Juul
Juul Labs, Inc. is an American electronic cigarette company headquartered in San Francisco. Its flagship product is the Juul electronic cigarette, which atomizes nicotine salts derived from tobacco supplied by one-time use cartridges. Juul Labs was co-founded by Adam Bowen and James Monsees as part of Pax Labs and started selling the Juul device in 2015. In 2017, Juul Labs was spun off from Pax Labs, after which Altria acquired a 35% stake in the company for $12.8 billion on December 20, 2018. Juul received a $2 billion bonus to distribute among its 1,500 employees. Juul stopped selling its original device in 2023, introducing the Juul 2.
After a large social media marketing campaign, Juul became the most popular e-cigarette in the United States by the end of 2017 and had a market share of 72% as of September 2018. Juul also purchased ad space in Seventeen magazine, and on the Nick Jr. Channel TV network. According to documents obtained by the Massachusetts Attorney General's office, Juul bought ads on seventeen different educational, gaming, and crafting sites directed towards middle and high school students. Its widespread use by young people triggered concern from the public health community and multiple investigations by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the high nicotine concentrations in Juul was seen as a potential health hazard to young people. Juul agreed to pull certain flavored cartridges, which could entice underage use, from the market in 2018, and a year later reached a settlement with the Center for Environmental Health to scale back and restrict its marketing efforts to those who are appropriately aged.
By July 2020, Juul's market share was 42% and as of September 2022, it was 28%. A 2022 survey found that Juul is the third most popular e-cigarette brand among middle-school and high-school students, used by 22% of e-cigarette users. On June 23, 2022, the FDA denied authorization for Juul to continue selling its products in the United States, and issued Marketing Denial Orders banning any further marketing or sale of the products effective immediately. That order was blocked by the U.S. Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C. the next day. In July 2025, the FDA authorized Juul to sell tobacco- and menthol-flavored vapes only.
History
Early history
In 2005, two former cigarette smokers, Adam Bowen and James Monsees, met while they were graduate students in product-design at Stanford University and developed an e-cigarette called Ploom. By 2007, they started a business with the same name. In 2015, the company sold Ploom, changed their name to Pax Labs, and developed Juul. Juul Labs, Inc. was founded on May 22, 2015. The Juul electronic cigarette was introduced by Pax Labs in June 2015.In July 2017, Juul Labs was spun out of PAX Labs as an independent company, with Tyler Goldman, former CEO of PAX Labs, named as CEO of Juul after the spin-off. In December 2017, Goldman was replaced by Kevin Burns. Co-founder James Monsees worked as Chief Product Officer and board member at Juul. Co-founder Adam Bowen worked as Chief Technology Officer and board member at Juul. Other board members include Nicholas Pritzker, whose family owned chewing tobacco giant Conwood, Riaz Valani, and Hoyoung Huh.
2017–2019
The company grew from 200 employees in September 2017 to 1,500 by the end of 2018., the Juul e-cigarette is manufactured in Shenzhen, China while the pods are made in the United States. Pods are also referred to as "vape juice."In July 2018, Juul raised $650 million, giving it a valuation of $15 billion. On December 20, 2018, Altria, one of the world's largest cigarette manufacturers, bought 35% of Juul for $12.8 billion. According to Wells Fargo, the deal valued Juul Labs at $38 billion. At the time, Juul had an annual revenue of about $2 billion. Juul bought a building in San Francisco in 2019 for almost $400 million.
In April 2018, former Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley joined Juul, working in the government affairs team to coordinate lobbying for the product, while advocating against underage usage. Ethical questions have been raised about Coakley's lobbying for the industry considering her former position as attorney general and the accusations of Juul marketing to youth.
In October 2018 Juul Labs, Inc. purchased VMR Products LLC, the parent company of V2 e-cigarettes in a $75 million deal. VMR Products LLC was an electronic cigarette company that marketed brands of e-cigarettes and vaporizers, including V2, V2 Pro, Vapor Couture and Vapour2. A few years prior to the acquisition, VMR was described as "the market leader in online sales of e-cigs". It was reported that Juul's rationale for the acquisition of VMR products was to gain access to the Chinese market. VMR Products was owned at the time by Huabao International Holdings.
On June 13, 2019, United States House of Representatives launched an investigation into the Juul Labs, looking into the business deal with Altria, social media and advertising practices, and communications. The investigation was spearheaded by Illinois Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy. The subcommittee found that "Juul appears to be violating FDA regulations against making unapproved express and implied claims that its product helps users stop smoking cigarettes and is safer than cigarettes".
On September 25, 2019, it was announced that Kevin Burns was stepping down as CEO and K.C. Crosthwaite, the Chief Growth Officer for Altria, would be taking over the role. In October 2019, it was reported that Juul planned to lay off approximately 500 workers by the end of 2019. In October 2019, a number of executives departed the company including Chief Financial Officer Tim Danaher, Chief Administrative Officer Ashley Gould, Chief Marketing Officer Craig Brommers, and Senior Vice President of advanced technologies David Foster.
