with mixed messages and mixed signals from the banking and payment processing industries. We know that challenge better than most, and this is where we identify the appropriate processors to ensure that whoever we work with receives their money as quickly as possible and alleviate the anxiety of any cannabis business having to think about a backup plan for when their payments stop working. You should not have to live with the fear of knowing if your sales are going to stop without your awareness due to a processor flagging you as “high risk” or non-compliant.

Let us neutralize that at the very beginning and serve as your shield from the complications of payment processing compliance.

Another approach we bring to all of our customers is a technology audit, so you’re using the right tech, paired with payment processing, to automate your sales process. Cannabis businesses have been blocked from utilizing modern tools all other industries leverage for cash flow. Primo Payments enables you to connect modern business amenities with compliant and cost-effective payments.

Where most payment processors stop working with you, we stay in the pocket to help you block and tackle as a true extension of your team. After implementation, we are available to jump on calls and consult on any tech, payment, or operational objectives your team is hoping to achieve. Because payment processing is uniquely positioned at the intersection of many business operations, we have a rare and valuable skill set to help consult our customers on how they can solve problems that often connect to but skew outside of payment processing. We hear from many of our customers that they think of us as an extension of their team, and we love being in that position! We are a text, a call, or an email away from jumping onto a brainstorming call to help you thrive!

Whether you want to evaluate your processing statement, link with a cannabis-friendly bank, or brainstorm on the best website provider or payment gateway to maximize your business, we are always ready and willing to serve our customers.

Partnering with SKUNK Magazine connects us directly with the breeder and seed bank community, and we welcome the chance to meet you and help your business take off!