INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Quit Genius, the YC-backed app that helps users quit smoking, has today announced the close of an additional $1.1 million, bringing their
seed round to a cool $2 million
Village Global VC, Pioneer Fund, Arab Angel VC, Max Mullen of Instacart, Olivia Teich of Dropbox, Paul Rosania of Slack, Ariel Polar of
Strava, Eric Reis, David Langley of Zesty, Juha Paananen of NonStop Games, and Junaid Bajwa of Merck Co participated in the round, among
CBT focuses on replacing any negative thoughts and feelings you may have that trigger you to smoke, with healthier and more positive
types of content, from audio sessions to animated videos to interactive exercises to help people think differently about destructive
around other addictions.The company already has packs for alcohol, stress, motivation, and health, giving users extra content around the
Alcohol felt natural, according to Ahmed, because alcohol is such a trigger for many smokers, and one of the issues they dealt with most in
their quest to quit.Soon, Quit Genius has plans to launch packs around pregnancy (for women who are smoking when they become pregnant and
want to quit), weight management, social pressure to smoke, and self esteem.Since launch Quit Genius has grown to 300,000 registered users,
with over 20,000 people officially smoke-free in the app (which Quit Genius defines as having not smoked for over 28 days)
website.While consumers are the primary focus of the company, there is also a growing opportunity for Quit Genius to start working with
big-name employers around well-being and health
Healthy employees save the company money and are more productive, and Quit Genius thinks it can not only help employees get healthier but
give employers a way to track that progress
doctors, it comes as no surprise that the Quit Genius team is participating in scientific research papers around their process
One paper, published by JMIR mHealth, found that Quit Genius outperformed the NHS Smoke-free app
An upcoming paper, which will be published in the next few weeks, found that Quit Genius yielded a 36 percent quit rate among participants,
with a 59.6 percent reduction in cigarettes among participants.
