Brian Nichols is the co-founder of Angel Squad, a community where you’ll learn how to angel invest and get a chance to invest as little as $1k into Hustle Fund's top performing early-stage startups

Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., better known as Snoop Dogg, has been one of the most commercially successful musicians in hip-hop history. He has also spent the last decade building what is legitimately one of the more thoughtful venture capital operations in the celebrity investor world, because the investment thesis connects directly to a category he has spent his entire public career advocating for.

Casa Verde Capital

Casa Verde Capital was co-founded in 2018 by Snoop Dogg, managing director Karan Wadhera, and a third partner Ted Chung, founder of Cashmere Agency and Stampede Management. The firm focuses exclusively on the cannabis sector, with a specific preference for infrastructure and enabling technology rather than direct cannabis operators.

That distinction matters, and it's one Angel Squad members apply across sectors: back the infrastructure layer, not the consumer brand competing on commoditized ground. Consumer cannabis brands face enormous headwinds from the black market, regulatory inconsistency, and brand commoditization. But companies that serve the industry, dispensary operating software, recruitment platforms, distribution logistics, compliance tools, and cultivation technology, have more defensible positions regardless of which operators win in any given market.

Snoop Dogg investments through Casa Verde include Dutchie, the dispensary operating platform; Eaze, one of the largest cannabis delivery services in California; LeafLink, the wholesale ordering platform used by a significant portion of licensed dispensaries; and Vangst, the cannabis industry's specialized talent recruiting platform. The fund has made over 33 known investments across the category.

Casa Verde raised $100 million for its second fund in late 2020, bringing its portfolio value to roughly $200 million according to sources with knowledge of the firm's finances. By 2022, Wadhera was characterizing the cannabis market as having gone through a dot-com-style bust driven by overvalued public companies, and positioned the fund's infrastructure focus as the right approach through market normalization.

The Growlink Investment

In August 2024, Casa Verde led a $2 million seed round for Growlink, a cannabis cultivation platform that uses AI capabilities and wireless sensor applications for integrated crop management. The investment was one of Casa Verde's most recent and reflects continued activity in cultivation infrastructure even as the broader cannabis market has struggled.

What Snoop's Brand Means for the Category

Elizabeth Yin of Hustle Fund has made the point that celebrity investors add the most value when their involvement is authentic rather than transactional. Snoop Dogg's association with cannabis is not a brand deal. It is a lifelong public position that predates legalization in any US state and has been consistent throughout his career. That authenticity makes Casa Verde's deal flow different from a typical cannabis VC: founders in the category see Snoop's involvement as a signal of genuine cultural alignment, not celebrity endorsement.

Angel Squad members understand this dynamic well. The most valuable investors in any community are the ones who bring genuine expertise and authentic interest to the companies they back. The Angel Squad community of 2,500-plus investors across 50-plus countries includes operators who invest in sectors where they have real domain knowledge, not just general interest. That's the edge. Learn more at hustlefund.vc/squad.

The Broader Portfolio and Death Row Records

Beyond cannabis, Snoop made significant moves in music. In February 2022, he acquired Death Row Records, the label that launched his career, from MNRK Music Group. He described it as a lifelong dream. The acquisition gave him ownership of one of hip-hop's most significant catalogs, including his own early albums, and he converted it into an NFT label before the market for music NFTs cooled.

His broader investment interests include stakes in esports companies, app development, and digital media. His net worth is estimated around $160 million as of 2025.

The Federal Unlock Thesis

Every analysis of Casa Verde's portfolio performance has to grapple with one structural reality: the US cannabis market operates without access to federal banking, interstate commerce, or standard business deductions because cannabis remains a Schedule I controlled substance. When federal rescheduling or legalization happens, the compliance burden drops, the banking access opens up, and the infrastructure companies Casa Verde has backed become more valuable almost immediately.

That regulatory catalyst thesis is what makes this sector interesting from a contrarian investing standpoint. The businesses are operational and generating revenue today. The catalyst that should dramatically improve their unit economics and valuations is not a product question or a team question. It's a policy question that appears to be trending in one direction. Trump signed an executive order in March 2026 directing federal agencies to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III, which would represent the largest federal shift on cannabis policy in decades.

The Takeaway

Casa Verde's thesis has been partially right and partially tested by a brutal market. The cannabis infrastructure companies in its portfolio have fared better than the operators. The sector is still waiting for federal regulatory clarity in the US that would unlock banking access and interstate commerce. When that happens, Casa Verde's infrastructure bets should appreciate significantly.