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, the popular purveyor of nicotine vaping products, is well on its way to closing a funding round that could top out at more than $1 billion.

The rapidly expanding firm has raised $650 million out of a stated goal of $1.25 billion, according to . Previous reports peg the firm’s valuation after the round at around $15 billion, pre-money.

Juul’s financial performance over the past few years has been characterized by rapid growth. The company anticipates to mimic prior growth rates in 2018 while generating significant earnings before certain expenses (EBITDA).

Who’s Involved?

From the filing, it is hard to tell who is putting fresh money into the company. The filing聽does indicate, however, that ten investors have invested in the round so far.

The form lists a number of non-executive directors, all of whom are prior investors in the company. Those individuals include:

• , a former chief executive of Hyatt Hotels and a venture capital investor who co-founded , an investor in Juul.
• Riaz Valani, a general partner at , a Berlin-based private equity firm.
• Harold Handselsman, a Chicago-area lawyer and investor who served as a senior executive officer of the Hyatt Corporation and as general counsel of The Pritzker Organization, LLC, a private investment firm.

Back in 2007, and founded a company called Ploom, which was among the first to develop and market electronic nicotine vaporizers in the U.S. market.

Both Pritzker, Valani, and Handselsman have been listed as board members on SEC filings dating back to the earliest days of the company.

Valani and a person named Thomas Dykstra, who previously represented Tao Capital on the board before Pritzker himself, are listed on a for a $3.3 million equity round, the first funding-related SEC filing from Ploom, Inc.

The company would rebrand to , and released a series of popular loose-leaf herbal vaporizer, which is popular with cannabis enthusiasts, of the same name. PAX Labs the first Juul-branded product in June 2015. By the time PAX was raising back in 2015, Pritzker replaced Dykstra as Tao’s board representative and Hanselsman joined the company’s board.

Juul was spun out as its own standalone company in 2017.聽Monsees is currently the chief product officer of Juul, and Bowen is Juul’s chief technical officer.

The Vice Factor

Some investors are staying clear of Juul, despite its fundamentals, due to its status as a vice company of sorts. It sells something for you that isn’t healthy, and teens are using it, thus rendering it worthy of avoidance.

That line of argument may feel slightly rich coming from members of an investment industry that that , allow for , trick our minds to while , and are morally fine with abetting the growth of the “gig economy,” and the underclass of economically precarious contract workers stripped of聽 and . (Not that the same venture capitalists would ever allow such treatment of .)

But a safer smoking device that many folks use as a harm-reduction method that some parents are concerned could lead to more underage nicotine consumption? That’s the hill investors are willing to die on.

It will be interesting to see who fills out the round. With its financials, Juul should be able to close out the $1.25 billion in quick order.