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Entourage Effect and Shield Compliance Join the ICLC

Blog Post

Having just celebrated its one year anniversary, and hard on the heels of recent announcements that First Citizens Bank and Safe Harbor Financial had joined the ICLC (see here and here), the ICLC is pleased to announce three additional new participants. One of these is a commercial bank. In accordance with our commitment to our bank participants, they are not identified outside the Community unless they specifically authorize it, as was the case with our First Citizens blog. 

The other 2 new participants, Entourage Effect Capital (EEC) and Shield Compliance, are each well-known and respected within the cannabis industry. Their participation will enhance the ICLC’s potential value to its participants, enriching the breadth and depth of relevant and accretive cannabis industry experience, skillsets, contacts and perspectives available to them. 

As contrasted with the proactive outreach involved in recruiting the ICLC’s early participants, contact with the ICLC was initiated by these and most of our other recently reported new participants, a development we find an encouraging reflection of the market’s recognition of the ICLC’s relevance. 

Established in 2014, and having made more than 70 investments, EEC is one of the longest standing and most experienced cannabis investment firms. Its team has developed a broad and deep network over the past ten years, and EEC has indicated that it looks forward to sharing contacts and related opportunities with ICLC participants. Multiple senior EEC team members come from decades-long careers in leveraged finance and their expertise has proven critical to EEC and its partners in navigating past debt financings. 

Since 2014, Shield Compliance has been seeking to transform how financial institutions serve the legal cannabis market, setting the standard for compliance excellence in cannabis banking. Its purpose-built BSA/AML compliance management software solution sits behind the financial institution to simplify compliance, automate processes across multiple data sources, create efficiencies, unlock new revenue, and scale operations and includes time monitoring and comprehensive reporting capabilities. By enhancing the ability of its nearly 70 financial institution clients to achieve these objectives, Shield contributes to increasing the availability to the cannabis industry of normalized banking relationships, including lending.

For information about ICLC participation, please contact Steve Lenn (salenn@bmdllc.com) or Brandon Pauley (btpauley@bmdllc.com).


Fluresh Cannabis’ Bank Loan: Moving Into the Mainstream

The announcement by Fluresh, a vertically integrated Michigan based cannabis business, of the closing of loans from a federally insured commercial bank totaling almost $50 million represents an important landmark for both Fluresh and the cannabis industry writ large. For Fluresh, perhaps as important as the bottom-line benefits of lower cost financing, the fact that its operations and financials passed muster with a substantial commercial bank can be regarded as an important rite of passage. For the industry, it reflects its inexorable movement out of the shadows and into the mainstream. This substantiates the view that, whether or not any of pending the federal legislation is enacted, bank lending to the cannabis industry will continue to accelerate.

Out of the Shadows | An Investor Summit Recap

After a COVID hiatus of more than 2 years, I rejoined the institutional cannabis investment speaker circuit, offering the closing remarks at the Kahner Global Cannabis Private Investment Summit in Coral Gables, Florida. My remarks addressed how banking developments are increasingly impacting cannabis investment, operating and financial strategies and decisions, for both plant touching and the growing array of ancillary businesses serving the industry.

BMD Announced in Best Law Firms 2022 List

We are excited to announce that BMD is included in the 2022 Edition of U.S. News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms,” recognized for professional excellence with consistently impressive ratings from clients and peers. The full firm report is included.

Key Takeaways from BMD’s Banking and Cannabis Webinar

Estimates have shown that the cannabis industry is one of, if not the, fastest growing industries in the United States in recent years, with no sign of slowing. Growth requires capital. Banks need loans, and cannabis companies, which are rapidly becoming bankable need access to lower cost bank lending. While cannabis remains federally illegal, an impediment to access to financial institution credit, banks and credit unions are nevertheless entering the market in increasing numbers.

American Heart Association's 2021 Go Red For Women

The BMD Season of Giving in 2020 was a great way to help out organizations that help others. Continuing community involvement in 2021, we will be looking to the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women campaign. Healthcare and Hospital Law Member and Vice President Amanda Waesch is the Chair of Go Red for Women for the American Heart Association, which is kicking off the 28 days of Heart Health. Show your support on February 5th with “Wear Red and Give” Day. Consider hosting a Jeans Day every Friday in the month of February at your place of business in support of Go Red For Women, even encouraging remote employees to participate. Snap a pic of your team members in their red gear and post on social media (socially distanced in person or a virtual group photo will work, too!) – see the toolkit here for sharing on your favorite social platforms. Click here to learn more and donate to the GRFW Campaign.