Marijuana Crowdfunding Platform CannaFundr Wants to Seed the Weed Industry

Jim Dallke ~ Chicago Inno

 

As marijuana laws across the United States begin to change, a host of startups have emerged in what is now one of America's fastest-growing industries: cannabis production.

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And as startups look for funding, a Chicago-based company wants to help marijuana entrepreneurs easily find investors through crowdfunding.

 

CannaFundr, headquartered in Chicago with offices in Florida, Michigan and New Jersey, has created an online investment marketplace for companies in the weed industry, allowing cannabis startups to access accredited investors. Investers are able to co-invest in deals, and startups can get the funding they need without traveling to pitches across the country. Earlier this month DC-based startup New Frontier Financials, the "Bloomberg for Weed," received $250,000 in funding via CannaFundr.

 

CannaFundr says it has a network of thousands of investors, many of which have made previous investments in the marijuana space. Investors can browse deals, ask questions to startup founders, and attend CannaFundr webinars. CannaFundr is owned by CrowdFund Connect, Inc, which manages a network of crowdfunding sites.

 

CannaFundr is also speaking at the Marijuana Investor Summit April 20-22 in Denver, where founder Randy Shipley will help explain the legal complexities of the weed industry.

 

"The Marijuana Investor Summit 2015 provides entrepreneurs and investors with a comprehensive understanding of this industry and how to invest in it from seed to sale and all the steps in between,"  Shipley in a statement. "The legalized marijuana industry is changing and growing rapidly, as are the opportunities for investment and the mechanisms for investment, such as crowdfunding. This event is about bringing people together to take advantage of all of those opportunities and taking this new frontier to its full potential."

 

CannaFundr is one of a handful of Chicago startups operating in the weed industry. Marijuana startup Agricare LLC raised $2 million in equity funding back in October, and HerbFront, a startup devoted to the legal cannabis real estate market, was accepted into the Elmspring accelerator at 1871.

 

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