Rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z launched a new corporate venture fund to invest in Black- and minority-owned cannabis businesses. He’s already raised $10 million for the fund through a historic acquisition of two California-based cannabis companies.
“We were the ones most negatively affected by the war on drugs, and America has turned around and created a business from it that’s worth billions,” Jay-Z told the Wall Street Journal. Founders of color in the industry continue to face significant hurdles.
Jay-Z wants to see that change. In addition to creating his own cannabis line, his entity acquired CMG Partners and Left Coast Ventures, completing the industry’s largest-ever special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), a non-traditional way to take companies public.
For our article curation series, the Plug In South LA Beat, let’s find out whether Jay-Z’s fund could help tip the scales:
Photo Credit: Rich Thane, Flickr Creative Commons