Tag: Poda Holdings

Altria Buys Poda’s Assets and Properties

Photo: Poda Holdings
Altria Client Services will pay $100.5 million for assets and properties used in Poda Holdings’ business of developing, manufacturing and marketing multisubstrate heated capsule technology, according to a Poda press release. The deal includes the owners’ associated patents and the company’s license of certain of those patents pursuant to an amended and restated royalties agreement dated April 12, 2019.
“This agreement represents a significant milestone for Poda and its employees,” said Ryan Selby, Poda’s CEO, director and chairman of the company’s board of directors. “Our teams have worked diligently on this technology since the company’s inception, and we believe these agreements maximize its value for the company and its shareholders.”
Poda’s multisubstrate heated capsule technology uses proprietary biodegradable single-use capsules. The design of the technology prevents cross-contamination between the heating devices and the capsules, which eliminates cleaning requirements and provides users with a convenient and enjoyable experience, according to Poda Holdings.

This agreement represents a significant milestone for Poda and its employees.
Ryan Selby, CEO, director and chairman, Poda Holdings
Poda’s technology is fully patented in Canada and is patent pending in over 60 additional countries, covering almost 70 percent of the global population.
Tobacco Reporter profiled Poda Holdings in January 2022 (see “Making its Mark”).
Altria Client Services’ parent company, Altria Group, currently holds a license to distribute Philip Morris International’s IQOS HnB product in the United States. That product, however, has been subject to an import ban in the wake of an intellectual property dispute with BAT.
Analysts have also speculated on the likelihood of the IQOS distribution deal being renewed when it expires in 2024. PMI and Altria currently disagree about whether Altria has thus far met the milestones to earn the renewal option for an additional five-year deal.
May 16, 2022
Poda to Manufacture in North America

Photo: Poda Holdings
Poda Holdings has signed a purchase agreement with its Chinese manufacturing partner to acquire Poda Pod manufacturing equipment, 15 patent applications related to Poda Pod technology and three Chinese trademarks for approximately CDN3.45 million ($2.7 million).
The manufacturing equipment is comprised of all proprietary custom-built equipment for Poda Pods production capable of producing an estimated 5 million Poda Pods per year. All manufacturing equipment will be shipped to Vancouver, British Columbia. The 15 patent applications were filed in China and represent unique product design and manufacturing methods applicable to the development and large-scale production of Poda Pods.
“Given the general unrest of the geopolitical situation around the globe, the company has determined it will manufacture Poda Pods in North America,” said Poda Holdings CEO Ryan Selby in a statement.
“This will reduce the amount of lag time from manufacturing to customer delivery and will provide a significant reduction in tariffs, allowing the company to be more competitive. The acquisition of the manufacturing equipment and patent applications is an important step in the growth and value of Poda, which the company believes outweighs the resulting delays in production.”
March 14, 2022
Poda Receives Patent for Closed Bottom Pod

Photo: Poda Holdings
Poda Holdings has received a U.S. patent for its closed bottom vaporizer pod. The patent was granted on Dec. 28, 2021.
“Receiving this Notice of Issuance is the culmination of a substantial amount of work by Poda and our intellectual property team,” said Ryan Selby, CEO of Poda, in a statement. “The application for this invention was initially filed on March 17, 2017. After almost five years of dedicated work and substantial financial investments, I am extremely proud to have this valuable patent granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
“With the granting of this U.S. patent, Poda will effectively be the only company that can market a closed-ended heat-not-burn cigarette in the United States. We have already received a granted Canadian patent for this invention, and we now look forward to receiving granted patents for this application in the over 60 additional countries where this application has been filed. We believe this patent has incredible applicability in the global heat-not-burn market, and we look forward to marketing our patented products on a global scale.”
January 13, 2022
Poda and Landewyck Explore Partnership

