A Chat with Alexej Pikovsky, Co-Founder and CEO at Alphagreen: A Marketplace for CBD, Alternative Healthcare & Wellness Products

Alphagreen Group is an eCommerce platform and technology provider focused on CBD and other alternative healthcare products. It operates Europe’s leading platform for CBD and provides a comprehensive marketplace for consumers and brands within the wellness and beauty space, provides trustworthy and effective CBD products to alleviate psychological and physical ailments and is expanding into other niche industries including medical cannabis and nootropics.

Founded in 2019, Alphagreen was born from a passion for health and wellbeing, combined with technology and innovation.

The brainchild of entrepreneurs Alexej Pikovsky and Viktor Khliupko, Alphagreen was created to simplify the entire experience with CBD and alternative healthcare products along every step of the consumer journey.

We spoke to Alexej to find out more…
 

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

 
In 2019, I spent 3 weeks traveling through Canada and California to meet with key players in the cannabis industry. From cultivators to suppliers, D2C brands, B2B sellers, investors, and venture capital firms. I wanted to get into the industry because I wholeheartedly believe in the potential of the cannabis plant and its components like CBD, THC, CBN, CBG, and so on – I believe in the therapeutic and medicinal benefits because I’ve witnessed them with friends and family, and I believe in the consumer product market as well.

When I got back to Europe and continued with my industry research, I began brainstorming with my good friend and now co-founder and CTO, Viktor. I didn’t set out to create just another CBD oil, I wanted to bring to life something that I felt was missing in the market, something that consumers needed and wanted, and it became very apparent to me what that missing link was – an easy-to-use platform that provides all the information around the industry, CBD and cannabis, and offers the best brands and products from all over the world.
 
 

 

How has the company evolved during the pandemic?

 
We kicked off our growth spurt in March last year (2020), shortly after launching the marketplace, and it’s been non-stop ever since. Thanks to our remote work setup, we didn’t have to transition or adjust our workflows when the pandemic hit, which really allowed us to focus on our initial goal: becoming the UK’s leading marketplace for CBD. It took us about six months to hit that target thanks to our dedicated team and super effective content and link-building strategies that drove traffic to our site.

It was this SEO and rapid-scaling expertise that allowed us to really gain a competitive edge in the industry and locked in our reputation not just as a trustworthy marketplace, but also as serious players after we launched NUOPTIMA, a company dedicated to helping rapid-growth businesses with our digital marketing and e-commerce services.

In less than two years, we’ve raised almost £4m; we’ve gone from five full-time employees to nearly fifty. We launched a think tank that includes doctors, investors, influencers, and the UK’s foremost cannabis lawyer, started a digital services agency, and launched our own branded products as well. We do our best to make the most of all possible opportunities.
 

What can we hope to see from Alphagreen in the future?

 
Alphagreen has launched localized domains in multiple countries this year: Germany (including Austria and Switzerland), France, Italy, Spain, and Japan. We’ll be launching Hong Kong and Portugal as well this year to reach more overseas customers.

We’re constantly improving our marketplace design and features; we just launched our loyalty rewards programme and we’re going to be launching our first non-CBD direct to consumer brand, which will focus on adaptogens and nootropics. More news to follow.