[2Firsts Feature] How Gen Z Entrepreneurs Are Disrupting the U.S. Nicotine Market with a Thin Strip

【By Taco Tuinstra, 2Firsts | Reporting from the Eastern U.S.】Much has been written about the potential of vaping to help smokers transition to a less harmful method of nicotine consumption. Electronic cigarettes have enabled millions to leave deadly combustibles behind. But for others, especially among members of Generation Z, vaping has become the habit to kick. Many in this group never smoked, but they are finding it just as hard to quit e-cigarettes as their parents did trying to ditch tobacco cigarettes.

Unfortunately, the ‘offramp’ for vapers is less obvious than it is for smokers. Whereas modern e-cigarettes do a respectable job of mimicking the ritual, flavor and nicotine delivery of traditional cigarettes, the currently available lower-risk alternatives to vaping are imperfect substitutes at best.

Like many in her generation, Katherine Ilkhani experienced this challenge firsthand. She lit her first cigarette at age 14 in Iran, where smoking remains widely accepted. After moving to the United States—where cigarettes are taboo—she switched to Juul nicotine vaporizers.

But while vapes are widely considered to be less risky than traditional cigarettes, they can be just as addictive, especially when used with certain medications. When her doctor prescribed Adderall, a drug used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Ilkhani says her vape went from being a casual accessory to a necessity—"something I clung to like an asthmatic with an inhaler.”

By senior year, Ilkhani started feeling shortness of breath. The lingering uncertainty about the effects of vaping also began taking a mental toll. “The anxiety—the constant sense of doom from not knowing what I was doing to my body and the long-term implications of it—became suffocating,” she says. “Every vaper I knew shared the same silent fear.”

Swede Relief

Together with her boyfriend, Braden Adam, Ilkhani started exploring alternatives, but with little success. “I tried everything,” she says. “Pouches made me sick. Smoking cessation tools such as gums and lozenges felt like relics from another era—outdated, ineffective, not designed for people like me.”

Speaking with peers, Ilkhani realized her gripes were widely shared. While pouches helped some quit vaping, many felt frustrated by the slow nicotine release or experienced side effects like nausea. Others worried about oral health, with new studies linking pouch use to long-term inflammation of the gums and other concerns. What people really wanted, she says, was something fast, discreet and effective—something that mimicked the sensation of a vape or cigarette without the harmful delivery system.

Trying to imagine such a tool, Ilkhani and Adam pictured a Listerine strip, an oral hygiene product that instantly freshens breath and then quickly dissolves. Would it be possible, they asked, to deliver nicotine in the same manner? The couple dug into the research and, to their surprise, discovered that such a product already existed—in Europe.

Since 2022, Nicoccino of Sweden has been selling a nicotine film strip that delivers satisfaction quickly and at lower levels of nicotine, while avoiding some of the drawbacks associated with other oral nicotine products.

Like a pouch, the product is placed between the upper lip and the gums. But unlike a pouch, which can take minutes to start yielding nicotine, the strip starts delivering nicotine within seconds. The entire dosage is released within a few minutes, after which the strip dissolves, leaving no waste. The rapid delivery system means a single 2 mg strip can replicate the effect of a 6 mg pouch. Measuring only 0.07 mm, the product is more discreet than a nicotine pouch and gentler on the gums.

Intrigued, Ilkhani ordered the Swedish nicotine strip and tried it at a moment when she would have normally reached for her e-cigarette. She was pleasantly surprised. The urge to vape receded, and she didn’t suffer any of the side effects she had experienced with other substitutes. “For the first time in years, I felt free,” says Ilkhani.

From Lip to Lab

The nicotine strip is the brainchild of Fredrik Hubinette, a trained chemist with biotech experience. Keen to address the delayed substance delivery of pills and the challenges presented by injections in some cases, Hubinette in 2004 set out to find a better platform to carry substances into the blood. He started experimenting with different polymers in his kitchen. “Nicotine was the original substance as it is unstable and easily available,” he says.

The primary hurdle was identifying a polymer capable of preserving free-base nicotine over time without degradation. Balancing bioavailability, film integrity and flavor proved a complex challenge. After more than a thousand formulations and elaborations, Hubinette in 2010 found a stable formula using an alginate film base derived from seaweed, sustainably harvested off the coast of Norway. To guarantee high bioavailability, he dispersed the nicotine molecularly throughout the matrix and ensured that the final product maintains an elevated pH level—both critical factors in optimizing absorption.

