1868 Ventures

No. 1868 Ventures avoids direct investments in plant-touching cannabis businesses because its parent company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and operates under US federal law. Its portfolio focuses on ancillary products and services — hydroponic equipment, grow lighting, nutrients, testing labs, and compliance software — that support the cannabis supply chain without handling the plant itself.

1868 Ventures has historically deployed capital through a mix of minority equity stakes, convertible debt, and structured financings. For example, the firm provided a convertible loan facility to RIV Capital, a cannabis-focused investment company, allowing for principal-plus-interest repayment or future equity conversion. This flexible instrument set reflects a corporate venture approach that balances growth exposure with downside protection — a feature less common among traditional VC limited partnerships.

The name references the founding year of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, not an independent investment firm. While '1868 Ventures' functions as a brand for the corporate venture strategy, most known investments have been executed through Hawthorne Gardening or the Hawthorne Collective, both wholly owned subsidiaries of Scotts Miracle-Gro. This layering of brands under one corporate parent can obscure the precise legal entity writing each check — something allocators evaluating the platform should trace through SEC filings on a deal-by-deal basis.

Scotts Miracle-Gro has not publicly broken out a dedicated AUM figure for 1868 Ventures. Public filings indicate that the parent company invested several hundred million dollars into the cannabis space through 2021, primarily via M&A for Hawthorne rather than purely through 1868 Ventures' minority-position portfolio. Without a separate fund vehicle or regulatory requirement to report a discrete pool size, the arm's total deployed capital and current fair value remain undisclosed.