Chicago Atlantic BDC

Andreas Bodmeier serves as Chief Investment Officer and leads the investment committee alongside Executive Chairman John Mazarakis and CEO Tony Cappell. The trio co-founded the platform after careers in middle-market credit and structured finance. Origination, underwriting and portfolio management teams sit in Chicago.

Origination is relationship-driven, anchored by a team that has been active in cannabis credit since the early legal state expansions. The firm sources directly from multistate operators, single-state champions and real estate developers — bypassing the broker-intermediated channels that characterize equity fundraising in the sector. Repeat borrowers represent a material share of new commitments, reflecting the scarcity of institutional credit alternatives.

Neither. Chicago Atlantic BDC is a publicly registered business development company managed by an external adviser, Chicago Atlantic Advisers, LLC. The BDC structure provides retail and institutional investors access to a diversified portfolio of cannabis credit; the adviser also manages private real estate vehicles with similar sector exposure.

The BDC portfolio is overwhelmingly senior secured credit. The firm's publicly disclosed book focuses on first-lien term loans and mortgage-secured real estate financings. While lender protections occasionally include warrant coverage or small equity co-invest rights, the core mandate is yield-generating debt, not venture-style upside capture.

The firm targets limited-license, high-barrier states where operator licenses are capped and regulatory oversight is mature. The portfolio has included borrowers in Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Arizona, among others. It generally avoids fully open-license markets with unlimited competition and thinner operator margins.

Chicago Atlantic typically acts as sole or lead lender rather than participating in syndicated facilities led by outside banks. The BDC structure allows direct origination and hold-to-maturity positioning without reliance on third-party lead arrangers. For larger transactions requiring overline capacity, the firm has co-invested alongside its affiliated private REIT.

Federal illegality creates a compliance perimeter the firm navigates through state-law adherence, borrower licensing diligence and asset-level structuring that avoids direct plant-touching exposure at the BDC entity level. This framework allows public market listing and broad investor participation. The legal risk premium embedded in cannabis credit spreads is a core component of portfolio yield, but the firm's credit sizing and collateral controls are designed to be resilient even under adverse legal or regulatory scenarios.