Last week, I received an e-mail from the Chief Market Strategist at Convergex, one of the most well-respected financial technology firms in the country.
The topic of the e-mail?
Marijuana Investments.
Matt and I have been writing about this trend for a while now...
However, when a firm like this sends me an email touting the investment benefits in the cannabis sector, it can only mean one thing:
Marijuana is going mainstream!
Progress to Date
10 years ago, marijuana could be procured in just eight states—and it was only available for medicinal use.
Today, it can be procured in half the states of our country, 26 of them.
Not only that, but now eight states allow residents to purchase marijuana for recreational use as well. These include some of the most populated states in the country, including California, Washington and Massachusetts.
Essentially, one out of every five people living in U.S. today can now legally possess cannabis for recreational purposes.
Regardless of your opinion about the drug itself, these statistics would lead just about anyone to the same conclusion:
The marijuana business is going to be big!
New Cash Crop
Actually, it’s a pretty big business already: in 2016, legal marijuana companies generated roughly $6 billion in sales.
And by 2020, that number is expected to grow to more than $21 billion.
To put that in perspective, the U.S. music industry only generated $15.5 billion last year.
That’s tremendous growth for a brand new market. And the benefits of that growth go far beyond business results.
Marijuana sales generate tremendous tax revenues and jobs as well:
According to the Marijuana Policy Institute, marijuana sales generated $2.4 billion in tax revenue for Colorado in 2015.
And perhaps even more importantly, this new industry created 18,005 full-time jobs.
Investors Piling In
And all this growth has created a lot of interest from investors—especially in private marijuana start-ups.
You see, because it’s still the early days for the marijuana industry, there aren’t many large, reputable publicly traded stocks in this sector yet.
Therefore, investors have been forced to look for opportunities in the private markets. And interest has been soaring.
For example, in 2013 roughly $13 million was placed into just seven marijuana-related start-ups...
Last year, that number exploded to $205 million across 96 deals.
This is good news for pot start-ups...
And it’s good news for you too...
Let me explain...
Be On The Lookout
We believe this sector is only going to continue to grow...
And as legalization spreads to more states, so will the number of start-ups in this space.
We’re currently looking at a number of deals in this sector—deals we hope to show you in the near future.
Until then, we might want to keep an eye on a new funding platform we recently came across. It’s called Fundanna.
Just like other funding platforms, Fundanna hopes to play matchmaker between investors like you and start-ups looking for capital.
What makes this platform unique, however, is that it focuses strictly on marijuana-related start-ups.
We haven’t vetted any of the opportunities listed there yet, but if you’d like to learn more, you can see all of the open opportunities here »
Happy investing.
Best Regards,
Founder
Crowdability.com
