By Omar Sacirbey
A New York-based private equity firm has raised $93 million to pump into cannabis companies, giving it the largest pool of capital ever gathered for marijuana-related investments.
Tuatara Capital, founded in 2014, announced today that it has closed out its two funds and will use the capital to make equity investments in high-growth cannabis companies in the research & testing, cultivation, processing, consumer and retail sub-sectors.
Tuatara said its original fund target was $80 million, meaning the firm surpassed its goal by about 16%.
The amount is significantly larger than the $75 million raised by cannabis-focused private equity firm Privateer Holdings early last year.
“We are humbled by the enthusiastic support of our limited partners, many of whom are close friends and long-time business associates,” Mark Zittman, chairman and founding partner of Tuatara, said in a statement.
Al Foreman, the firm’s chief investment officer, told Marijuana Business Daily that individuals accounted for the bulk of the investors.
He also said some “quasi” institutions ponied up money, describing these as “professional organizations who are managing capital on behalf of large family and other professional investors.”
Tuatara aims to target approximately 10-15 marijuana businesses for investment, company executives said. The company plans to invest the $93 million over the next two to four years.
Check back later for more details and an analysis of what it means for the industry
Business can expect new markets, fresh opportunities - and more pitfalls.
I seem to recall someone on here adamant that cannabis would not be taken over by Big Business.
Seems you didn’t read the article very closely. This fund is financed by friends and close business associates. Tuatara is not Bayer or Pfeizer.
Seems you didn’t read the article very closely. This fund is financed by friends and close business associates. Tuatara is not Bayer or Pfeizer.
Big Business will rule cannabis- all the signs are there. 93 million isn’t peanuts and it’s just the beginning. Read the articles on here and elsewhere- carefully.
Funny, I’m a cultivator in Cali, been in the industry for years. I recently expanded and was looking for an investor. I have great credit and own real estate, NO ONE WILL FINANCE TOU!
Ray , if you are legal and have a bank account and records reach out to me . I have arranged funding of over $18 million in loans and equipment leases for cannabis businesses .
Scott, how can I contact you?
None of these guys will “touch the plant”
There is a group of investors in New York that provides investment capital to actual license holders! iAnthus Capital in NYC. Check it out.
The reality is that $96M is not really big business but more boutique business … nano caps, micros caps … any more you need to have hundreds of millions if not billions to be truly meaningful in most any space and Cannabis is no exception. Although, in consideration of the annualized revenues the industry is generating ($7B+ legal) as well as the existing infrastructure for the industries legal element (estimated to be billions), this value is not really all that much in the scheme of things. Now someone putting $500M into the industry would be much more interesting.
It was my understanding that Peter Thiele had invested 200 million in Privateer Holdings. How “interesting” is that? And,specifically,”interesting” in what way(s)?
I think the final investment was much less than that and in the context as I noted, $200M would represent a very small percentage of the estimated legal market sales and infrastructure investment here in the US.
You could easily be correct: he told Bloomberg’s Emily Chang 200, but the point (to me at least) is that the industries which would be impacted would all,most likely, be private (like “Leafly” which was funded by Privateer, I think) and,thus, not available to most investors. Thanks for the Reply.
When you have an Industry this small that amount and like amounts ongoing has a huge impact