Over the past several years, institutional investors had largely shied away from China's e-cigarette makers, an industry that was teeming with shoddy workshops and lacked regulatory oversight. But investors' attitude is changing as China sets in motion its strictest-ever regulation on electronic cigarettes.
Myst Labs, a Chinese e-cigarette maker co-founded in 2019 by Chenyue Xing, a chemist who was part of the team at Juul that invented nicotine salts, a key ingredient in vaping, recently raised "tens of thousands of dollars" from a Series B funding round. The financing was led by its existing investor, IMO Ventures. Thomas Yao, CEO and another co-founder of Myst, is a founding partner of IMO Ventures.