Are you listening, Jeff Sessions? Regardless of your stance on marijuana (“Good people don’t smoke marijuana.” – Jeff Sessions, 2017), the industry is booming. According to a new report, financial backers of the industry have dug deep into their pockets, to the tune of more than a billion dollars in 2018. And we’re just two months into the new year.
That’s more than the entire amount invested in 2016 and, according to Benzinga, a 600 percent increase over the $178 million raised in the first five weeks of 2017.
The report from Viridian Cannabis Deal Tracker comes just after Seattle-based Privateer Holdings announced they’ve completed Series C funding with a $100 million investment. The company’s portfolio includes Bob Marley’s cannabis brand Marley Natural, edibles company Goodship (whose owner also owns a hype-popular string of cupcakeries), and Leafly. The company so far has raised a total of $200 million, according to Entrepreneur.
According to the report, 9 out of 65 cannabis industries raised more than $50 million this year.
And as Entrepreneur reports, it’s also happening to our friends up north; cannabis companies in Canada raised $2 billion in 2017. It helps that recreational marijuana is expected to be legalized there this summer.
