Cannabis Business Solutions

Founded in 2011, Privateer claims to be the first private equity firm that only invests in cannabis-related companies. Because cannabis cultivation and distribution is federally illegal, their true focus is on ancillary businesses – companies that don’t “touch the leaf.” Privateer Holdings is led by Brendan Kennedy (CEO), Michael Blue (CFO), and Christian Groh (COO). They initially set a goal to raise $7 million dollars of funding, which they announced was met July 2013. Privateer acquired Leafly in 2012 and launched Arbormain, a Washington-based “start-up accelerator,” the following year.

Salveo Capital is a private equity fund dedicated to supporting high growth businesses supporting the legal cannabis ecosystem, with a focus on companies across a few sectors: information, data & analytics; financial payments & services; medical products, formulations & delivery; ag-tech & grow systems.

Mentor Capital, Inc. (MNTR) is a fully reporting public company that makes acquisitions in the medical marijuana and cannabis sector. Mentor provides liquidity and acts as a public market incubator for established private cannabis companies that are looking to go public and will assist with this process at cost. Mentor expects to invest $21M in cash into its portfolio companies. Mentor was formed in Silicon Valley in 1985 by current CEO, Chet Billingsley. The company completed dozens of early private acquisitions and went public in 1996.