SNOWPLUS brand team announced they have received round A investments from a number of venture capital funds and investors, amounting to more than $40 million on June 20.
It is understood that this is the largest financing in the vape industry in the last six months.
The founder team of SNOWPLUS is mostly in the post-90s generation of China and the United States, and has been successful in many entrepreneurship. Founder Wang Hao said that she had founded Pokee, a chain restaurant in New York, and became a popular resort shop on Instagram. After returning home, Wang Hao hoped to engage in the cause of bringing positive impact and change to society, so in the first half of this year, she set up the SNOWPLUS team, which is mainly engaged in electronic cigarettes.
The beginning of SNOWPLUS is based on the two great values of health and family. “What we have always wanted to do has a positive impact. We believe that e-cigarettes are positive and will improve people’s lives. ” Wang Hao said.
At first, the idea of founding SNOWPLUS was related to Wang Hao’s own experience. Last year, Wang Hao’s elder suffered from severe lung cancer, and his addiction to cigarettes was intolerable. Wang Hao recalled that tar-free electronic cigarettes had been widely used in the United States. After consulting doctors, she brought back a special one, which improved the quality of life of her elder before his death without harming their bodies too much. At that time, Wang Hao began to think for the first time that electronic cigarettes will greatly improve the quality of life of heavy smokers, and this is also a business opportunity with huge potential.
Wang Hao believes that the outbreak of electronic cigarette industry this year is directly related to the promotion of public health awareness in the context of consumer upgrading. At the same time, the popularity of electronic cigarettes can not only reduce the health risks of by-products of cigarettes, improve health, but also close the relationship between parents and children.
According to the data of China Industrial Research Institute in 2017, the penetration rate of e-cigarettes in China is less than 1%, compared with 13% in the United States. This means that there are still many smokers who do not have access to and accept electronic cigarettes as a less harmful and more convenient way that’s better than smoking.
Wang Hao said he was not worried about the number of competitors in the industry. With the efforts of SNOWPLUS and other electronic cigarette brands, if the penetration rate reaches 5%, it will not only mean great progress in public health, but also mean huge market space. That is to say, the runway is very long and the market is very large.
After preliminary research and development, SNOWPLUS is launched in April 2019. According to the company’s statistics, up to now, the monthly sales of SNOWPLUS pod system exceeds 100,000 kits, and the sales in June are expected to exceed 400,000 sets. At the end of this month, SNOWPLUS will launch disposable vape pens and “electronic coffee” to provide vaping options for off-line scenarios under different conditions.
Wang Hao said that after receiving the financing, the SNOWPLUS team will continue to recruit talents, and will continue to focus on sales channel building and R&D.
In terms of sales channels, SNOWPLUS will also make full efforts to cover offline channels besides the main e-commerce channels. The cloud printing project founded by Wang Hao’s team has expanded convenience stores, supermarkets and other channels nationwide, and accumulated a large number of offline channel resources. This has played an important role in promoting the development of SNOWPLUS offline channels. In addition to the traditional channels, SNOWPLUS is also exploring hotels, nightclubs and other channels, and has made considerable progress.
At present, the brand of SNOWPLUS is planning to go overseas. Now it has started to develope the market of Canada, Korea, Malaysia, Russia, India, Europe and other regions. It has been recognized and favored by many overseas businessmen. In the future, the overseas market is expected to become an important growth point of SNOWPLUS.
