Shenzhen-based e-cigarette producer Uzo has completed its Series A equity financing round with RMB 36 million (USD 5.2 million) from Shenzhen Qianhai Caishi Investment Management Company Limited, 36Kr reports.
The company has already set up a flagship store on JD to sell its e-cigarette kits, with each including one device and three refillable cartridges, priced at RMB 219 (USD 32).
Uzo claims that its devices make its users enjoy themselves as if they were smoking traditional cigarettes, but without combustion and smoke.
Several e-cigarette producers have raised venture capital recently.
Snowplus, another Shenzhen-based e-cigarette maker, closed its series A round with USD 40 million, 36kr reported last week. YouMe, which is also Shenzhen-based, raised RMB 73 million (USD 10.65 million) in its Series A financing round in May.
While investors have bet on huge market demand for this new way of smoking, governments worldwide tend to be cautious. Ironically, the city of Shenzhen has just banned e-cigarettes in public space, treating them the same as traditional tobacco smoking.
San Francisco is set to become the first city in the United States to ban the sale of e-cigarettes outright. A bill for this aim has been passed and the city’s mayor has just said she would sign this bill into law, reported China Daily on Thursday.
36Kr is KrAsia’s parent company.