Photo: DragonImages
Poda Holdings and Landewyck Tobacco are exploring the potential of a partnership.
The companies intend to enter into a cooperation agreement based on both parties’ intellectual property, branding, manufacturing facilities and distribution channels to develop one or more products for commercialization.
Before further developing the cooperation project, the parties intend to assess the relevance of their cooperation by implementing a trial period for blend development, which could be used for the potential cooperation products.
By bringing together Landewyck’s tobacco manufacturing and distribution expertise and Poda’s patented heat-not-burn technology, the aim is to develop a consumer-centric product offering both convenience and optimal flavor in the reduced-risk sphere.
“We’re very excited to further strengthen our collaboration with Ryan and the Poda team,” said Georges Krombach, general manager of export and new-generation products for Landewyck, in a statement. “The technology and intellectual property behind Poda are disruptive and deliver a strong customer experience. By adding our tobacco and our European regulatory and distribution expertise, we expect to have great success in the European marketplace.
“We manufacture tobacco and cigarettes at our own facilities exclusively in Western Europe and attach great importance to maintaining the highest manufacturing, working and product standards that are socially acceptable to our consumers, partners and importers worldwide. Our master tobacco blenders travel to the farthest reaches of the globe to hand select the best leaves, hence ensuring the unique flavor of our tobacco products—and all so our customers can enjoy the ultimate in tobacco pleasure.
“From product and manufacturing standards to employees and retailers, we always ensure that our business decisions and the products we supply are in keeping with our family spirit and upholding our tradition of delivering 100 percent quality, flavor and customer satisfaction.”
“This marks another milestone in Poda’s commercialization efforts in Europe and abroad,” said Ryan Selby, Poda’s CEO. “Landewyck has been working in the tobacco space for over 170 years and brings a tremendous amount of manufacturing and distribution experience and expertise. We intend to get moving immediately on the blend development trial and hope to move quickly into large-scale commercialization of the cooperation products.”
January 12, 2022
Making its Mark

Photo: Poda Holdings
By addressing the shortcomings of existing products, Poda Holdings is pushing heat-not-burn technology to new levels.
By Marissa Dean
Sales of heat-not-burn (HnB) products have increased dramatically in recent years. In Japan—the world’s largest market for these products—HnB has helped drive down traditional cigarette consumption to unprecedented lows. Due to the absence of combustion, HnB devices release significantly lower levels of harmful toxicants than traditional cigarettes, allowing smokers to move down the risk continuum while continuing to derive the satisfaction they seek from nicotine.
Globally, the HnB market is dominated by large companies, such as Philip Morris International, BAT and Japan Tobacco International, along with regional players, such as KT&G. But smaller companies, too, are eager to make their mark. By addressing what they perceive to be the shortcomings of existing devices, they are slowly but surely claiming their share of this promising category.
Poda Holdings is one such company. The firm was founded in January 2015 with the goal of creating the best HnB product ever made, according to CEO Ryan Selby. “Many adult smokers have been seeking smoke-free products that have the potential to reduce the risks associated with their smoking habit,” he said. “By focusing on their wants and needs, we were able to identify some key components missing from the heat-not-burn industry.”
The company offers an HnB tobacco-free product called Beyond Burn. “Our flagship Beyond Burn Poda Pods contain a unique tobacco-free blend of pelletized tea leaves infused with synthetic nicotine, which have been expertly crafted to mimic the sensorial experience of traditional cigarettes without the smoke, without the smell and without the tobacco,” the company explains on its website. The tea leaves (versus tobacco or other substances) provide a stable, consistent and low-cost substrate that is truly tobacco-free for use in the device, according to Poda.

