Juul

Now, somewhat shockingly, I did NOT mention the Juul story in my daily weekday note because this is something that came out over the weekend.

HOWEVER, I thought I’d include it here because it really is an important story.

Anyway, American e-cigarette maker Juul Labs – which has a whopping 70% market share in e-cigarettes in the States – has announced that it is going to stop selling most of its flavoured nicotine liquids at physical outlets but keep them available on its website.

Some analysts say that this could have a material impact on the company as it makes more than half of its sales from flavours other than tobacco, mint and alcohol. This move comes ahead of the FDA announcing tight restrictions following an investigation.

The rules will be effective immediately and are designed to stop the burgeoning popularity of vaping amongst teens and children.

It also looks like the FDA will put a ban on menthol cigarettes although that could take some time to properly come into force.

I suspect that what happens in the States could well be copied over here and so while big tobacco companies won’t be affected as vaping is only a small percentage of their overall sales, smaller companies will definitely be under pressure.

The SoftBank Vision Fund

The second thing I wanted to talk about today was the potential investment that could be coming the way of two British fintech unicorns.

Japan’s SoftBank, which has a massive $100bn tech investment fund, is in talks with fintech companies Revolut and Oaknorth.

The Vision Fund puts at least $100m into each of its investments and so could make a huge difference to their development.

For instance, more funding for Revolut could help it get a full banking licence which would let them provide a far broader suite of services to customers than they can at the moment. Talks are more advanced at Oaknorth than they are at Revolut but any final decisions are likely to be months away.