The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) announced on Monday the creation of two assistance programs for businesses in the state’s adult-use cannabis industry.

DEED’s new CanNavigate and CanStartup programs will provide cannabis business owners with technical, regulatory and operational assistance through $8 million in state funding.

CanNavigate will assist owners with the cannabis industry’s regulatory structure by offering competitive grants to community-based entrepreneurial support organizations and organizations with cannabis experts. The grants offered through the program would total up to $2 million.

CanStartup will give up to $6 million in grants to nonprofit lenders for loan funding to microbusinesses. The program will also support job creation within communities with eligible social equity applicants.

“The CanNavigate and CanStartup grants will further remove barriers to market access for individuals who qualify as social equity applicants and help them thrive in Minnesota’s newest industry,” said DEED Commissioner Matt Varilek.

Along with the two programs, DEED announced its CanTrain, a program providing grants to organizations for cannabis-related workforce development and training.

DEED also announced CanRenew, a program to fund cannabis-related economic development, public health and other community-need projects.

Several cannabis bills were also introduced to the state senate on Monday. The introduced bills focused on the issues of medical cannabis provisions, milligram amounts in THC drinks and the state’s ban on billboard advertising for cannabis.

CanStartup applications will be due April 9 and CanNavigate applications will be due April 11.

DEED will host a webinar for CanStartup on March 13 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. and a webinar for CanNavigate on March 18 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.