Perelel – the first and only female OB/GYN-founded vitamin company offering clean and targeted nutrition for various distinct stages of a woman’s hormonal journey – announced the completion of a $6 million Series A financing round, led by Unilever Ventures, Willow Growth, and Selva Ventures. The company has now raised $12.1 million in funding to fuel its mission of advancing the future of women’s reproductive care.
Advanced by constant new product development, the brand launched 19 new products in three years, and their Synbiotic Greens Power has become a bestseller. This year, Perelel continued to experience rapid growth as the business accelerated to serve more women through key hormonal life stages. The business grew over 200%, continues to double its revenue year-over-year, and is on the path to profitability.
On average, nearly 3,500 Perelel capsules are consumed per hour. In the last year alone, the brand sold nearly 31 million capsules, with a third of its customers returning for prenatal support through second and third pregnancies. Continuing to expand in retail locations, Perelel is now in over 250 Doctor’s offices, Erewhon, Revolve.com, and FreePeople.com.
With this latest funding round, Perelel will continue growing its team to develop new products to support women through additional life stages and invest in research and development. Committed to uplifting female leadership talent, Perelel keeps adding to its majority female investor group:
— Rachel Harris, Unilever Ventures
— Isabelle Hemington, Unilever Ventures
— Madeline Kaplan, Selva Ventures
— Amanda Shutzbank, Willow Growth
— Deborah Benton, Willow Growth
This funding round comes at a time of intensified focus on women’s health as efforts start to reach new levels, including the first White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research. Perelel is proud to help lead the charge with meaningful action. And the World Economic Forum and the McKinsey Health Institute McKinsey report that for every $1 invested in women’s health, about $3 is projected in economic growth.
As part of Perelel’s Health Initiative Fund launched in 2020, they provided $2.5 million in product donations to underserved communities through its 1:1 giveback initiative. Last year, Perelel reaffirmed its commitment to advocating for increased and improved research in women’s health by partnering with The HOPE Project, the largest research initiative to-date led in part by Stanford University School of Medicine to uncover the causes of pregnancy loss; and launched the Hormonal Hotline tapping into Perelel’s Medical Co-Founder Dr. Banafsheh Bayati to answer questions many want to know but are too embarrassed to ask. The brand also initiated an educational hub called the Menstrual Knowledge Gap to advocate for bodily literacy since sex education has not worked well.
KEY QUOTES:
“Women’s health remains a chronically under-funded, under-researched, and, consequently, under-served area. We saw in Perelel an opportunity to back a brand offering women high quality, carefully targeted solutions in a space that has traditionally lacked transparency and investment. Since then, the brand has consistently demonstrated its ability to resonate and support women throughout different stages of their reproductive journey,” said Rachel Harris, Partner at Unilever Ventures. “We are delighted to continue partnering with Victoria and Alex and remain excited about the future ahead for Perelel as it builds on its position as a trusted authority for its ever-growing community of women.”
– Izzy Hemington, Principal at Unilever Ventures
“As women in the healthcare industry, we’ve pushed aggressively against the status quo to demonstrate that we can do better for women both by creating a better product offering bolstered by a mission to address the larger gaps in women’s health and research.”
– Alex Taylor Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Perelel and mother of two
“As a rapidly-growing female- and medically-founded business, we have committed ourselves to creating a more fiscally responsible business model by raising smart capital from partners who are experienced in consumer packaged goods and the direct-to-consumer space. There has been a belief (and an old boys club) that success meant the highest raise and valuation, which has just not worked out. We fundamentally want to do business differently by raising what’s needed for us to have a successful outcome for everyone.”
– Victoria Thain Gioia, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Perelel and soon-to-be mother of four
“As the only female OB/GYN founded women’s supplement company Perelel is committed to ensuring that all women have access to medically backed care. Some of the groups most vulnerable to micronutrient deficiencies are pregnant and lactating women, primarily because they have a relatively greater need for vitamins and minerals and are more susceptible to the harmful consequences of deficiencies.”
– Dr. Banafsheh Bayati MD, OB/GYN, Medical Co-Founder of Perelel, and mother of two
