Microsoft to offer marijuana tracking in partnership with Kind Financial

The Satya Nadella-led company is partnering with a Los Angeles start-up Kind Financial to offer its services as state after state in the US are legalising the use of marijuana or cannabis.

The Satya Nadella-led company is partnering with a Los Angeles start-up Kind Financial to offer its services as state after state in the US are legalising the use of marijuana or cannabis. (AP)

Microsoft is breaking the taboo on pot and it is doing so by offering software that will help tract marijuana from seed to sale.

The Satya Nadella-led company is partnering with a Los Angeles start-up Kind Financial to offer its services as state after state in the US are legalising the use of marijuana or cannabis. The biggest state California will also vote next month for the same.

Microsoft will market the software tha Kind makes and not go anwyhere near the actual plant. Kind's software and services have been trying to take the marijuana business mainstream by offering a range of products, including A.T.M.-style kiosks that facilitate marijuana sales, working through some of the state-chartered banks that are comfortable with such customers.

Microsoft's entry also suggests that a legitimate infrastructure will also come into being. "We do think there will be significant growth," Kimberly Nelson, the executive director of state and local government solutions at Microsoft told the New York Times (NYT) . "As the industry is regulated, there will be more transactions, and we believe there will be more sophisticated requirements and tools down the road," he added.

The partnership with Kind is yet another bold step for Microsoft as its looks to replace the revenue from its fading desktop software business. The Redmond-headquartered company has made a series of announcements this week which includes buyind LinkedIn for $26.2 billion and acquiring Wand Labs for advancing its research into bots and airtificial intelligence to develop conversation as a platform.