One Canadian weed merchant is on its way to Australia while another Aussie-backed pot stock is listing in Canada.

Canadian NextLeaf is spruiking its equity at roadshows in Sydney and Melbourne over the next month as it seeks a listing, according to a tweet from their local advisor Hunter Capital.

But like all marijuana IPOs being pitched in Australia right now, they’re raising the money here and doing the listing in Canada.

Hunter Capital managing director Stephen Silver says it’ll be valued around $C23m ($24.8m).

Hunter Capital originally told Stockhead in January it was planning the float for the end of February this year, and keen on the ASX because Canada was a saturated market.

There have been a dearth of local cannabis listings this year, with only Elixinol (ASX:EXL) in January and Althea (ASX:AGH) in September. Both were so sought after by stock-starved investors they rocketed on debut.

Advisors are finding they can easily raise money from Australian professional investors and institutions and then list a company in Canada, where they can get a bigger valuation.

For example, Oregon-based Sweet Earth is looking for institutional and sophisticated funding in Australia before a listing in Canada.

Its advisors told Stockhead they want to tap the keen Aussie investor base — but they believe they can get a better valuation in Canada.

Furthermore, they have operations in the US, where marijuana is federally illegal even though it’s legal in some form in about half of the states. The ASX likes companies with operations in countries where they are completely legal.

Next Green Wave has just listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) and is also a US-based company — notwithstanding the fact that the chairman is from Perth.

Canada has almost 100 cannabis listings compared to Australia’s 25-odd.

Next Green Wave chose the CSE for the same reasons: bigger valuations and it has operations in California, making an ASX listing difficult.

It raised $C21m in pre-IPO funds from sophisticated Australian investors in July and August before listing, as Canada requires companies to raise their IPO funds before going through the listing compliance process, rather than as part of the process like in Australia.

Next Green Wave is setting up a vertically integrated seed-to-sales model in California, focused on selling both medicinal and recreational pot to business and consumers.

It’s using the IPO cash to fund construction of greenhouses and manufacturing facilities, buy extra land for further greenhouses, and start marketing its product.