·Venture CapitalForget vapes: Nicotine pouch startup Sesh raises $40 million from 8VC, Post Malone, and Diplo to take on ZynBy Leo SchwartzBy Leo SchwartzSenior WriterLeo SchwartzSenior WriterLeo Schwartz is a senior writer at Fortune covering fin, crypto, venture capital, and financial regulation.SEE FULL BIO Sesh founder and CEO Max CunninghamCourtesy of SeshAfter vapes staved off the extinction of tobacco, a new generation of nicotine ducts is mising a safer, albeit no less addictive, form of consumption through tobacco-free pouches made by the s of Zyn and Velo.
Now, a celebrity-backed upstart called Sesh is trying to challenge those incumbents.
Buoyed by $40 million in venture funding from Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC, along with music stars Diplo and Post Malone, Sesh is pitching itself as a safer alternative for cigarette and vape users through so-called “white pouches”—one of the fastest growing consumer .
While Sesh is competing against big tobacco offerings Philip Morris’s Zyn, its founder and CEO, Max Cunningham, says that Sesh’s independent —and unique formula, designed by Zyn’s inventor—will make it a formidable opponent.
“Not all pouches are created equal,” he told Fortune. Courtesy of Sesh The nicotine wars A native of British Columbia, Cunningham grew up playing hockey, where chewing tobacco was omnipresent.
He shifted to vaping but couldn’t quit the habit until he was introduced to his first nicotine pouches.
(Cunningham says he currently goes through a half a can of Sesh, or 10 pouches, a day.) While pouches are still addictive, ponents argue that their lack of tobacco and combustion reduces the carcinogenic harms associated with cigarettes and vapes, similar to nicotine gum or patches.
While U.S.
regulators are still trying to wrap their arms around the category, former President Joe Biden gave the Food and Drug Administration supervisory authority in 2022 as it moved to restrict vapes.
The vaping startup Juul has seen its valuation plummet 95% amid the regulatory crackdown.
The FDA, however, took a softer stance toward pouches, including soliciting applications from manufacturers, including Sesh, which have been allowed to operate.
In early 2025, the agency apved marketing for different Zyn ducts, including its flavored offerings, which signaled a path for other companies that had already submitted applications.
Cunningham characterized Zyn, which has become a cultural totem, as the “800-pound gorilla” in the rapidly growing white pouch space, but he said that Sesh’s d recipe serves as an advantage.
That’s because other companies, whose offerings are based on nicotine salts, cannot the formulas that they submitted to the FDA.
Sesh, which was developed by Zyn inventor Thomas Ericsson, uses other chemicals, including MCT oil, which they say reduces the gum irritation caused by other ducts.
If the pouch wars are determined by cultural dominance, rather than ingredients, Sesh is also coming well-armed.
Its newest funding round includes not just the pop titans Post Malone and Diplo, but comedian Andrew Schulz, who is especially with the “podcast bro” crowd.
8VC’s Jake Medwell has been instrumental in helping Sesh scale up, including convincing the startup to move to the venture firm’s of Austin.
Medwell told Fortune he was drawn to Sesh, even though 8VC doesn’t typically invest in the consumer category, because he believed in the startup’s mission of bringing nicotine users to a safer way to consume.
“People don’t want to vape anymore,” he said.
(Nicotine itself is an unconventional category for venture capital, with many firms having restrictions on “vice” , but 8VC is known for in controversial sectors defense .) Despite Sesh’s goal, the duct’s rapid growth raises the question of whether it will also entice new nicotine users, including children.
While Cunningham admitted that it would be naive to think that no one underage will try white pouches, he said that Sesh is careful with how it motes the duct, such as not using TikTok.
The company also doesn’t broadcast any health claims, though influencers such as Andrew Huberman have touted nicotine’s potential benefits to attention and focus—an alarming development for many public health advocates.
Meanwhile, Sesh continues to grow, with 30 full-time employees and availability in more than 5,000 stores across the U.S. and Canada.
Cunningham said the company is on track to grow 5,000% year-over-year. “We’re really trying to raise the standard in nicotine,” Cunningham said.
“It’s important for emerging brands Sesh to exist in the category, and for it not to be just dominated by big tobacco.” Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh.
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