As 2023 comes to an finish, it’s only pure to mirror on what occurred within the markets we cowl. However in terms of hashish, the reply is “not much,” which gained’t assist hashish startups which are already dealing with a difficult funding surroundings.

Particularly, 2023 wasn’t the yr that Germany legalized grownup leisure hashish use. That issues as a result of that’s not what the authorized hashish market as soon as anticipated, and each time there’s misalignment between actuality and what traders anticipated, particularly when public firms boosted mentioned expectations, it’s hardly ever excellent news. Or at the least, not for everybody.

“One trend to look out for in 2024 is consolidation,” mentioned cannabis-focused investor Matt Hawkins, a managing principal at specialised VC agency Entourage Impact Capital. “Companies have spent significant capital in preparation for a sizable commercial market in Germany. [As] the chances of that happening fade, companies might not be able to support their operations without joining forces.”

Let’s check out what to recollect from 2023 and what to anticipate in 2024, with assist from a brand-new global cannabis report from market intelligence agency Prohibition Companions.

What didn’t occur

The expectations that the EU’s most populated nation would possibly legalize leisure marijuana didn’t come out of skinny air; this chance was very a lot on the desk ever since a traffic light coalition took energy in Germany in December 2021. However this coalition of social democrats, liberals and greens watered down its plans a lot since then that one has to surprise how nicely ready it was to beat authorized challenges that shouldn’t have come as a shock.