Quit Genius, a US-based smoking cessation service backed by telecommunications company Telefónica, has received $11m in a series A round led by venture capital firm Octopus Ventures.
Village Global, Semper Virens and Serena Ventures were among the other participants along with angel investors Venus Williams and Eric Ries.
Founded in India, Quit Genius provides personalised digital therapy to help users stop smoking or vaping. It also has solutions for alcohol and substance abuse in development that it intends to launch later this year.
The latest round comes in the wake of a $2.6m seed round that included Telefónica’s innovation hub, Wayra, as well as Village Global VC, Pioneer Fund, Arab Angel VC and various angel investors that stood at $2m as of mid-2018. Force Over Mass Capital and Y Combinator are also among its early backers.