Today on Forbes, this $100 million vape company is a pillar of the cannabis industry.

Alex Kwan did not set out to build one of the largest vaporizer companies in the cannabis industry.

It started out as a side project to help his East Winachi Washington-based cannabis extracts company,

Sungrown, stand out in the crowded market.

But six weeks after launching a new vape cartridge in November 2018, the product generated

$1.6 million in revenue, and Kwan knew he had a real business.

The 41-year-old Kwan tells Forbes, quote, that was the moment that I was like, we should do something with this.

It's taken years and tens of millions of dollars spent on lawsuits,

including a falling out with his business partner and a patent infringement case

levied by one of China's biggest vape manufacturers.

But Active now controls an estimated

20% of the vape hardware market and generates an estimated $100 million in annual revenue

by selling its devices to some of the biggest companies in the $30 billion in estimated

2025 revenue, cannabis industry, from True Leave to Cure Leaf to Jeter, who fill those devices

with their own THC oil.

As he pops a Zin in his mouth, Kwan says, quote, we've gotten run over by a bus seven times.

Somehow we're still here and still growing.

While Kwan still owns Sungrown, which generates about $20 million in

annual revenue by selling cannabis flour, vapes, pre-rolls, and gummies under a suite of brands,

eight-year-old active is his biggest company. Vapes are the second best-selling category in the U.S.

cannabis market, with $6 billion in

sales in 2024.

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