Business

Busboys & Poets is inching closer to a grand opening in Charles Village. The Washington, D.C. chain’s much-anticipated arrival in Baltimore is slated to happen by the end of the month, a Busboys spokeswoman told me this week. On Thursday evening, the cafe/bookstore/performance space hosted a sneak preview for the neighborhood, featuring live performances, remarks from Mayor Brandon Scott and some free snacks and books. You can take a first look at the new space in the gallery above.

Medical cannabis dispensaries will celebrate their second 4/20 in the throws of a global pandemic next week. And although the cannabis “holiday” falls on a day that typically sees lower sales overall, local business owners are planning for spikes all weekend long. Dispensaries in Greater Baltimore hope to bring in plenty of extra business with special sales, giveaways and events celebrating Tuesday, April 20, many of those starting this weekend. 4/20 is a date that has become synonymous with the celebration of legal marijuana access and consumption.

Venture capital totals hit a national quarterly record in the first quarter of 2021, with growing companies raising more nine-digit fundings rounds than ever, according to the latest PwC/CB Insights MoneyTree report. VC investments in Q1 surged to a new quarterly record of over $62 billion, raised through 1,735 deals nationwide, the MoneyTree report shows. The funding total is up 117% year-over-year, and the deal total is up 14%.

Stakeholders in the local tech ecosystem have long lamented the Baltimore area’s lack of early-stage funding resources, which forces startup founders to look outside the state to find the growth funding they need. But especially in a post-Covid world, “that’s not necessarily a bad thing,” said Anders Jones, CEO of Facet Wealth. Collectively, the leaders of Baltimore startups Protenus, Facet Wealth and Sonavi Labs have raised more than $100 million in funding, the vast majority of which has come from out-of-state sources.

Forbes’ 2021 World’s Billionaires List saw the addition of 660 new names, among them the CEO of a Maryland-based health care data analytics company. Keith Dunleavy joined the list at No. 2,141 (of 2,755) with a net worth of $1.4 billion. The founder of Inovalon resides in Annapolis, according to Forbes. He joins three other Greater Baltimoreans who have long held a spot on the annual ranking: Baltimore Ravens owner Stephen Bisciotti, chairman of Allegis Group Jim Davis and Under Armour founder Kevin Plank.