South Africa’s first cannabis investment company, Silverleaf Investments, has launched a new programme to finance small cannabis businesses that have high growth potential. To qualify, SME’s have to have legal income and be worth at least R2,5 million.

Silverleaf has launched a Business Accelerator programme for small and medium entrepreneurs (SME’s) in the cannabis industry. CEO Darryl Weisz says this is a “first-of-it’s kind” funding programme that is aimed at catapulting high growth cannabis firms into the “new dawn” that legislative change is promising.

READ: Silverleaf launches SA cannabis crowd funding  platform, GoGetta

Weisz says “the objective of the Silverleaf Business Accelerator Programme is to identify and select the leading cannabis SMEs that have the potential to scale that are not quite investment-ready and put them through a hands-on focused Business Accelerator. This will ensure that the cannabis SME will, after three months, together with Silverleaf Business Accelerator, be in a position to prepare an Investor Memorandum to secure growth capital.

He says Silverleaf decided to put up its own capital to launch the programme and that it was adopting a rigorous approach to investment. “Companies wishing to apply for the Accelerator Programme must have an established business that is registered as a company, must be earning revenue from legal means, and have a company valuation of at least R2.5 million”.

READ: Welcome to a new generation of investors taking up a long-term view of the SA cannabis industry

He said Silverleaf wanted “to take those early-stage commercial cannabis SMEs that have the potential to scale and provide some initial working capital and focused business and professional skills that will position the accelerator company with the opportunity of securing growth capital once it has completed Silverleaf’s Business Accelerator Programme”.

Silverleaf already has investments in Druid’s Garden and Ecogreen Analytics.

* For more information invest@silverleafinvestments.co.za