“The closed-ended design allows an incredibly wide variety of substances to be used in our system—something that open-ended systems simply cannot do.”
Ryan Selby, CEO, Poda Holdings
A New, Clean Technology
Poda’s current technology, which took six years to develop, consists of the Beyond Burn Poda Pods and the Beyond Burn heating device. The device features a single button with three temperature settings. It has a fast-charging battery that is capable of heating a full pack of pods on a single charge, and the company plans on launching additional devices across different price points in the future to allow consumers more choices.
“When we looked at the HnB space, it was clear that innovations were happening all around,” said Selby. “We knew that making a product that replicated the sensorial experience of smoking was only half the battle. Being well-versed in the space, we knew that odor and residue buildup in heating devices was a major user pain-point and one that no one had yet solved. In our research, this was one of the primary challenges users faced—a heating device that started out with excellent performance, only to degrade with use, gathering strong odors and requiring extensive cleaning to keep the device operational. This contamination also left flavor residue in the heating devices, limiting the options for switching different flavors and different types of substances. It was our goal to solve that problem as a primary focus, finding a way to keep all the mess contained within each disposable pod.”
The Beyond Burn Poda Pods are considered “zero-cleaning,” meaning that their pod design keeps any potential mess contained within the pod itself, taking away the need for cleaning or maintenance. This also means there is no residual odor in the heating device and no cross-contamination between pods when they are switched. “What sets us apart really boils down to our patented closed-ended pods,” said Selby. “The closed-ended design … allows an incredibly wide variety of substances to be used in our system—something that open-ended systems simply cannot do. Ground plant matter, pellets, sheets, liquids, etc., are all possible in our pods, where our open-ended competitors would have to come up with solutions for each of these material forms individually.”
“Big Tobacco was coming at the challenges in the space with answers that fit their existing manufacturing methods and techniques, and thus they weren’t thinking very far outside the box,” Selby said. “Poda came at the problem from a totally different angle.”
Pods are currently packaged in the company’s facility in China and are packaged in cartons of 200 pods, with each carton containing 10 packs of 20 pods. The current manufacturing capability is over 400,000 pods per month, but the company is currently scaling up production and plans to produce over 10 million pods per month by the end of 2021. “We’ve raised enough capital to scale up our production capabilities to meet initial launch demand, and we have a comfortable runway to execute our launch plans,” said Selby.

Poda Holdings’ Beyond Burn Poda Pods contain a unique tobacco-free blend of pelletized tea leaves infused with synthetic nicotine, which mimic the sensorial experience of traditional cigarettes without the smoke, without the smell and without the tobacco.
Regulation
The absence of tobacco in Poda’s products offers opportunities that are unavailable to tobacco-containing offerings. “The tobacco space is heavily regulated throughout the world, and new reduced-risk and heat-not-burn products face many of the same regulations as cigarettes as well as additional regulations pertaining to products in the vaporization space,” said Selby. “This overlap creates a complex regulatory landscape that is constantly evolving—each country having their own unique framework. Our first offering—our flagship Beyond Burn Poda Pods—contain no tobacco products whatsoever, so they tend to be outside the scope of existing tobacco regulations. As the landscape changes, our closed-ended pods will allow for exploring a multitude of different substance options for tobacco and beyond—allowing Poda to navigate regulatory hurdles in a way many of our competitors aren’t able to.”
While Poda Pods do not currently contain tobacco, the company has opted to file a premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) in the U.S. The PMTA pathway is a long process, with only a handful of applications approved to date, but it is necessary to market deemed tobacco products in the U.S. According to the Food and Drug Administration, deemed tobacco products consist of “electronic nicotine-delivery systems, which include e-cigarettes, e-cigars, e-hookah, vape pens, personal vaporizers and electronic pipes; pipe tobacco; dissolvables; nicotine gels; waterpipe (hookah); cigars; and future tobacco products.”
“We believe that our Beyond Burn Poda Pods are not subject to the PMTA as they contain lab-synthesized synthetic nicotine, no tobacco ingredients whatsoever and, importantly, cannot be used with any other tobacco products,” said Selby. “However, there are a multitude of potential future opportunities for Poda products to be used with tobacco, and so in order to demonstrate our commitment to total compliance with the PMTA, we have begun the PMTA process in the USA for Poda products containing tobacco and tobacco-derived products.”
Poda products contain synthetic nicotine, which is essentially chemically identical to tobacco-derived nicotine but currently outside of the FDA’s remit. Poda chose to use synthetic nicotine because it allows for more control over what goes into the pods. “Synthetic nicotine offers the same satisfaction as tobacco-derived nicotine without the chance of impurities and harmful substances from the tobacco plant contaminating it during the extraction process,” said Selby.
Beyond Burn Poda Pods are currently available in three different flavors with more expected down the line. The company is planning for other content offerings as well, including coffee/caffeine infused products, nicotine-free blends, real tobacco, cannabis/CBD and medicinal herbs. “We envision a family of devices, all designed to work with our pods, regardless of pod contents.”

