Cannabidiol, a substance also known as CBD that is derived from marijuana and hemp, is a hot topic. Unlike cannabis, CBD doesn’t contain THC (the stuff that gets you high) and is a perceived cure-all for conditions such as epilepsy, insomnia, anxiety, inflammation and depression. A new study from cannabis-industry media company The Hemp Business Journal estimates that the CBD market will grow to $2.1 billion in consumer sales by 2020, with $450 million coming from hemp-based sources.
Raleigh-based One Better Ventures, an investment firm headed by former Burt’s Bees CEO John Replogle, has invested $2 million in a new website called Remedy Review that publishes content and information about the growing CBD market. The venture-capital firm has a history of investing in mission-driven companies that they believe will have a positive, healthy impact on consumers.
“We believe that Remedy Review will become the pre-eminent authority on natural remedies and an invaluable resource for consumers to get news and information they can rely on,” Replogle said in a press release. “We are optimistic about the potential of cannabinoids as a viable alternative to opioids to treat serious conditions such as PTSD, anxiety, sleep deprivation and chronic pain.”
The website, which officially launched in early October, covers everything from CBD uses to hemp-based product reviews. A team of health professionals reviews and approves content before it is published.
Remedy Review operates out of Three Ships, a Raleigh-based digital-marketing company, and is run by Executive Editor Marc Lewis, a three-year veteran of Three Ships. Lewis says the main focus is to produce quality content and build an audience, but he hopes to expand the four-employee company and develop multimedia content for the site.
Three Ships won Business North Carolina’s annual Small Business of the Year competition in 2016. The company was started by Zach Clayton, 24 at the time, after he earned an MBA at Harvard University. With the addition of Remedy Review, Three Ships owns and operates three consumer media sites, including Mattress Advisor and House Method.
“We saw the CBD market kind of exploding, and when we looked around, we were finding a variety of different educational materials, different types of product reviews,” Lewis says. “We thought that maybe the consumer could benefit from somebody who could build solid resource collecting, evidence-based articles, looking at ways to review or vet products objectively.
The market is growing so quickly. … We just hope we can be a resource for people, help educate people.”
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