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,[8] and later created the Pax vaporizer device for cannabis and loose-leaf tobacco before founding Juul.[8] by 2007, they started a business by the same name. In 2015, the company sold Ploom, changed their name to Pax Labs, and developed Juul.[16] Juul Labs, Inc. was founded on May 22, 2015.[17] The Juul electronic cigarette was introduced by Pax Labs in June 2015.[18]
In July 2017, Juul Labs was spun out of PAX Labs as an independent company,[6] with Tyler Goldman, former CEO of PAX Labs, named as CEO of Juul after the spin-off.[1] In December 2017, Goldman was replaced by Kevin Burns.[1] Co-founder James Monsees worked as Chief Product Officer and board member at Juul.[1] Co-founder Adam Bowen worked as Chief Technology Officer and board member at Juul.[1][19] Other board members include Nicholas Pritzker, whose family owned chewing tobacco giant Conwood,[14] Riaz Valani, and Hoyoung Huh.[1]
The company grew from 200 employees in September 2017[20] to 1,500 by the end of 2018.[5] As of July 2018, the Juul e-cigarette is manufactured in Shenzhen, China[21] while the pods are made in the United States.[22] Pods are also referred to as, "vape juice."[23]
In July 2018, Juul raised $650 million, giving it a valuation of $15 billion.[24] 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.[25] Juul bought a building in San Francisco in 2019 for almost $400 million.[26]