A Chicago startup is taking on Big Tobacco with a new smokeless product that gives users a buzz without additional harmful elements found in traditional dip products.
Black Buffalo, founded in 2015, has created a smokeless tobacco alternative that has the same look, feel, smell and experience as traditional dipping products like Copenhagen or Skoal, without using tobacco leaves or stems, co-founder Jeffery David says. The product comes in both long-cut and pouch varieties and contains pharmaceutical-grade nicotine.
The startup announced Monday it raised $9.75 million from Pendyne Capital, Watchfire Ventures and Open Pantry Food Marts. David said Black Buffalo has "tens of thousands" of customers who purchase the product entirely on its website.
"We believe this is the first legitimate product to shake up Big Tobacco as we know it, at least on the smokeless side," David said.
Black Buffalo's approach is not unlike how Juul and other vaping brands introduced e-cigarette to the market---giving smokers a nicotine experience without the tobacco. The startup is careful not to make claims that its product is a healthier alternative to smokeless tobacco (nicotine, of course, is an addictive chemical), but David said Black Buffalo is aimed at current, of-age tobacco users who are looking to remove the tobacco experience from their daily lives without losing their routine of dipping.
"A great many people still want the benefits of the nicotine experience, but just don’t want the tobacco," he said. "And that's what Black Buffalo is offering—all of the ritual you would get with a traditional Big Tobacco product, without the tobacco leaf or stem."
Black Buffalo's products are manufactured in North Carolina and made with a specific variety of lettuce that's grown using conditions that give it a tobacco-like texture. David declined to name the specific type of leaf used, citing trade secrets, but said it's a leafy green you could buy in your average grocery store.
Being a direct-to-consumer product has helped the company weather the storm of the coronavirus, as customers are able to order products from their home. In fact, the startup says March and April were its two biggest revenue months in company history. Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone, a well-known mixed martial arts fighter, joined the company as a brand ambassador last month.
The company said it plans to use its new funding to submit to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Tobacco Products in the coming months. It's also using the funds on marketing efforts and to purchase its own pouch maker.
While its product may share some similarities with Juul and other tobacco-less vaping products, Black Buffalo aims to avoid some of the mistakes of the e-cigarette industry. As vaping became pervasive among teenagers, Black Buffalo has sold exclusively to people 21 and older through Veratad, an age-verification software it uses to process orders, David said.
"The vaping industry turned a little bit into the wild, wild West," he said.
David said he does expect Black Buffalo to expand into brick-and-mortar locations by the end of 2020, eventually launching into convenience stores and physical retail outlets nationwide.
