Cannabis company breaks record
Kiwis keen to invest in medicinal cannabis have pledged more than $2.5 million to South Island startup Puro.
Three weeks after launching two campaigns on PledgeMe, the company has raised $2.53m, a record for the crowdfunding site.
Puro managing director Tim Aldridge said the response had been incredible.
‘‘The fact that so many Kiwis are backing us feels like a real vote of confidence in what we are doing,’’ he said.
‘‘It is also a sign that investors recognise this is a rapidly growing industry with enormous economic potential for New Zealand.’’
Aldridge said Puro was the first medicinal cannabis company to start an equity crowdfunding campaign with a licence to grow the crop and had worked hard to get its ducks in a row before the PledgeMe launch. ‘‘We secured premium Marlborough land, built an expert team, and had buyers lined up,’’ he said.
The company’s simultaneous equity crowdfunding and wholesale campaigns each aimed to raise $2m by December 6.
As of yesterday, they had raised $1,784,369 and $750,000 respectively. The money would be used to build research and growing facilities, fund site security and pay for extraction equipment.
Puro’s total surpassed the previous New Zealand PledgeMe record of $2.06m, set by craft beer company Behemoth Brewing, and also topped the site’s Australian record of AU$2.15m (NZ$2.31m).
The company has a Ministry of Health licence to grow medicinal cannabis on a site near the Waihopai spy base in Marlborough and is awaiting another licence to grow highcannabidiol hemp at Kekerengu, north of Kaikoura.
Puro director Sank Macfarlane, whose family has farmed on the Kekerengu site for 130 years, said medicinal cannabis could become as valuable to the region as sauvignon blanc.
‘‘The region’s long sunshine hours and high UV rating makes it the perfect place to grow medical cannabis. It is a climate that will help us grow higher yielding plants, with larger concentrations of cannabinoids, at lower cost.’’