Add Snoop Dogg to the growing list of investors entering the pot industry.
According to TechCrunch, Snoop plans to raise a $25 million fund to invest in tech companies related to the marijuana industry. The fund won’t directly invest in companies doing cultivation and production.
Snoop has long been known for his relationship with the weed industry, so he could be well positioned to take advantage of this nascent industry. And, he’s already made a handful of tech investments (around 15 so far), including Reddit, Ustream, Robinhood, and Philz coffee.
This comes one month after Peter Thiel essentially legitimized the industry with the announcement that Founders Fund invested $75 million in Privateer Holdings, the world’s first private equity firm investing exlusively in the cannabis industry. Privateer’s existing investments include Leafly, the Yelp for marijuana, premium cannabis brand Marley Natural, and Tilray a leading medical cannabis company
Investors and entrepreneurs are bullish on the market. According to industry estimates, the legal cannabis market grew from $1.5 billion in 2013 to $2.7 billion in 2014. GreenWave Advisors, the marijuana industry research company founded in 2014, predicts the industry will be $35 billion by 2020.
New startups are popping up all the time, and we expect this to continue. So far four states have legalized recreational marijuana, but only Colorado and Washington have their sales up and running. Oregan and Alaska are still building out their sales systems. This is in addition to the 23 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada where medicinal marijuana can be legally purchased.