Thinking Outside the Industry
To better reflect its broad, multisector ambitions, Poda recently announced a new planned corporate structure featuring six subsidiaries—Poda (Tobacco), Poda (Alternatives), Poda (Therapeutics), Poda (THC), Poda (CBD) and Poda (Research and Development). Poda has also filed intellectual property patents (already granted in Canada) for its proprietary technology, brought on new board members and created new positions. Former Juul Canada president, Michael Nederhoff, joined the global advisory board and is consultant to Poda’s management team and the company’s board, assisting with the company’s global expansion. Nicholas Kadysh, former Juul head of corporate affairs, recently joined Poda’s global advisory board as well.
Poda is also thinking beyond consumer goods, entering the medical device market and appointing the company’s first chief medical officer, Jagdeep Gupta. “I am very pleased to have received approval from the board to enter the medical device market and to create the position of chief medical officer for Poda,” wrote Selby in a press release. “In addition to providing exceptional reduced-risk products designed for current adult smokers, Poda is also committed to providing effective smoking cessation products designed to help adult smokers quit smoking.”
“Quitting smoking can be difficult, and the addition of Dr. Gupta as chief medical officer will help Poda to develop medically approved products and treatment strategies designed to provide adult smokers with the tools they need to successfully quit smoking. In addition, there are numerous opportunities for Poda to utilize our intellectual property and related technologies to potentially facilitate the delivery of many different therapeutic molecules by inhalation.”
Gupta later announced that he began clinical trials for Poda’s smoking cessation products. “I have already initiated the process of setting up the first clinical trials related to the efficacy of Poda’s products as smoking cessation tools,” Gupta wrote in a release. “I am currently in the process of setting up a pilot study, which will give us a solid platform for developing strong and effective clinical trials. These clinical trials will be designed to result in the publication of Level 1 evidence in respected medical journals globally if the data provides evidence. The pilot studies will also be designed to establish a scientific basis for the efficacy of Poda’s products as smoking cessation tools and additionally may provide Poda with access to research grants and other funds that can be used for additional studies, clinical trials and validation research.”
In addition to expanding into the medical device industry, Poda signed a supply agreement with Greenbutts, a biodegradable filter manufacturer. “This supply agreement will provide the company with access to 100 percent biodegradable filters for use in our Beyond Burn Poda Pods,” according to Selby. “The inclusion of Greenbutts’ biodegradable filters into our already biodegradable and compostable Poda Pods allows Poda the ability to offer a completely biodegradable and truly compostable heat-not-burn product, something that has never been done in the heat-not-burn tobacco market.”
Gamechanger
Poda has accomplished a lot in the past six years and is now poised to be a potential gamechanger in the heat-not-burn market. A mess-free, zero-cleaning biodegradable product that could reach beyond tobacco and nicotine products seems like it would be a very attractive product for consumers—and it would seem others agree; Poda recently received an order for 500,000 Beyond Burn Poda Pods and 2,000 Beyond Burn Heating Devices, expected to be used during the initial launch in the European market later this year.
Time will tell how this technology impacts the market. Selby, for his part, is confident Poda could change the face of HnB. “I believe that Poda really is the solution the HnB space has been waiting for,” he said.