A clinical study at Stockholm’s Saint Goran Hospital subsequently found that the strips supply nicotine as safely and quickly as Nicorette Peppermint oral nicotine spray, an established nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). Significantly, when asked which product they preferred for smoking cessation, 73 percent of trial participants chose the nicotine strips.

Confident in his formula, Hubinette applied for patents in numerous markets. The nicotine formulation is now protected in 55 countries and the alginate solution in 49. To market his invention, Hubinette created three entities: Klaria Pharma for pharmaceutical applications, Nutrinovate for dietary supplements and Nicoccino Holding for nicotine strips.

Pivoting to Consumers

Initially, Nicoccino wanted to launch its nicotine strip as an NRT. However, with the rise of nicotine pouches and the lengthy approval timelines for pharmaceutical products in various countries, the company in 2019 changed course.

To help reposition its nicotine strips toward the consumer market, Nicoccino recruited Fredrik Laurell. A veteran of the smokeless tobacco business, Laurell previously oversaw the relaunch of Swedish Match’s General Snus brand in the United States. As managing director of Swedish Match Philip Morris International (SMPMI), a joint venture dissolved in 2015, he explored the potential for snus products outside the U.S. and Scandinavia.

Presented with the opportunity, Laurell did not hesitate to take the helm of Nicoccino. “I immediately recognized the enormous potential for nicotine strips as they address many problems smokers identify with nicotine pouches,” he says. From the extensive consumer insights gathered at SMPMI, Laurell was all too familiar with the complaints: slow nicotine delivery, intrusive mouthfeel and messy disposal—the same issues mentioned by Ilkhani and her peers.

Upon joining Nicoccino in 2020, Laurell’s priority was establishing a robust supply chain. After contract manufacturing the strip at sites in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe, the company in 2023 opened its own food-certified factory near Stockholm, a step that gave Nicoccino greater control over the production process and scalability.

He also secured backing from investors with a deep understanding of the oral nicotine market. Among them is Thomas Ericsson, the intellectual father of ZYN. During the early 2000s, Ericsson helped develop a technology to produce nicotine portions. In 2016 he sold his share of the patent to Swedish Match, which used it as a base for its blockbuster nicotine pouch. Ericsson now owns about 15 percent of Nicoccino, making him the company’s second-largest shareholder.

Echoing the points made by Laurell, Ericsson lauds the strips’ quick nicotine delivery, discrete usage and lack of waste. “More than 90 percent of the nicotine is delivered within the five to six minutes before the strip dissolves,” he marvels. “This feature is much closer to the delivery time of a regular cigarette.” Plus, he says, “it’s a clinically proven platform that most nicotine pouches cannot match.”

Coming to America

Back in the U.S., Ilkhani was so impressed with the product that she wanted to share it with other American nicotine users. “We knew we couldn’t gatekeep something this powerful,” she says. Nicoccino, for its part, was eager to enter the lucrative American nicotine market, where sales of pouches alone amounted to more than $4 billion in 2024, according to Grand View Research.

The U.S. nicotine market, however, is notoriously difficult to access. While Sweden has been receptive to alternative tobacco products—its accommodation of snus has helped push the country’s smoking rate below 5 percent—the U.S. has erected significant barriers, denying American smokers many less-harmful alternatives readily available elsewhere. For this reason, Nicoccino initially focused on smaller European markets. Its strips are currently available through distributors in Estonia, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom and Malta, as well as through Nicoccino’s website.

Aware of the hurdles, Ilkhani and Adam sought advice from industry veterans and public health leaders. To help them navigate the complex regulatory landscape, they enlisted legal counsel from Fox Rothschild, a law firm with experience in the nicotine business, along with the services of a specialized regulatory firm.

Ericsson says he was impressed by the caliber of the couple’s mentors, some of whom prefer to keep a low profile due to their respective employers’ policies on tobacco involvement. “I have met with both the legal and scientific advisors and have great confidence in both,” he says. According to Ilkhani, the advisors and mentors played a critical role in helping the young entrepreneurs craft a strategy that balances regulatory compliance with consumer relevance. “One key lesson has guided us throughout: build trust through transparency and science, not just branding,” she says.

