Remember when Midas-touching angel investor Peter Thiel said there was "a lot of pot smoking going on at Twitter?" He said that. Well, despite what we perceived to be his disdain for cannabis, Thiel may have come around on the matter.
That's because the Thiel-backed Founders Fund — whose successful investments include Facebook, SpaceX, and Airbnb — announced a multimillion dollar investment in a weed tech private equity firm called Privateer.
Yes, Venture Capital, once highly reluctant, is getting in on the high. This marks the first investment in the cannabis arena from a top VC firm, so it's not just the money lent, but the legitimacy that's important.
The investment, which Wired reports, is part of a $75 million round of funding for Privateer. And Business Insider obtained documents putting Privateer at a $425 million pre-money evaluation.
Here's the deal with Privateer: The company has three major holdings. The first is an online medical marijuana distributor in Canada. The second is the popular "Yelp of pot" Leafly (pictured above). And the third is a very weird, sort of gross sounding partnership with Bob Marley's family called Marley Natural which will sell cannabis-related products like lotions, vaporizers, and a strain of Jamaican cannabis.
Pot also saw another milestone this week in the nation's first televised marijuana TV spot, according to SF Weekly. That aired right here in San Francisco on KOFY-24. The 30-second ad makes mention of "medicine," but doesn't show any of the goods, just a few testimonials. Watch the glory of it all below.