On October 31, 2019, Altria announced that it was writing down $4.5 billion of the investment it had made in Juul. Altria cut Juul's valuation to approximately $10 billion in October 2020, $4.3 billion by March 2021, $1.6 billion by March 2022, and $450 million in July 2022.
2020–present
On January 25, 2020, it was announced that Grant Winterton, president of operations in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Ken Bishop, president of operations in Asia-Pacific South, were both leaving Juul as it sought to cut $1billion in costs. Winterton was reported to have organized expensive events paid for by the company.In 2021, journalist Jamie Ducharme released a book about the history of the company entitled Big Vape: The Incendiary Rise of Juul. It was adapted into a Netflix series in 2023.
In March 2023, Altria announced that they would exchange their minority ownership of Juul for licensing rights to some of the company's intellectual property.
In April 2023, Juul agreed to pay out $462 million to the states of New York, California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico and the District of Columbia to settle a lawsuit alleging that the company marketed their products to children. This and payouts from other similar lawsuits have cost the company at least $3 billion.
In 2025, Juul launched the Juul2, a new device with Bluetooth capability and an optional app that requires age verification. The company says it is designed solely to help existing adult smokers to quit.
Corporate affairs
Executive team
K. C. Crosthwaite has been CEO of Juul since 2019. Adam Bowen is the founder and Chief Technology Officer and James Monsees founder and Chief Product Officer. In March 2020, it was reported that Monsees was planning to step down from his role at the company. He would also be stepping down as an adviser and board member.Jose Luis Murillo is the Chief Regulatory Officer of Juul. His previous position was Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs at Altria.
Investors
Current company investors include Tiger Global Management, mutual fund firm Fidelity Investments, and Tao Capital. In June 2018, Juul reportedly raised $1.2 billion in a financing round that valued the company at more than $16 billion. Around the same time TPG Capital declined to invest in Juul due to ethical concerns.Altria Group, acquired a 35% stake in Juul Labs for $12.8 billion on December 20, 2018. Altria is the largest tobacco company in the United States. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Altria's investment in Juul was pushed by the fact that many smokers were switching to the electronic variant and Altria's own e-cigarette product, MarkTen, was not selling well. Critics have cited the acquisition as proof that the vaping industry and "Big Tobacco," the latter of which long denied the link between smoking and health complications, are increasingly one and the same. Shortly after the deal, which also allowed Juul to be sold in more places, then FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb called out the combined company for "deviating from the representation that they already made to the agency about steps they are taking to restrict their products in a way that will decrease access to kids."
Design
The Juul e-cigarette looks similar to a USB flash drive, and it is recharged using a magnetic USB dock.Juul e-cigarettes use nicotine salts rather than free-base nicotine as used in most previous generations of e-cigarettes. The nicotine is derived from tobacco. Juul received a US patent for its nicotine salt preparation in 2015. The nicotine salts are said to create an experience more like smoking than other e-cigarettes on the market, as Juul attempts to deliver a nicotine peak in five minutes, similar to a traditional cigarette.
The nicotine salts reduce the harshness of the Juul aerosol as compared to tobacco smoke. The protonated nicotine formulation of nicotine salts has been described as problematic because it seemingly allow users to inhale much higher nicotine concentrations than they would otherwise be able to. Each cartridge contains about the same amount of nicotine as one pack of cigarettes and delivers approximately 200 puffs.
The amount of nicotine in each cartridge – 59 mg/ml in the United States, limited to 20 mg/ml in the European Union – is substantially more than the majority of e-cigarettes on the market. In August 2018, Juul introduced pods in 3 percent strengths for its mint and Virginia tobacco flavors. This is equivalent to 30 mg/ml. Each cartridge contains propylene glycol, glycerin, flavorings, and nicotine salts. Juul pods came in eight flavors until late 2019, of which mango was the most popular. A Juul starter kit sells for about $50.
Joel Johnson of Co.Design described the nicotine intake as "eye-widening" and its aesthetics as "demure". Upon initial release, Ben Radding of Men's Fitness called Juul the "iPhone of E-cigs." The comparison to the iPhone and other Apple products has been made by many other commentators. Pharmacologist James Pauly, a specialist in nicotine, notes that Juul delivers more nicotine than other e-cigarettes, and that the salts also may reduce the harshness, making it easier for new smokers, such as teenagers, to consume more nicotine than they are aware of.
In August 2019, a spokesperson for Juul Labs said that the company was exploring an option similar to the deposit system for Juul pods to reduce marine pollution. The spokesperson mentioned in an email that the company is committed to responsible stewardship and environmental sustainability.