Bonaventure Equity Is Raising $30 Million, Earmarked For Cannabis Life-Science Companies

Bonaventure Equity, a cannabis venture capital fund, is raising $30 million with an eye on cannabis life-science companies to avoid the sector’s "irrational exuberance" as the company's founder, Ross O’Brien put it.

•  O’Brien, who says the startups fall into the three categories of ag-tech, biotech and healthcare, added that the fund will also look at investments in the emerging psychedelics space, reported Business Insider. 
• “We were very much concerned with the irrational exuberance — the investor enthusiasm — in this quote, unquote ’green rush,’” O’Brien said. 

As more jurisdictions around the world legalize cannabis, a number of life-science startups have cropped up to support the burgeoning industry and they are naturally hungry for investors, which is precisely why O'Brien and his team are raising a $30 million fund to chase down these types of deals, focusing on seed and Series A companies.

Investing In Cannabis Life-Science Startups

While public cannabis stocks have performed erratically in recent months, venture investing has ticked up in the sector. Investors poured $2.7 billion into cannabis startups in 2021, up from $1.5 billion in 2020, according to the data provider PitchBook.

Betting On Entrepreneurs
The fund will be Bonaventure’s second. O’Brien said that he first started to look into cannabis while working at a family office over six years ago.
“At the time, we weren’t seeing the maturity, sophistication, and experience in the management teams that we had seen in the other sectors we were investing in,” he said.

“Bonaventure isn’t the only venture firm focused on the life sciences aspect of cannabis. The fund will be Bonaventure’s second. Its first fund has made nine investments at the seed or Series A level since 2018,” reported Insider. 

Photo By Lelen Ruete.