The Pill Club, a company that provides telemedicine and mail-order pharmacy services to help women access birth control, has raised $51 million in Series B funding, bringing its total funding up to $67 million. VMG led the round with participation from GV and ACME Capital (new investors) as well as Base10 and Shasta Ventures (existing investors).

What they do

Through The Pill Club's online service, women with an existing prescription can get a variety of types of birth control — including more than 100 brands of the pill as well as the NuvaRing, emergency contraceptives and female condoms — delivered by mail, with no delivery charge and, depending on their insurance, no co-pay. That service is available in all 50 states. 

Additionally, in 35 states The Pill Club is able to prescribe birth control via telemedicine visits, so patients don't need to have a pre-existing prescription. The deliveries also come with "chocolate and sample gift items," according to the company's website. 

In addition to addressing potential issues with stigma and logistics, The Pill Club also automatically triggers refills, which could potentially improve adherence for some users.

What it's for

The company specified three main goals for the funding: improving technology to automate more operations and expand available prescription services, expanding education services to help users understand their options, and hiring; the company plans to grow its workforce by 50 percent this year.

Market snapshot

At least two other companies are on a similar path to The Pill Club.

With Chelsea Clinton on its board, a startup called Nurx raised $36 million last year to provide birth control prescriptions via telemedicine to women in rural areas. Nurx also offers free delivery, in addition to PrEP treatments for HIV prevention and a home screening test for HPV. 

Additionally, hims, which offers online and mail-order men's health products such as treatments for hair loss and erectile dysfunction, recently expanded its offerings to include a "hers" line for women, which includes birth control among its offerings.

On the record

“Dependable, seamless and discreet aren’t words typically associated with obtaining birth control and contraceptives,” Nick Chang, founder and CEO of The Pill Club, said in a statement. “When we launched in 2016, we realized that many new members didn’t have easy access to the prescriptions they needed. Our driving force has always been to put power back into the hands of women, and we’re thrilled to work with our investors as we continue enabling members to make important personal decisions through our easy-to-use service.”