Summary. Advanced Vapor Devices (AVD) has quietly built the second-largest vape company by market share, just behind CCELL. In my conversations with CEO, Alex Kwon, it's clear that the company prefers to be heads down on execution, while letting the product, technology, and customers (such as Trulieve, Jeeter, Gold Drop, Blue River, Jetty, to name a few) speak for itself. Despite maintaining a low profile, AVD was thrust into the spotlight following a significant intellectual property (IP) lawsuit filed by Smoore/CCELL in 2021 in the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). As the legal proceedings unfolded, it became apparent that AVD was the primary target of CCELL. However, just last month, the ITC delivered a definitive ruling in favor of AVD, finding no violation of their products. The ITC decision inadvertently fortified AVD's global IP strategy, charting a new path in the battle for IP dominance in the still nascent cannabis vape industry. In the months ahead, expect increased visibility from AVD as they launch new products in collaboration with some recognizable companies in the Cannabis industry.

Alex Kwon, CEO and Co-Founder. Alex leverages two decades of experience leading cannabis companies to strategically guide AVD’s growth and success. His extensive cannabis industry knowledge encompasses plant biology, cannabinoid science and leading-edge extraction and vape technologies. AVD operates on fundamental values that guide its daily operations propelling it to make impactful change as a force for good. Alex excels at building teams and architecting how businesses work, as he strives to inspire and influence how other entrepreneurs can think differently and challenge the status quo.

His industry background includes founding the Humboldt Consulting Group, where he directed land acquisition and development in Northern California, and founding Sungrown in Washington State. As Sungrown’s CEO, he oversaw a targeted resin farming approach, that when coupled with best-in-class extraction and formulation, produced the premier cannabis oils found in top product brands in the state. Alex enjoys spending as much time as possible with his wife and three children.

Company Background and Overview. After extensive experience in cultivation and extracts, Alex realized that he should focus on value-added products like vapes and concentrates as they would continue to gain market share against flowers. Having experienced many reliability and consistency issues in vape hardware firsthand, Alex co-founded AVD in 2018 and delved into studying the entire supply chain to find ways to produce vape hardware at a fair cost while ensuring improved reliability, consistency and flavor. AVD embarked on a mission to assist companies and extractors in tackling the additional complexities of vape hardware, which added to the already challenging process of extraction and formulation. Furthermore, given the dissatisfaction caused by subpar customer service and products from incumbents like CCELL, there was a clear and urgent demand for a solution that could genuinely fulfill customer requirements and earn their loyalty. AVD had found a big product and customer service issue to solve in a multi-billion-dollar segment of the Cannabis industry.