2018年大麻投资增长近三倍

对日趋成熟的大麻市场来说，今年是个拐点。大麻行业金融和战略咨询公司Viridian Capital Advisors提供的数据显示，从年初至今，大麻类公司已经融资近138亿美元，而2017年只有35亿美元。

过去12个月大麻行业流入资金激增的动力来自加拿大国家层面以及密歇根、俄克拉荷马和犹他等美国几个州在立法上的变化。公众越发支持大麻合法化，而公众支持力度的不断增大让投资者更有信心来支持这个领域中的企业，也促使大型饮料和烟草公司在大麻产品上赌一把。

大麻类公司所筹资金

Viridian Capital Advisors的数据表明，2018年全球大麻行业的上市和非上市公司已经融资近138亿美元

所筹资金增多的主要原因是融资规模不断扩大——2018年单轮融资平均金额从2017年的810万美元增至2360万美元。

Viridian的副总裁哈里森·菲利普斯说：“一旦有公司拿到1亿美元并把这些资金投入这个领域，从而在收购竞标中获得竞争力，其他经营者为了与之抗衡也会筹集类似数额的资金。这就形成了某种良性循环，让这些公司的融资额不断增多。”

对大麻行业来说，2018年最引人注意的趋势可能就是大型酒类和烟草公司争相夺取这个市场的份额。其中一大亮点是生产科罗娜啤酒的星座集团斥资40亿美元参股Canopy Growth。另外，位于丹佛的啤酒公司摩森康胜宣布与加拿大的大麻产品制造商Hydropothecary Corporation建立合资企业。拥有万宝路品牌的奥驰亚表示将对设在多伦多的大麻生产商克罗诺斯集团投资18亿美元。

全球数据研究机构PitchBook称，2018年美国大麻合资公司的价值比2017年增长了一倍多，大麻领域的私募股权投资也上升了三分之一以上。随着合法医用大麻市场的发展，2018年最大的一些合资及私募交易出现在了美国医疗保健行业的大麻公司身上，包括Verano Holdings、Surterra和Cura Cannabis Solutions。

2018年10月，加拿大成为第二个休闲用大麻彻底合法化的国家（乌拉圭于2013年实现休闲大麻全国合法化）。2016和2017年，加拿大相关公司的融资额持续上升，原因是医用大麻项目扩大以及加拿大总理贾斯廷·特鲁多表示有意将成人使用大麻合法化。

菲利普斯认为，2019年可能成为验证之年，因为已经获得投资的加拿大公司需要在前几个月拿出它们在新的成人用市场上所取得的成效，这样今后才能筹集到更多资金。

在美国，大麻在联邦层面仍不合法，跨州贸易被禁。而许多公司都打算在几个孤立市场，也就是大麻已经合法化的州开展业务。它们或者到别的州复制自己的设施，或者在那里收购已经成立的小公司，这些都会促使它们融资。

菲利普斯指出，因此每一轮能融资1亿美元左右的将是较大的跨州经营商，比如MedMen、Green Thumb、Cresco、Palliatech和Columbia Care，它们都已经在多个市场布局。

他说，较小的美国公司则为提高品牌知名度而继续筹集资金。涉足大麻二酚产品线的新公司开始获得投资的时间远早于2018年农业法案的通过。该法案于上周四获特朗普总统签字生效，也正式给予汉麻（hemp）合法身份。汉麻是大麻的一种，有提炼大麻二酚等多种工业用途，但精神活性物质四氢大麻醇的含量不足0.3%。

Viridian的总裁及创始人斯科特·格雷珀预计，尽管今年增长迅速，但只要美国市场的投资和收购交易次数持续上升，2019年的增速甚至会更快。专门研究大麻产业的投资集团ArcView Group估算，到2022年美国大麻市场销售额将达到234亿美元。

大麻合法化得到更多公众支持可能会在2019年的立法中体现出来——国会议员们正在考虑提议允许大麻公司获得联邦存款保险公司支持的银行账号。美国卫生部部长已经表示，联邦政府可能会调整大麻法规，允许在这方面进行更多的医疗研究。

格雷珀说：“直到6个月前，大多数行业活动中的大部分还都在美国市场以外进行，原因就是联邦层面不合法、没有商业银行服务和缺乏跨州贸易等一直存在的问题。更大的资金池，无论是公共的还是私人的，现在开始放心地认为美国将成为世界上最大的市场。”（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校：夏林

This year has been a turning point in the maturing marijuana market.

