Cannabis startup Algea and its parent company, Bloomwell Group, which was only founded a year ago, want to conquer the cannabis market in Europe. Medical cannabis has also been prescribable in Germany since 2017. However, the recreational market with cannabis products has not yet been tapped. Nevertheless, the founders, Dr. Julian Wichmann and Anna-Sophia Kouparanis, believe in the success of their digital company Algea Care, which combines cannabis treatments with telemedicine. Planned development, buyouts of other companies and investments formed a lucrative gap in the market, they said. It is no coincidence that the company has been able to bring on board two U.S. investors who want to shake up the European cannabis market with a total of $10 million.
The new holding company Bloomwell thus receives new capital in the form of a seed financing round from „Measure 8 Ventures Partners“ and also from „M 4 Capital“. The early investment is mainly expected by the backers to bring rapid growth, as the company has already grown by 160 employees in the first year after the parent company was founded and seems to be generating lucrative profits, as the market has been growing since 2017 when the „Cannabis as Medicine“ law came out.
However, the market is not growing as fast as some had hoped, including Niklas Kouparanis, as CEO and brother of the founder. Kouparanis has been involved in other medical cannabis business models, but now enjoys a bad reputation due to dubious dealings and supposed research success with Farmako.
In addition to Dr. Wichmann and the Kouparanis siblings, three other well-known people are also involved, including Samuel Meghistu and Boris Jordan from the investor team, as well as Professor Dr. Reinhard Meier, known as TeleClinic co-founder. He was Medical Director at TeleClinic until the first telemedicine provider for video consultations was sold to DocMorris.
Source: www.apotheke-adhoc.de