Investors Hatch A Plan To Accelerate Growth In San Diego's Cannabis Industry
About a year-and-a-half ago, San Diego investor Eric Gomez set out to find local cannabis industries in which to focus his investment strategies.He didnt have much luck.
After discovering the cannabis startup accelerator, CanopyBoulder, while at an investors forum in Colorado, he realized what needed to be done back home.
I talked to the guys who run the program out there and said, We really need this for the San Diego community, said Gomez.
We have a bunch of investors out here and a very active venture capital environment and we have no place to go to find good, fundable [cannabis] companies.
The team at CanopyBoulder agreed, seeing (as Gomez puts it) the potential in San Diegos big market and growing start-up scene. On October 10, that potential became a reality with the official launch of Canopy San Diego.
Billed as a mentorship-driven, seed-stage investment program for start-ups in the legal cannabis-ancillary industry, the new accelerator with a special interest in tech start-ups is being led by co-founders Gomez, Jack Scatizzi, Lincoln Fish and Wyatt Hinshaw.
Theres not a whole lot of places for young companies to go and build in cannabis. Theres too much risk. Theres no banking, theres no mentors, theres no financial resources, so thats the role that we play, said Gomez.
Canopy San Diegos relationship with its Colorado counterpart connects it with the investor network Arcview Group, which has over 550 investors and has invested roughly $75-million into 121 companies.
First day with the Berkeley (CanopySF) class
What we want to do here at Canopy is have a diverse portfolio of tech companies, business service companies, media companies, some consumer good companies, and really allow investors to invest in the industry, said Gomez. If you invest in Canopy, youre investing in the cannabis industry growth, which is 30 percent per year and thats only in the legal sectors. So its going to be much larger than that once states and countries start legalizing.
Assuming California passes a measure on the ballot this November to legalize the recreational use of cannabis, Canopy San Diego will certainly have its hands full in the months and years to come.
For us to legalize recreational use would basically mean theres a serious economy behind this industry, so investors will start looking at it, big business will start looking at it, and hopefully banks will start looking at it a little more seriously, said Gomez.
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