Online vitamin retailer Care/of has just closed a $29 million Series B funding round led by Goldman Sachs Investment Partners with participation from Goodwater Capital, Juxtapose, RRE Ventures, Tusk Ventures, Beth Kaplan, and Doug Hudson. Since it was founded in 2016, the company has raised $46 million, according to Crunchbase.
“Care/of combines data with a customer-centric orientation to improve quality, trust and transparency with the consumer,” said Christopher Dawe, co-head of Goldman Sachs Investment Partners venture capital and growth equity team. “We are excited to support the company’s goal of bringing personalization and technology to build a leading wellness brand.”
The way the platform works is customers first fill out an online questionnaire about their goals, lifestyle, and values. The platform will then give users recommendations about which vitamins and supplements would work best for that person. Customers then get personalized daily packs of vitamins and supplements.
Customers can use an accompanying app that lets users set reminders and learn more about the supplements they are taking. It lists the vitamins and supplements in the daily pack and how those will impact your health.
“I’m tremendously excited about what Care/of is doing,” Beth Kaplan, a funder who will now be joining the board, said in a statement. “They’re engaging the customer with digital experiences and bringing a fresh honesty in a way that sets them apart from the broader industry.”
Online vitamins seem to be a new trend. In fact, TechCrunch reported on a new online vitamin supplement retailer LemonBox, which focuses on sending vitamins from the US to China. The comany, which launched a few weeks ago, is similar to Care/of the platform in that it lets users fill out a survey about their food and lifestyle. It then recommends different vitamins to customers. The service also splits customers vitamins into daily packs.
LemonBox, which has offices in both the US and China, caters to certain needs like exercise recovery, immune system health and hair care. However, this service is targeted at providing vitamins to the Chinese market.
But it isn’t just the vitamin market that is hot in digital health commerce right now. Virtual pharmacy PillPack was acquired by retail giant Amazon in June for close to $1 billion.
Like the vitamin retailers, the New England-based startup delivers medications in pre-sorted dose packaging. The company also promises to coordinate refills and renewals, and ensures that shipments are sent on time, according to a statement. However, this service targets people who take multiple daily prescriptions and deals with prescription medications.
