Needed – a science-backed perinatal nutrition company – recently announced its $14 million funding round led by responsible consumer investor The Craftory, with additional participation from existing investors Seae Ventures and Crescent Ridge VC. This funding round will accelerate product innovation, content creation, and the launch of Needed Labs, the company’s clinical insights and research arm.
The company is known for its system of radically better and science-backed nutritional supplements for women in the perinatal stage. And since launching in 2021, Needed has rapidly expanded its product offering to become the most complete perinatal nutrition system on the market, with a wide range of targeted support for egg and sperm quality, lactation, stress, sleep, and hydration. Plus, the company’s products and educational content are designed around the latest research and clinical insights from the 4,000+ women’s health experts who recommend Needed.
Needed was founded in 2017 by Julie Sawaya and Ryan Woodbury, two nutritionally-trained mothers. And the company’s goal is to close the critical gap in perinatal nutrition and set a new science-backed health standard for women, their families, and our earth.
Most perinatal supplements adhere to the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) – which represents the bare minimum nutrient levels needed to avoid a disease condition rather than optimal nutrition. However, much of the supporting research excludes pregnant or lactating women and lacks racial and ethnic diversity. These outdated research practices (combined with a lag between research and product development) have caused a crisis in which women’s optimal nutritional needs in their childbearing years, pregnancy, and postpartum are not widely accepted or addressed.
Needed Labs aims to revolutionize maternal and infant health through pioneering research challenging prevailing norms. And the company is launching a unique study on women’s nutritional status during pregnancy and advancing an integrative Nutritional Care model, proven to drastically reduce preterm birth, preeclampsia, and gestational diabetes rates compared to national averages.
KEY QUOTES:
“Nutrition is one of the most significant and most overlooked decisions made in the pregnancy journey. However, nutrition is often relegated to an afterthought, and women are left with more questions than answers about their nutritional needs. What’s more, standard prenatal vitamins are designed to meet just the bare minimums, leaving over 95% of women depleted. Needed is setting a new, radically better standard for perinatal nutrition combining the products, education, and access to nutritional experts that all women need and deserve.”
— Julie Sawaya, Needed co-founder and co-CEO
“Nutrition changes perinatal outcomes. Not just birth outcomes but fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, and the health trajectory of mom and baby for the rest of their life. Needed Labs is on a mission to develop new data through research and aggregate clinical insights to ensure the impact of proper perinatal nutrition can no longer be ignored in the standard of care. Insights from Needed Labs will also power our product development, keeping us at the cutting edge of perinatal nutrition.”
— Ryan Woodbury, Needed co-founder and co-CEO
“This is our first move into Women’s Health, a category that deserves more investment. Needed is uniquely positioned to challenge the failed status quo and improve health outcomes for women and their families. We are incredibly impressed by Needed’s products, the scale and diversity of their practitioner partnerships, their rigorous, science-backed approach, and Julie and Ryan – strong female founders in a category designed around women’s needs. Needed stands out as a marker of quality, efficacy, and trust in a category that needs to do better.”
— Jamie Swango, Partner at The Craftory
