A Saint John based media company which is focused on the cannabis industry has drawn the interest of a New York based Venture Capital firm.
“Civilized worldwide” is behind the digital publishing website “Civilized. life” which targets and promotes recreational marijuana use as part of a balanced lifestyle.
“We talk about things like different uses of cannabis, the different benefits of cannabis but we also talk about music and other lifestyle issues,” said Civilized founder and publisher Derek Riedle.
The increased focus of cannabis has been sparked lately by the Trudeau government’s pledge to legalize marijuana and it’s been called the fastest growing market in the U.S.
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The Civilized website has had more than 1.5 million unique viewers since launching last Fall and may have entered the big time with the support of a New York Venture Capital firm.
Veridian Capital advisors has a focus on the cannabis industry. It weeded through hundreds of companies and Civilized was one of seven it selected to invest in.
“Our commitment is to help build it into the leading media digital platform in the entire marketplace,” said Veridian’s Scott Greiper.
Greiper wouldn’t reveal the level of financial commitment but says he sees great potential given the evolving face of marijuana users.
“The fastest growing demographic of cannabis users are 50 and 60 year olds. They are probably not going to be attracted to a High Times magazine that is showing a lot of bongs and buds or a dope magazine. There’s another type of lifestyle that they’re living,” he said.
Riedle says they are planning big growth with new ideas and new content.
“We need to accelerate the type of content that we’re doing,” Riedle said. “We need to add to the content, we need to expand the types of stories and the way that we’re telling stories.”
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The Civilized board has also added former Vanity Fair publisher Mitchell Fox to it’s board of directors. Greiper uses that magazine in describing his vision for civilized.
“The Vanity Fair of the cannabis industry which does not only talk about fashion and wealth and cars and culture and politics,” he said.
“It’s a vast lifestyle magazine for people that are drawn to the demographic of readers to Vanity Fair.”