(This story has been updated to add comments from Jerry Stone of Trivergance.)
Dallas-based marijuana investment firm Cresco Capital Partners and another private equity group are taking control of The Arcview Group, an MJ investment company in Oakland, California.
Cresco and New Jersey-based Trivergance led a $7.7 million Series A funding for the acquisition.
Arcview functions through the membership of more than 600 accredited investors who are invited to invest in cannabis companies that apply to present to the Oakland firm’s staff and then go through a rigorous vetting process.
“This is more of an acquisition than an investment,” he added.
The $7.7 million funding, he said, includes purchasing stock in the privately owned Arcview, as well as capital to grow the company.
With the new backing, “we envision (Arcview) to become 3X to 5X from what it is now,” noted Hawkins, who said there are no plans to rename the firm.
Jerry Stone, a top executive at Trivergance, is the new executive chair of Arcview’s board of directors.
Trivergance has invested over $1.5 billion of institutional equity capital since 2006.
This marks Trivergance’s first investment in the cannabis industry, Stone told MJBizDaily.
“This is a huge and growing new sector,” he said.
“We bring institutional quality to a space that hasn’t had it before. Or, I should say, it hasn’t had enough of it.”
Stone will be joined on the Arcview board by Codie Sanchez, managing director of Cresco, and Jonathan Washburn, co-CEO of Ampology, an affiliate of Trivergance.
Ampology will be assuming “operational control, overseeing strategy and implementation,” according to a news release.
Troy Dayton, who will remain Arcview’s CEO and a board member, for now, said it was time for the firm to take a new strategic direction.
“They are coming in to take it to the next level, and having their support and help is going to make a huge difference in the future,” Dayton told MJBizDaily.
“I’m a good enough CEO to have gotten us to this point. But I am also confident enough to say I am not the right person to take us to a $200 million company. (For that), we need to bring in the big guns.”
Hawkins said the “extremely complicated deal” has been in the works for about six months.
Nick Thomas can be reached at nickt@mjbizdaily.com
John Rebchook can be reached at johnr@mjbizdaily.com