PAX Labs

Cannabis vaporizer hardware / consumer devicesUSA

New to Unitard

✂️ Markdown

Peak $1.7 BillionToday

~-93%

from peak

🦄
Became a unicorn
Apr 2019
📈
Peak valuation
$1.7 Billion ’19
💔
Became a Unitard
2020
💸
Last valuation
~$119M

Current status

Private and operating; sells the PAX Era pod system and flower vaporizers (PAX Flow released August 2025)

The rise & fall

9 moments · 2007–2026

The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.

2007

Founded as Ploom by James Monsees and Adam Bowen

The two product designers start the San Francisco company that becomes Pax Labs; its PAX vaporizers and, from 2015, the Juul e-cigarette come out of the same shop.

Wikipedia

2017

PAX and Juul go their separate ways

Juul becomes an independent company and PAX is spun out to focus on cannabis vaporizers, led by the PAX Era pod system.

TechCrunch

Apr 22 ’19

The peak: $420M round at $1.7B post-money$1.7B

Tiger Global and Tao Capital return and Prescott General Partners joins; a PAX spokesperson confirms the $1.7B post-money valuation.

TechCrunch

Oct 23 ’19

CEO departs, then 25% of staff are laid off

Bharat Vasan leaves in September; in October PAX cuts 65 jobs after a July revenue shortfall and calls talk of a 2020 IPO premature.

Crunchbase News

Dec 31 ’19

4:1 split; T. Rowe's mark slides to $2.56 a share

T. Rowe Price Global Technology Fund's holding goes from 614,138 to 2,456,552 shares; the $15.06 September mark equals $3.765 after the split.

SEC NPORT-P

Feb 6 ’20

Michael Murphy named president and CEO

The former Diamond Foods and Office Depot CFO, most recently at AlixPartners, takes over about five months after Vasan's exit.

TechCrunch

Jun 30 ’20

Fund mark falls about half below the round — joins the Unitard Club 💔$855M

T. Rowe Price marks the Class A common at $1.89, about 50% under the split-adjusted round-era mark; applied to the whole company that implies about $855M.

SEC NPORT-P

2019–24

From the inside · Glassdoor reviews, 2019–24

Glassdoor ratings fall from about 3.7 in 2018 to 2.3 in 2019. Reviewers describe lost transparency after the layoff, then repeated leadership turnover and recurring layoffs through 2024, while most praise their colleagues.

Jun 30 ’26

T. Rowe marks the stock at $0.27, about 93% below the round$119M

T. Rowe Price Health Sciences Fund carries 8.4 million PAX Class A shares at $0.27 each; about ten T. Rowe funds had marked $0.31 in March.

SEC NPORT-P

Today

Still private — the funds keep marking

T. Rowe Price Global Technology Fund, Inc. marks it at $0.31/share · -84% from its peak mark · as of Mar 2026

SEC NPORT-P

💬 entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗; dated facts carry their source.

How it happened

PAX Labs, based in San Francisco, makes cannabis vaporizers, including the PAX Era pod system. It traces to Ploom, founded in 2007 by James Monsees and Adam Bowen, the company that also created Juul; PAX was spun out of Juul in 2017.

In April 2019 it raised $420M from Tiger Global, Tao Capital and Prescott General Partners at what a spokesperson said was a $1.7B post-money valuation. CEO Bharat Vasan left that September, and in October PAX laid off 25% of staff after a revenue shortfall. Former AlixPartners managing director Michael Murphy became CEO in February 2020. Mutual-fund filings show T. Rowe Price funds valued their PAX common shares at $0.27 in June 2026, about 93% below their split-adjusted 2019 mark.

Mutual-fund markdowns

6 funds · SEC NPORT-P

How U.S. mutual funds fair-value this still-private company in their quarterly SEC filings.

Per-share mark from peak

-84%

T. Rowe Price Global Technology Fund, Inc. · Common

$1.89 → $0.31

as of Mar 2026

Fund	Class	$/sh	From peak	As of
T. Rowe Price Global Technology Fund, Inc.	Common	$0.31	-84%	Mar 2026
T. Rowe Price All-Cap Opportunities Fund	Common	$0.31	-82%	Mar 2026
T. Rowe Price Health Sciences Portfolio	Common	$0.27	-13%	Jun 2026
T. Rowe Price All-Cap Opportunities Portfolio	Common	$0.31	+0%	Mar 2026
T. Rowe Price Moderate Allocation Portfolio	Common	$0.31	+0%	Mar 2026
T. Rowe Price New America Growth Fund, Inc.	Common	$1.68	-11%	Dec 2020

Source: SEC EDGAR Form NPORT-P (Level-3 fair-value marks). Per-share marks reflect the fund’s own valuation of a specific share class and aren’t a company-wide valuation. Last refreshed Oct 2026.

Source: TechCrunch (Apr 22, 2019): $420M equity round from Tiger Global, Tao Capital and new investor Prescott General Partners at $1.7B post-money, per a company spokesperson; PAX spun out of Juul in 2017. Crunchbase News (Oct 23, 2019): 25% of staff (65 people) laid off after a July revenue shortfall; CEO Bharat Vasan left in September 2019. TechCrunch (Feb 6, 2020): Michael Murphy named president and CEO. SEC NPORT-P, T. Rowe Price Global Technology Fund, PAX Labs Class A common: 614,138 shares at $15.06 (Sept 30, 2019; 0001752724-19-180704), then 2,456,552 shares at $2.56 (Dec 31, 2019; 0001752724-20-032645), a 4:1 split, so the round-era mark is $3.765 split-adjusted; $1.89 (June 30, 2020). T. Rowe Price Health Sciences Fund (8,397,988 shares) and Health Sciences Portfolio: $0.27 (June 30, 2026; 0001099263-26-009596); about ten T. Rowe funds carried $0.31 at March 31, 2026. Drop keyed to $0.27 vs $3.765 = 92.8%. Marks are on common stock, not preferred.

Founders & leadership

Bharat Vasan
CEO (Feb 2018–Sep 2019, led at peak)
Now Chief Executive Officer at IntangibleLinkedIn ↗
James Monsees
co-founder
LinkedIn ↗
Adam Bowen
co-founder
Now Founder at JUUL LabsLinkedIn ↗