First and Only Female OB/GYN-Founded Vitamin Company Perelel Raises $6 Million Series A Round To Continue Raising the Standard for Women's Reproductive Care and the Prenatal Industry

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Feb 01, 2024, 09:17 ET

The announcement comes as the company continues to more than double its revenue year-over-year while seeing a third of its customers return for support for their second child

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 1, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Perelel, the first and only female OB/GYN-founded vitamin company offering clean, targeted nutrition for various distinct stages of a woman's hormonal journey, today 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 a total of $12.1 million in funding to fuel their mission of advancing the future of women's reproductive care.

Propelled by constant new product development – the brand launched 19 new products in three years – and category expansion – 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 has grown over 200%, continues to more than double its revenue YoY, and is on the path to profitability. On average, nearly 3,500 Perelel capsules are consumed per hour and in the last 12 months 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.

"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,'' added 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," said 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," added Victoria Thain Gioia, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Perelel and soon-to-be mother of four.

With this latest round of funding, Perelel will continue to grow its team to develop new products to support women through additional life stages and will continue to 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 raise 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. 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 have provided $2.5 million in product donations to underserved communities through its 1:1 giveback initiative. In 2023, 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-ed has failed us.

"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," added Dr. Banafsheh Bayati MD, OB/GYN, Medical Co-Founder of Perelel, and mother of two.

For more information about Perelel please visit www.perelel.com.

About Perelel
Perelel is the first and only female OB/GYN-founded vitamin company offering clean, targeted nutrition for distinct stages of women's hormonal journeys. In 2018, Victoria Thain Gioia and Alex Taylor, both pregnant, found themselves navigating the wildly unregulated world of prenatals. Their paths to parenthood were marked by confusion, frustration, and loss (Victoria endured four miscarriages and is now pregnant with her fourth child). The realization about how incredibly complex women's bodies are and yet how overly reductive and simple most of the products on the market were, led to a search for superior solutions. The lack of information on what to consume during pregnancy and when to do so – along with a lack of industry regulations, inspired them to introduce a more precise and transparent approach to prenatal vitamins. Still today, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not hold vitamins to the same standards as conventional foods or drugs, so manufacturers are responsible for handling safety testing, labeling, and quality standards themselves. This leaves consumers vulnerable to misinformation, predatory marketing, and a lack of control over their bodies. Launched in 2020 along with Medical Co-Founder Dr. Banafsheh Bayati, the company includes a line of 19 individual skus not including bundles with a focus on targeted nutrition for women at various hormonal life stages including prenatal, postpartum care, and general women's wellness. Each formula is meticulously developed in collaboration with a panel of certified OB/GYNs and multidisciplinary women's health experts, and consciously made to support women through key stages of their hormonal journey. As part of their ongoing Health Initiative Fund, Perelel supports improved research in women's health and more accessible education to fuel bodily empowerment and literacy – and has provided $2.5 million in product donations to underserved communities through its 1:1 giveback initiative.

Contact:
WLDFLWR PR
Catherine Cuello-Fuente at [email protected]

SOURCE Perelel