Highlights from the Cannabis & Psychedelics Investment Summit in NYC, November 16, 2023
Kahner Global curates the leading cannabis and psychedelics investing educational summit exclusively for high net worth investors and family offices. It was great to see everyone back at the 7th Annual Cannabis & Psychedelics Investment Summit in NYC!
We are very grateful for our host, Cohn Reznik and our Gold Sponsor, Pelorus Capital Group. This year we had the pleasure of holding the event at the Cohn Reznik offices in midtown. Our master of ceremonies this year was Jenny Joslin, co-founder of High Herstory.
The morning kicked off with the Regulatory Horizons panel, a metaphorical crystal ball for Forecasting Psychedelic and Cannabis Policies in the 2020s. The panel discussed what could happen after cannabis is rescheduled and their predictions for the next phase for psychedelics. We had great insights from moderator David Feldman of Skip Intro Advisors and panelists Saphira Galoob of The Liaison Group and Mitch Kulick of Feuerstein Kulick.
The second panel of the day was focused on Psychedelics and Pharma. Peggy Van De Plassche moderated with panelists Shelby Clark of Lionheart Ventures, Vic Pirotsky of xDNA and Michael Rubinov of 3RPharma. They discussed Investing into the Future of Medicine and Brain Health, offered valuable information and insights while fielding lots of audience questions and statements. This panel had the most audience participation of the entire day.
Just prior to the much anticipated investor pitch session, we heard from Rob Sechrist of Pelorus Capital and Shadd Dales of the Dales Report in a fireside chat on the future of investing in the cannabis space.
Each year, we hold an investor pitch session where six companies pitch to an esteemed panel of judges for seven minutes. This year, we heard pitches from Aarnt Bioworks, ExstoBio, PurMinds, CostaMerica, Entourage Effect Capital, Individuation Pathways, and Wonder Sciences. All of our pitchers did a great job, but Wonder Sciences took home this year’s award.
“Most companies, panels and discussions were focused on the drug development stages of the industry, but a big shift needs to happen in the way people access healthcare for new evidence-based psychedelic treatments to have the impact on humanity that we need them to,” said Jose Munoz Aycart, co-founder and managing director of Wonder Sciences. “We are grateful the judges and audience saw the importance of accessibility as the key pillar to truly transform mental healthcare. Through research and technology, Wonder Sciences is pioneering the intersection of psychedelic medicine and science to revolutionize new forms of mental health treatment access."
Special thanks to our pitch contest judges investor Geoff Judge, Wendy Diamond of LDB Ventures and Jon Kule of MoonPharm Holdings.
After a networking break, Lisa Ireland of Longevity Science Foundation and Simeon Schnapper of JLS provided their perspectives on the Impact Investing panel moderated by David Flores of PSYC Corporation. The panel discussed the importance of marketing and education which has been an issue for psychedelics with Lisa adding, “it’s important [for psychedelics companies] to have a chief science officer, but hire a marketer first.”
John Pinto from SOJE Capital moderated the Investment Strategies for the Cannabis Industry panel with Matt Hawkins of Entourage Effect Capital, Bruce Linton and Eleanor de Guigne of Northpoint. The panel identified and discussed what they see as the next big trends in cannabis.
After another networking break, we jumped right into the Innovate Now: Marketing Products & Reach panel with our moderator Chris Denson and panelists Ari Katz of ROAR and Dr. Natanya Wachtel of New Solutions Network. Next, Brian Kessler of SBL Venture Capital moderated the Tech Revolution panel with Kevin McGovern of McGovern Capital and Raad Seraj of Mission Club. We heard from them about game-changing innovations and patents for the cannabis and psychedelics industries.
Our last panel of the day, moderated by Matt Karnes of GreenWave focused on Transactional Options: M&A and Joint Ventures with panelists Joshua Snyder of Squares Capital and Pasquale Patrone of Cohn Reznick.
What a great day! We headed to Chinatown for a very special afterparty sponsored by House of Puff, Essentia, Lionheart Ventures and The Mooney House.
Overall event sponsors include Cohn Reznick, Pelorus Capital Group, Aarnt Bioworks, Skip Intro Advisors, Exsto Bio, CostaMerica, Entourage Effect Capital, Individuation Pathways, JLS, Lionheart Ventures, Roar NYC, Feuerstein Kulick, PurMinds, North Point Mergers & Acquisitions, Wonder Sciences, 3RPharma. And, thank you to our media partners: Benzinga, Chnany, Candy & Flowers, MJBiz, Psychedelic Spotlight , Psychedelic Alpha and reMind.
Special thanks to all of our sponsors, speakers and attendees for making this year’s summit in NYC a huge success!
The Cannabis & Psychedelics Investment Summit showcases the best and brightest cannabis entrepreneurs and is the premiere summit for institutional investors, family offices, and ultra high net worth investors. For additional information on any presenting companies, please email us at info@kahnerglobal.com.
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