Cannabis-related companies raised nearly $13.8 billion so far this year, compared to just $3.5 billion in 2017, according to data from Viridian Capital Advisors, a financial and strategic advisory firm for the cannabis industry.

The spike in capital flowing into marijuana businesses in the last 12 months was driven by legislative changes both at the national level in Canada and at the state level in U.S. states like Michigan, Oklahoma and Utah. As public support for legalization grows, and growing public support for legalization—shifts that have given investors more confidence about backing companies in the space and enticed big players in the beverage and tobacco industries to make bets on cannabis products.

Capital Raised by Cannabis-Related Companies

Public and private companies in the global cannabis industry raised nearly $13.8 billion in 2018, according to Viridian Capital Advisors

The surge in funding was largely driven by increasing deal size—the average deal rose to $23.6 million in 2018, up from $8.1 million last year.

“Once one company raises $100 million and starts to deploy that into the space, to be competitive in the acquisition bidding process, other operators have to raise similar amounts of capital to be competitive,” says Harrison Phillips, vice president at Viridian. “That creates a sort of positive feedback loop where these companies raise more and more capital.”

Perhaps the most notable cannabis trend of 2018 was the rush of big alcohol and big tobacco companies taking stakes in market. A splashiest was Coronoa-maker Constellation Brands’ $4 billion stake in Canopy Growth. Denver brewer Molson Coors, meanwhile, announced a joint venture with The Hydropothecary Corporation, a Canadian cannabis producer, and Marlboro maker Altria said it would invest $1.8 billion in Toronto-based Cronos Group.

The value of venture capital deals in the U.S. marijuana industry more than doubled this year compared to 2017, according to data from Pitchbook, and private equity investments in cannabis increased by more than one-third. Some of the largest VC and PE deals in 2018 went to American cannabis companies in the healthcare sector, including Verano Holdings, Surterra, and Cura Cannabis Solutions, as legal medical marijuana markets expanded.

In October, Canada became the second country to legalize recreational marijuana nationwide (after Uruguay in 2013). The amount raised by companies in the country has already been on the upswing in 2016 and 2017 as the medical cannabis program grew and prime minister Justin Trudeau announced the intent to legalize adult use.

2019 will likely be a proving year, said Phillips, as Canadian companies that have received investments will need to deliver results in the new adult use market in the early part of next year if they hope to be in a position to raise more money going forward.

In the U.S., where marijuana remains federally illegal and interstate commerce is banned, many of the companies attempting to operate in more than one of the isolated markets where marijuana has been legalized have been driven to raise funds this year as they’ve moved to either duplicate their facilities in new states or to acquire smaller businesses already established in the new region.

For this reason, it’s the larger, multi-state operators like MedMen, Green Thumb, Cresco, Palliatech, Columbia Care, all of which have already built their businesses in multiple markets, that are raising those $100 million-or so rounds, Phillips said.

Smaller U.S. companies continue to raise money to increase brand awareness, he said, and new ventures in CBD (or cannabidiol) product lines have drawn investments this year as well ahead of the 2018 Farm Bill passage. President Trump signed the bill into law on last Thursday, officially legalizing hemp. The hemp plant, which has multiple industrial uses including extracting CBD, is a variety of cannabis plant with less than 0.3% of the psychoactive THC (or tetrahydrocannabinol) compound.

Even given this year’s growth, Viridian president and founder Scott Greiper predicts that 2019 will be even bigger as far as the number of investments and acquisitions in the U.S. market, which is expected to generate $23.4 billion in sales by 2022, according to Arcview Research.

The growing public support for legalization may begin to show up in legislation in 2019 as lawmakers consider a bill to allow marijuana companies to access FDIC-backed bank accounts. The U.S. surgeon general has also indicated that the federal government may move toward rescheduling cannabis to permit more medical research.

“Up until about 6 months ago, the majority of most of the activity was outside the U.S. market because of the continued issue with federal illegality and lack of commercial banking and lack of interstate commerce,” Greiper said. “Larger pools of capital, public and private, are starting to get comfortable that the U.S. market will become the largest market in the world.”