Preparing for Market Entry

Satisfied that they had done their homework, the couple established a company, Zolv, and signed an agreement with Nicoccino to commercialize the nicotine strips in the U.S. Under the deal, their firm will fund and prepare a premarket tobacco product application (PMTA). In exchange, Zolv gets exclusive rights to sell the strips in the U.S. under its Zolv brand. Nicoccino retains all rights to patents and production technology.

According to Ericsson, Nicoccino’s approach to start with smaller distribution partners and then learn about consumer acceptance, SKU appeal and pricing makes sense, given the company’s present size. “Once knowledge from these first test launches is refined and summarized, it should be able to put together a solid business case and attract capital,” he says. “With significantly increased resources, it should definitely be possible to create a commercial success in the U.S. and/or other attractive geographies.”

Ilkhani and Adam are now seeking to raise $10 million to fund the PMTA process, build their early team and lay the groundwork for market entry. Following comprehensive stability, toxicity and abuse liability studies, Zolv aims to submit its application to the Food and Drug Administration in early 2026. The agency will then determine whether allowing Zolv on the market is “appropriate for the protection of the public health.”

Despite their young age and lack of tobacco experience, Laurell is confident in his partners’ ability to bring Nicoccino’s strips to the U.S. “Getting in touch with Katherine in June 2024, we were impressed by the seriousness of her and Braden in terms of their knowledge of the industry, the ability to assess commercial potential and high ambition and execution in connecting with top quality partners,” he says. “We are fully committed to giving them all necessary support to ensure FDA approval is secured.”

Launching a Movement

Upon market authorization, Zolv plans to introduce its nicotine strip in East Coast cities such as Boston, New York City and Washington DC—urban hubs with large populations of young professionals who are highly conscious of their health and the environment. “By launching in culturally influential, regulation-heavy markets, we’re positioning Zolv not just as a product—but as a movement for modern nicotine use that resonates with the new adult generation,” says Adam. The company expects Zolv to retail at $8.99 per unit, positioning it slightly above oral nicotine pouch competitors.

The greatest challenge, according to Ilkhani and Adam, will be navigating the marketing restrictions around nicotine products. “But we see this as an opportunity to lead with authenticity, education and innovation,” Ilkhani says. “As Gen Z founders, we’re uniquely positioned to build a brand that resonates with the new generation of nicotine users by focusing on transparency, sustainability, intentional design and meaningful community engagement.” The strategy, she says, includes influencer partnerships, earned media and social content tailored to reach audiences aged 21-plus.

Ilkhani and Adam are convinced that Zolv will fill a void in the U.S.—not just for vapers and pouch users, but also for smokers of traditional cigarettes, which remain the leading cause of preventable deaths as well as the source of the world’s most littered plastic (through the cellulose acetate used in filters). “In an era where sustainability is non-negotiable and health consciousness is at an all-time high, settling is no longer an option,” Adam says.

While nicotine strips may not suit everybody, they offer nicotine users yet another way to further decrease their risk. As Ilkhani observes, every consumer has different routines, preferences and reasons for use. “To make a real impact, we have to meet them where they are—across different lifestyles, occasions and stages of risk reduction,” she says. “Zolv was built to do exactly that. It’s a response to what real people told us they needed. It’s the solution we wish had existed when we needed it most.”

Editor’s Note:

One day, I received an email from Ilkhani. She introduced herself as a Gen Z entrepreneur, boldly claiming that she and her partner were about to launch a product capable of shaking the foundations of today’s nicotine market. We soon spoke over video, and though the exact form of the product remained a mystery, I was moved by the energy and conviction radiating from their young team. So, I turned to Taco, our International Editor at 2Firsts, and asked him to pursue the story. The result is the article you’re now reading. My thanks to Taco—for his insight has given us a window into Zolv’s world.

To this day, I have not held a Zolv product in my hands, and I cannot predict its future. But what excites me is the presence of innovation itself—especially when it comes from the rising generation. Twenty years ago, two young graduates from Stanford, James Monsees and Adam Bowen, founded Ploom. From that spark came Juul, a product that would ignite the global vaping revolution. While Juul’s marketing later became controversial, its original spirit—rooted in invention and harm reduction—remains worthy of admiration. Today, Zolv is quietly writing its own chapter.

Let us raise a glass to innovation—and to the young minds brave enough to shape the future. Every new attempt, like a star in the sky, may flicker with uncertainty, but even its faintest light can illuminate the path ahead.

—Alan Zhao, Co-founder & CEO, 2Firsts