Who owns lil?
lil is owned by KT&G (South Korea, KRX: 033780).[1]
This ownership is reported in official statements but has not yet been matched to a regulatory filing.
Evidence: KT&G Launches its Global Brand ESSE in Germany, Making a Full-scale Entry into the European Market, KT&G Corporation. Last checked .
Key facts
- Current owner
- KT&G Corporation reported
- Owner HQ
- 🇰🇷 South Korea, Daejeon
- Origin
- 🇰🇷 South Korea
- Category
- Tobacco & nicotine › Nicotine alternatives › Heated tobacco & vapes
- Parent ticker
- KRX: 033780
- Last verified
- · 1 sources
About lil
lil is KT&G's heated tobacco device family, sold with matching tobacco heat-sticks. KT&G has released it in successive device generations — lil SOLID, lil HYBRID and lil ABLE — with a second-generation lil SOLID 2.0, offering upgraded battery efficiency and induction heating, launched nationally in Korea in January 2021 before expanding that year into further export markets including Armenia, Serbia, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, adding to earlier launches in Russia, Ukraine and Japan. In 2024 Philip Morris International began commercialising KT&G's lil devices and accompanying Fiit consumables outside South Korea under a partnership between the two companies.
Ownership timeline of lil
Where lil sits in KT&G
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full KT&G ownership tree →
See the full KT&G brand portfolio (5) →
Other brands owned by KT&G
KT&G controls 5 brands on Brandtree, 5 of them in tobacco & nicotine.
Also in tobacco & nicotine
Other brands in heated tobacco & vapes, and who owns them
The 19 brands in heated tobacco & vapes on Brandtree belong to 10 owners. The largest is Charlie's Holdings, with 4.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Charlie's Chalk Dust | Charlie's Holdings | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Feiliu | RLX Technology | 🇨🇳 China |
| glo | British American Tobacco | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
| blu | Imperial Brands | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
| Logic | Japan Tobacco | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| FEELM | Smoore | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong |
| NJOY | Altria | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Ispire | Ispire | 🇺🇸 United States |
About the owner: KT&G
KT&G is a publicly listed company headquartered in Daejeon, South Korea, founded in 1899. Brandtree records 5 brands under its control, and it is listed as KRX: 033780.
KT&G is a South Korean tobacco, next-generation-products and ginseng company, tracing its state monopoly origins to 1899 and its present publicly listed corporate form to a 2002 privatisation, when it was renamed from Korea Tobacco & Ginseng Corporation to KT&G. Its own press material describes it as holding the number one position in Korea across combustible cigarettes, next-generation products (NGP) and health functional foods, exporting more than 870 brands to around 148 countries as of 2024. Its flagship cigarette brand, ESSE, was launched in Korea in 1996 and, per KT&G, has grown into the global number one superslim cigarette brand with roughly one-third share of the worldwide superslim category and cumulative sales past one trillion sticks as of 2025.
🇰🇷 lil and other South Korean brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 237 brands that began in South Korea. 12 of them (5%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; lil is not one of them.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of lil?
The parent company of lil is KT&G, a publicly listed company headquartered in South Korea.
Is lil South Korean?
Yes. lil originated in South Korea and its owner, KT&G, is also headquartered in South Korea.
Is lil still owned by KT&G?
Yes. As of 21 September 2026, lil is still owned by KT&G. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (1) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] KT&G Launches its Global Brand ESSE in Germany, Making a Full-scale Entry into the European Market — KT&G Corporation, Official press release; retrieved 21 September 2026.
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