Smoking Cessation Startup Ditch Labs Completes $1.3 Million Pre-Seed Round to Solve Nicotine Addiction and Tobacco Use
MONTREAL, June 17, 2021 — Ditch Labs, a Montreal-based precision medicine company, is developing a new smoking cessation system and just completed a $1.3 million round of funding.
From left to right: Olivier Bourbonnais (co-founder & CTO), Laurent Laferriere (co-founder & CEO), Christelle Luce, PhD (Partner & Director of Research)
The Montreal-based startup closed a pre-seed round in May 2021 with the participation of Amplify Capital, Desjardins Capital, Boreal Ventures, Anges Québec, Formentera Capital, the Healthcare innovation arm of Symphony Care Network, along with renowned tech entrepreneurs such as Cherif Habib (CEO of Dialogue) and Simon de Beane (CEO of GSoft), among others.
Addressing a huge unmet need
Smoking is still to this day the leading cause of preventable death with 1 out of every 5 deaths directly related to tobacco use. Even though over two thirds of smokers want to quit according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average quit success rate has been hovering around 7% without showing any sign of improvement.
“Part of the problem is that current smoking cessation products seek to treat a very complex addiction with a one-size-fits-all approach. Ditch is the first solution to adapt its treatment in real-time, based on craving intensity and behavioral feedback.”
The Ditch solution
Founded by Laurent Laferrière and Olivier Bourbonnais, two serial entrepreneurs, Ditch Labs offers a revolutionary smoking cessation solution by developing the DitchPen™, a patent-pending medical vaporizer that precisely doses the quantity of nicotine administered, in order to reduce it automatically in a gradual and personalized way. The medical device is paired with a mobile application that uses machine learning algorithms to learn, adapt and act as a behavioural assistant throughout the withdrawal process.
The DitchPen™ and its mobile application.
“The DitchPen™ is the meeting point between artificial intelligence technology and nicotine replacement therapy. Nicotine addiction is an intricate disease linked to psychological, social and biological factors. Each cessation journey is unique and the tools to achieve abstinence must take every factor into account. The use of the Ditch system represents a new paradigm of cessation support based on a dynamic, progressive and personalized program.”
The capital injection will allow the company to pursue preclinical studies, advance its global regulatory plan and further product and algorithm development. The company plans to market a first version of the DitchPen™ in the UK in 2022 and in Canada in 2024, following a rigorous regulatory process to approve the DitchPen™ as an aid to smoking cessation.
“Amplify Capital is excited to partner with Laurent Laferrière, Olivier Bourbonnais and the stellar team at Ditch on its mission to reduce nicotine addiction at scale by providing a device, data, behavioral support and insights to drastically improve smoking cessation rates beyond current methods which haven’t changed in decades. The impact of quitting smoking has benefits to the individual, their families, their workplace, their communities and society that can reduce costs and improve health as a whole.”