Titans of Tech in Arkansas: Dan Roda, CEO and Co-Founder, Abaca, North Little Rock

Dan Roda, 
CEO and Co-Founder
Abaca, North Little Rock

Educated at Tulane University and Villanova Law School, Dan Roda followed his wife (Elizabeth Michael) to Arkansas and promptly entered the professional world as a corporate attorney, gaining 10-plus years of hands-on experience in real estate, private equity, and venture capital transactions. He first experimented with the cannabis industry in 2017, helping clients draft and file dispensary license applications in Arkansas. During this process, Roda was exposed to the cannabis banking problem, which led him and three partners to found Abaca, a North Little Rock-based financial technology company providing banking, payment processing and lending services to the cannabis and hemp industries.

Roda represented Abaca in the CanopyBoulder accelerator program and is a founding board member of the Emerging Markets Coalition. He is also vice president of the Arkansas Cannabis Industry Association and sits on the National Cannabis Industry Association’s Hemp Committee.