LeafWorks and Cannalysis are in a sector with blossoming interest seven recent cases involving hospitalization have been directly linked to “cannabis cartridges purchased from unlicensed pop-up markets,” according to Leafly, a cannabis news website.Īkerna Corp., a publicly traded cannabis company, has even teamed up with an anti-counterfeiting technology company, solo sciences, to protect consumer safety.
Back then, we caught up with Kerin Law, the chief scientific officer of LeafWorks, which verifies cannabis products to make sure they are safe using DNA testing. Vice Ventures, led by Catharine Dockery, is backed by Marc Andresseen and Bradley Tusk. You can probably guess its focus from the title, but if not, it’s a $25 million fund to invest in untraditional verticals. It’s worth noting that Snoop Dogg’s venture capital firm led the $1 million seed round in Cannalysis, reports Business Insider.Īnother investment fund that popped up recently is Vice Ventures. He said that beyond capital, the company wanted an investor that “would be in our corner” as the cannabis industry grows and evolves.
His company raised a $22.6 million Series A from CanLab after fundraising for eight months. It is notable that private market reporting lags may account for the quarter-over-quarter decline.īut for a second, let’s turn back to Autera’s point about the rise of cannabis-specific funds.
With that nuance out of the way, let’s dive into the numbers.Īccording to Crunchbase data, funding for cannabis companies has slowed down dramatically from some super giant rounds from 2018. Deal size has also decreased significantly. For example, Cannalysis is an accredited cannabis testing facility. Those include ventures that help with transportation, packaging, regulations, and more.
A Budding IndustryĪs Savannah Dowling pointed out in our last pulsecheck on this greening industry, a cannabis company isn’t just one that handles the flower or bud it’s the auxiliary businesses as well. In this piece, we’ll get into Autera’s claim of how the investment scene is maturing, and see how that impacts the ever-changing intersection of cannabis and technology. “Now, you see larger and more sophisticated players: large established VCs and institutional capital, coming into the space.” It means there are less people willing to make riskier investments, he added. “In the early days, was mostly angel investors/high net-worth individuals, small family offices, and small cannabis-specific VC funds,” Autera said. Regardless, those complexities have brought more mature investment options. “Expenses are higher for legal, licensing and compliance work that is now needed at the onset.” “Regulation and compliance has brought on, in most cases, the need for larger amounts of capital from the start, which can be more difficult to come by,” he told Crunchbase News.