While traditional venture capital firms are still shying away from the cannabis industry, some companies are attracting their attention, according technology reporter for The Mercury News, Marisa Kendall. She discusses Eaze, which drew investment from a broad group of traditional VCs, including DCM Ventures and Tusk Ventures, and also highlighted investors Y Combinator, Founders Fund and Lerer Hippeau Ventures, each of whom has invested into cannabis technology startups.
Most deals, though, seem to get funded by cannabis-focused entities, like Phyto Partners and Poseidon Asset Management. While he sought to appeal to the traditional VC community, Trellis founder Pranav Sood, who relocated his software company from Canada to Oakland after going through the Gateway accelerator program, described the process as a “roller coaster” and encountered little interest from traditional VCs, sentiment that may have been dampened by the Trump election victory. The company will soon close a capital raise of $2mm, led by cannabis-focused Casa Verde Capital. Over time, as companies like Trellis can prove themselves and improve themselves at accelerators like Gateway and then attract cannabis-focused investors, perhaps the traditional VCs will be more inclined to invest.
Read Marisa Kendall’s “Pot in the portfolio? Some tech VCs say bring it on”: http://www.siliconvalley.com/2017/04/25/pot-portfolio-some-tech-vcs-say-bring-it-on/
