The lenders and funds financing cannabis — and, as the debt wall comes due, converting that debt into ownership of the operators.
| Investor | Type | Holdings | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| AFC / Advanced Flower Capital (formerly AFC Gamma) | Cannabis private-credit lender;… | West Palm Beach lender (Nasdaq: AFCG), founded July 2020; ~$800M in cannabis loans originated across private credit + a publicly… | The #2 name (with Chicago Atlantic) in cannabis private credit and a bellwether for the debt crisis: its legacy-loan write-downs… |
| Ayr Wellness backers (senior noteholders / Millstreet) | Distressed-credit creditors… | Ayr Wellness (AYR.A) restructured ~$400M of debt (Feb 2024) and entered a July 30, 2025 Restructuring Support Agreement handing… | Textbook case of who really 'owns' a struggling MSO in 2025-26: not the founders or public shareholders, but the… |
| Bregal (Bregal Partners / Bregal Sagemount) | Middle-market private equity… | No verifiable direct cannabis, hemp, or CBD portfolio company found in current sources. Bregal Partners (NY, founded 2012,… | Included for completeness and to correct the premise: despite being named in the request, Bregal does not appear to be an active… |
| Casa Verde Capital (Snoop Dogg) | Venture capital… | Co-led the $50M round in Metrc/Franwell (seed-to-sale track-and-trace, minority stake); Metrc merged with BioTrack Aug 2025. ~47… | The most credible brand-name cannabis VC. Deliberately avoids plant-touching operators (federal illegality) and instead owns the… |
| Chicago Atlantic (REFI / Chicago Atlantic Group) | Cannabis-focused mortgage REIT +… | Chicago Atlantic Real Estate Finance (Nasdaq: REFI) held ~$411M outstanding loan principal at YE2025, ~16.3% gross portfolio… | The single largest player in the ~$6B cannabis debt wall coming due through 2026. As equity markets shut, debt was >80% of all… |
| Dedicated cannabis PE/VC funds (Gotham Green, Merida, Poseidon, Entourage Effect, Silver Spike) | Cannabis-exclusive private equity… | Gotham Green Partners — late-stage/mezzanine cannabis credit + equity; portfolio incl. MedMen (notorious loss), Flow Kana, FORIA.… | These are the purpose-built cannabis funds that carried the sector through the 2019-2022 boom and are now navigating the bust.… |
| Franwell Inc. (Jeff Wells) — Metrc parent | Founder-controlled RFID/software… | Founded 1993 by Jeff Wells for the RFID market; spun out Metrc in 2013 to serve Colorado's cannabis enforcement division.… | The backers of Metrc are Franwell (majority) + Tiger Global + Casa Verde (minority). Whoever controls Metrc controls the… |
| Jushi Holdings backers (Jim Cacioppo, Denis Arsenault, One East, Nomura) | Founder + angel + institutional… | CEO/co-founder Jim Cacioppo held ~19.9% (Mar 2025); cannabis-financing angel Denis J. Arsenault ~10.1% (Feb 2025). Institutional… | Jushi is founder/insider-heavy rather than PE-controlled, which is why it retains more strategic autonomy than debt-captured… |
| Millstreet Capital Management (Craig Kelleher & Brian Connolly) | Boston distressed-credit /… | Via Millstreet Credit Fund LP: acquired The Cannabist Company's entire Virginia business — 6 Richmond-area retail locations +… | The archetype of the 2025-26 cannabis distressed-credit playbook: a generalist Boston hedge fund with NO prior cannabis strategy… |
| Tiger Global Management (Chase Coleman) | Crossover hedge fund /… | Co-led (with Casa Verde) the $50M Metrc/Franwell round in 2018; led the $200M Series C for cannabis e-commerce platform Dutchie… | Signals that a mega-cap generalist crossover fund was willing to touch cannabis, but only through software/data (Metrc, Dutchie)… |
| Trulieve Cannabis (Kim Rivers) — the political-money fund | MSO acting as the dominant… | Bankrolled Florida's Smart & Safe Florida committee: ~$141.9M of $149.7M raised for the 2024 Amendment 3 adult-use ballot drive… | The clearest example of cannabis 'political money': a single operator self-funding an entire state legalization campaign to… |