We hope everyone is thriving through the heat of summer! We have some exciting news around KEY’s most recent capital deployments to update you all on! If these deals excite you, we highly recommend reaching out for an indepth update on the opportunities KEY is currently sourcing and moving forward with. From Tech Companies to […]
Just like that the busiest month in cannabis has come to a close. From record-breaking sales to the re-emergence of Cannabis holiday gatherings, April was a return towards cannabis normalcy. Although numbers are still trickling in, MG Retailer reports that holiday sales saw a 148% increase compared to the previous four Wednesdays. In addition, cannabis […]
Open Book Extracts Raises $11.5M Series B Funding led by KEY Investment Partners and Norte Capital As we head into the summer months, we are excited to announce a new addition to the Key Investment Partners’ portfolio. Founded in 2019, Steady State, LLC is comprised of two sub-entities, Open Book Extracts (OBX) and Steady State […]
KEY Investment Partners will partner with CanopyBoulder to provide cannabis & hemp investors with a hub for news, updates, and deals during this difficult time. The platform kicks off on April 7th with pitches from 10 top-performing cannabis and hemp companies, followed by a panel of VCs on how COVID-19 is impacting the investment landscape.
Our lives have dramatically changed over the past few weeks as we come to terms with the reality of the situation in which COVID-19 has placed us. For most Americans, the economy has come to a complete standstill as social distancing and increased ‘stay-at-home’ measures have become the new normal. Only certain ‘essential’ businesses remain open across the country as the nation works together to flatten the curve of this pandemic. In this blog post we will explore the impact of COVID-19 on the cannabis industry, how private equity has performed historically in distressed periods and why cannabis investors should look at the current state of the economy opportunistically.
As the spread of the coronavirus continues and anxiety for Americans escalates, operators of cannabis dispensaries have reported that business is booming. Named by several cities as “essential businesses,” dispensary owners have reported long lines of customers, similar to what has been seen at grocery stores and pharmacies.
The rising tide of cannabis reform has led to an explosion of industry. Legal cannabis sales have grown from c. $3.4bn in 2014 to c. 10.9bn in 2018[1], creating tremendous wealth for entrepreneurs and investors. Legal cannabis now accounts for about 120-150 thousand jobs[2], and that only considers plant-touching businesses. While we in the industry tend to wear optimist hats and focus on the positive changes, not enough discussion has focused on an area of legislative reform that continues to lag woefully behind: social justice.
Candidates Overwhelmingly Support Legalization. Plus, Colorado Surpasses $1B in Cannabis Sales in Record Time and Congress Hears Historic Cannabis Reform Testimony from Powerful Coalition of Civil Rights Activists
Cannabis Reform Today
Cannabis legislative reform continues to show great traction. Within the last year:
Oklahoma legalized medical cannabis (Jun-2018);
Epidolex became the first cannabis-derived medicine to be approved by the FDA and subsequently rescheduled by the DEA (Sep-2018);
Canada became the first G7 nation to legalize adult-use cannabis federally (Oct-2018);
Michigan legalized adult-use cannabis, and Utah & Missouri legalized medical cannabis (Nov-2018);
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