FAST-GROWING alternative healthcare platform Alphagreen is launching a services division – NUOPTIMA – following its latest £1m-plus fund-raise.
The NUOPTIMA product family features SEO ranking, social influencer, AdWords and email marketing, cross-border distribution, with others, such as translation, set to follow.
This B2B service arm of Alphagreen marks a clear evolution from the initial B2C alphagreen.io domain – a CBD and alternative healthcare market-place, which was launched last year.
The template for its future trajectory is that of the highly-successful, £7bn, UK firm The Hut Group.
B2C And Now B2B
Alexej Pikovsky, co-founder and CEO of Alphagreen, told BusinessCann: “The path we aim to follow is one which has been created by the likes of Amazon and The Hut Group.
“They started off as market places and expanded successfully into services and own brands. Marketplaces are great to get the audience and the distribution set up, but providing value to brands via services, data and owning brands allows you to create huge network effects. That is where real revenue growth and profitability can be driven.”
NUOPTIMA features the following; ‘Reach’, which consists of SEO, influencer marketing, and paid traffic services. ‘Convert’ – consisting of creative services, email marketing, and customer service.
And, finally ‘Run’ a package of CMS, Omni-channel management, and distribution between US and UK, as well as UK and EU
NUOPTIMA clients already include some leading industry healthcare and wellness brands, including; Infused Amphora, Goodbody, VAAY, Mantle, and CBII (part of the H&H group) as well as fintech brand MarketFinance.
US Multi-State Operators
Mr Pikovsky said it is in the process of onboarding two more brands this month and, in Q2, it will start working work with two of the largest MSOs in the US on their ‘brand, European operations, driving sales and conversions’.
He added: “By providing an end-to-end platform for brands, covering reach, conversion, accelerated growth, localisation, and fulfilment, we’re streamlining a set of disciplines and processes for a booming industry.
“We’ve seen incredible results with the growth of Alphagreen.io to European market leader, and we’re eager to replicate and build on this success with some of the most exciting new start-ups in emerging healthcare.”
Alphagreen.io is one of Europe’s leading CBD marketplaces and currently hosts 1,900 products and 150 brands. Alphagreen is present in Germany and Sweden, it launched in Spain, last week, is launching in Italy and France by end of this month, followed by Poland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Japan in Q2.
Late last year Alphagreen secured £1.1m of seed funding from Stockholm-based Enexis AB, US cannabis fund West Creek Investments and angel investors, including Igor and Oleg Tikhturov.
The brainchild of Mr Pikovsky and Viktor Khliupko, the company secured £500,000 in its first equity funding round – again featuring Enexis AB – in April, 2020.
Alphagreen says its traffic exceeded 50,000 unique visitors last month with growth at 30% to 40% month-on-month as the services side show double digit revenue growth.
With 35 employees, Mr Pikovsky estimates that 2021 revenues could touch £1.5m taking it to profitability, ahead of schedule.
It is currently looking to on-board more US, Canadian and Latin American brands seeking opportunities in the UK and Europe including medical cannabis distribution.
Mr Pikovsky continued: “The Hut Group has a technology platform ‘THG Ingenuity’ providing of services such as SEO, data, fulfilment, translation, creative studios and is a one-stop shop for brands in the beauty space.
“We aim to deliver something similar in the CBD, cannabis and other emerging verticals.
“Services is the next stage in the evolution of market places. Amazon started out as a bookstore but really became profitable when it diversified into other areas such as entertainment and technology services, like Amazon API.”
To support the growth of Alphagreen Group’s portfolio, experienced product marketing and advertising executive Ruth Zohrer has joined the company in an advisory capacity.
