– The Canadian company Tilray, which aims to become one of the world’s leaders in the therapeutic cannabis industry, inaugurated its European production site today in the central Portuguese town of Cantanhede.
Investments cover the breadth of the cannabis supply chain; a quarter of reported deals were found to fund formulation and manufacture activities, 17% to fund cultivation and processing, and a further 16% into both brand assets and R&D.
The €6.1 billion transaction, the largest deal in the cannabis space to date, demonstrated the potential for big company exits and the promise of pharmaceutical-style cannabis medicines.
Tobacco companies are beginning to see long-term benefits in investing into a sector with high growth-potential, as conservative stakeholders begin to come around to less traditional investment and acquisition opportunities, despite strict government regulations in place.
Attracted by the potential of the developing sector, mainstream European VC groups and global FMCG venture arms have begun to invest at an increasing rate, with venture capital now representing as much as 42% of European cannabis investment.
Several specialist European cannabis funds, such as Óskare Capital and Verdite Capital, have now launched to cater to the growing ecosystem of cannabis companies, with mainstream venture capital funds such as Octopus Ventures also considering investments in the European cannabis ecosystem.
currently stands at the centre of European cannabis investment activity, with over €50 million raised on London’s public markets and over €42 million through private transactions in the first 6 months of 2021 alone.
The Government’s recent Taskforce on Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform , led by former leader of the Conservative party Iain Duncan Smith, former Life Sciences Minister George Freeman, and former Northern Ireland secretary Theresa Villiers explored post-Brexit regulatory reforms in high-growth sectors, including cannabinoid medicines, nutraceuticals and agri-tech.
POCA has extra-territorial effect and covers operations carried out overseas, making investment into companies with operations that may contravene domestic UK law, even if the activity is carried out in a fully-legal manner abroad, very difficult.
Cannabis companies have seen unprecedented success raising through crowdfunding campaigns on Seedrs this year, with every cannabis company successfully raising 100% of its target amount since the platform opened its doors to cannabis listings in 2021, reaching a total of over €6.3 million as of June 2021.
The perception of crowdfunding platforms is changing quickly with revenue-generating European cannabis companies like Grow Group targeting raises on the Seedrs platform beyond seed level funding.
I am a corporate lawyer focussing on M&A, venture capital and taking companies ‘global’.
Originally from Canada, but newly minted as a Brit; London has been my home for the past ten years.