Investing in the Future of Cannabis Innovation
As regulations continue to ease, the industry is poised to expand into a diverse consumer base with burgeoning applications from wellness to materials to energy and protein.
We target entities that are uniquely positioned to benefit from the relaxation of regulations. By supporting disruptive achievement and responsible business practices, we aim to shape the future of cannabis while delivering strong returns for our investors.
Jake Bergmann is a seasoned investor and entrepreneur with multiple successful ventures in the hemp, cannabis, and investment industries.
Currently, Jake manages Iconoclast Ventures, LLC, a cannabis venture capital firm he founded in 2019 to back early-stage companies with upside tied to federal legalization. Through Iconoclast, Jake has invested in 14 companies, including four companies he founded directly.
Prior to Iconoclast, Jake founded and served as CEO of Surterra Holdings, Inc. (now Parallel), one of the largest and fastest growing cannabis companies in America. Under Jake’s leadership, Surterra surpassed $100 million of run-rate revenue within 36 months of being awarded a license in Florida. Jake also drafted legislation and won 1/5 licenses issued in Florida and 1/3 licenses issued in Texas. As CEO, Jake led the acquisition of more than $250 million of assets in Massachusetts, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Jake also led six equity financing rounds, raising more than $90 million, and three debt rounds raising nearly $200 million. In addition, Jake led corporate strategy and government relations and developed a unique corporate culture that empowered a novice operational team to significantly outperform competitors.
More recently, Jake founded Iconoclast Industries LLC which became the lead partner in the development of “Climate-Smart Hemp” as part of the USDA’s pioneering “Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities” program launched in 2022. With the grant, Industries will cultivate hemp using Climate-Smart agricultural practices on 6,950 acres, measure and verify greenhouse gases sequestered to validate carbon credit markets and develop distinct end-market partnerships over five years for the sale of flower, fiber, hurd, grain and carbon.
Prior to Surterra, Jake founded and managed Valkyrie Capital LLC, a global-macro themed investment fund. Jake began his career as a real estate investment banking analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey (now Truist Securities), where he worked on more than $1 billion of acquisitions, dispositions and structured credit transactions. Jake earned dual BBAs with Honors in Real Estate and Finance from Georgia State University and studied Public Finance at the London School of Economics.
Michael is a meticulous operating partner who captains the administration, finance/accounting, strategy formation, compliance, fund structuring/launching, investor relations, and marketing/business development functions of private funds.
He excels in service provider selection and management, operational due diligence, performance reporting, and fund documentation consulting, creation, and review. Michael’s career has spanned roughly 30 years, over which time he has developed a broad-ranging qualitative, as well as quantitative background across both alternative and traditional asset classes.
Before joining Iconoclast Ventures, Michael was an outsourced Chief Operating Officer for an emerging managers fund of hedge funds for ten years. Prior to that, he worked for SunTrust Robinson Humphrey (now Truist Securities) as a bank sector sell-side equity analyst, providing analysis and research to Robinson Humphrey’s investor base, sales force, and trading desk in order to facilitate market making in equity. Before SunTrust, Michael worked for JP Morgan Chase as a sell-side credit research analyst covering the electric utility industry.
He received his MBA from Emory University in 2004, has a BS in Business and Economics from Lehigh University (1998), and received his Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designation in 2019. More recently, he has followed up his CAIA designation with two additional CAIA “Microcredentials”: Private Debt and Digital Assets.
This website is for informational purposes only and should never be used as the basis for any investment decision. This website is not intended to constitute an offer to sell securities of any investment fund or a solicitation to buy any such securities.
Please refer to the private placement memorandum of Iconoclast Ventures II GP, LLC's investment vehicle(s) (the “Funds”) for a full description of the risks, expenses, and conditions associated with an investment in the Funds. Interests in the Funds are offered exclusively to “accredited investors” pursuant to the terms described in the private placement memorandum of the Funds.
Information is not representative of any guaranteed or future performance. Share price, principal value, and return will vary and you may have a gain or loss when you sell your interest in the Funds. Before making any investment decisions, individuals should consult their own advisors, including legal and tax advisors.
Certain information contained in this website constitutes "forward looking statements", which can be identified by the use of forward looking terminology such as "may", "will", "should", should", "expect", "anticipate", "target", "project", "estimate", "intend", “aim”, "continue" or "believe", or the negatives thereof or other variations thereon or comparable terminology. Any forward looking statements (including, without limitation, projections of future earnings or value) contained herein are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from those contemplated in such statements.