Marissa Dean joined Tobacco Reporter in the summer of 2018 as a copy editor.Since that time, she has taken on additional responsibilities, including feature writing.Her skills span the publishing industry from layout and design to copy editing to content creation.

January 1, 2022
Christoph Tepr Joins Poda Holdings

Photo: Andryei Yalanskiy
Tobacco industry veteran Christoph Tepr has joined Poda Holdings as vice president of European sales & international expansion effective Jan. 17, 2022. In the interim, Tepr has joined the company’s global advisory board.
Tepr has more than 15 years of commercial experience with some of the biggest tobacco and e-cigarette companies in the world, including Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, and Juul Labs. His broad management experience spans sales operations, commercial deployment, brand management and professional services—targeting customers in mature and emerging product/service segments. He has helped drive the growth of iconic brands such as L&M, IQOS, and Juul.
At PMI, Tepr held several key sales and management positions and was instrumental in deploying the IQOS product into the Swiss marketplace. At Juul, Tepr was hired to build the Swiss commercial organization from the ground up and, together with his team, took the company to category leadership within 12 months of launch. Subsequently, he successfully restructured the German commercial organization for Juul. Prior to this he held a commercial leadership position with British American Tobacco, focusing on commercializing and growing their Heat-not-Burn and conventional product portfolio.
Tepr holds a MSc in International Business from Maastricht University as well as an executive certificate in Driving Strategic Innovation from IMD Lausanne / MIT Sloan.
“Poda is an agile challenger in the fast-growing heat-not-burn space,” said Tepr in a statement. “With their proprietary technology platform, Poda represents a rare opportunity that has the potential to capture significant market share and ultimately transform and expand application areas within the category—while simultaneously improving the lives of the world’s 1.3 billion adult smokers by offering them a potentially less harmful alternative to conventional cigarettes. Having worked in multinational tobacco companies as well as for the fastest-growing e-cigarette start up in U.S. history, I look forward to using that experience to establish Poda’s European operations, set up a world-class team and make commercial headway into key European markets.”
“I am thrilled that Mr. Tepr has agreed to join the Poda team, both as a member of our global advisory board and, in January 2022, as the vice president of European sales & international expansion for Poda,” said Poda Holding CEO Ryan Selby. “Our goal is to build Poda into a truly global company that can challenge big tobacco head on, and we believe our superior heat-not-burn technology will allow us to do just that.”
November 2, 2021
Poda Delivers 500,000 Pods

Image: Poda Holdings
Poda Holdings has delivered 500,000 Beyond Burn Poda Pods.
The customer is expected to now begin preparations for launching the products into the Asian and European marketplaces.
“This delivery marks the beginning of large-scale sales of Poda’s products,” said Ryan Selby, Poda’s CEO, in a statement. “Our pilot production facility continues to produce nearly 400,000 Poda Pods per month, and this production will be used to support continued sales growth to strategic customers in markets around the world.
“Our goal is to continue priming key markets so that we will be able to sell the entirety of our anticipated 10 million monthly production capacity as soon as the production facility is brought online. I look forward to an exciting 2022 as we, through our strategic subsidiaries, continue to grow our production capacities and sales volumes and expand our operations into markets around the globe.”
October 6, 2021
Poda Completes Name Change

Photo: Poda Holdings
Poda Holdings has completed the name change from Poda Lifestyle and Wellness to Poda Holdings, pursuant to a directors’ resolution announced earlier this month. The company’s shares will remain trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the ticker symbol PODA upon the opening of the markets on Sept. 27, 2021.
The CUSIP number assigned to the company’s shares following the name change is 73044N10 4 (ISIN: CA73044N1042). No action is required by stockholders, and outstanding stock certificates are not affected by the name change and will not need to be exchanged.
In related news, the company has engaged CFN Enterprises, owner and operator of CFN Media, to provide social media and client outreach strategy services for the company.
September 28, 2021