The Pill Club Bags $42m in Series B Financing

Birth control delivery startup, The Pill Club has raised almost $42 million in a fundraising round. The latest fundraising round is an extension of the company’s Series B, with The Pill Club expected to use the money to broaden its offerings and expand its team.

The investment round, which raised $41.9 million, was led by Base 10, with participation. Existing investors such as ACME, GV, Shasta Ventures, and VMG also participated alongside new investors, including Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi, Honey’s George Ruan, and iGlobe.

The latest funding follows the initial Series B that raised $51 million and was led by VMG in 2019.

What the funding will be used for

Liz Meyerdirk, The Pill Club’s CEO, wrote in a blogpost that the new funding will be used to accelerate three priorities: expanding the breadth and depth of the company’s services while cultivating in-house talent and continuing to hire a diverse, high-performing team.

The Pill Club is particularly eyeing to expand its prescription services to all 50 U.S. states before the end of 2021. So far, the startup has services in 47 states.

“As I dug into what it’s like to be a member of The Pill Club, I became even more focused on expanding our platform to better serve our community. And in fact, we’ve already started doing just that.  Our California dermatology pilot is on track to go nationwide in a few months, and we’re expanding our period care pilot. We launched in our 47th state and are on track to hit all 50 by the end of the year. This new investment allows us to do so much more for our patients and address more of their daily needs,” wrote Meyerdirk.

Meyerdirk joined The Pill Club in January this year from Uber Eats.

“When I joined the team six months ago, it was clear to me that the company was at an inflection point. We were meeting a real need for people seeking contraceptive care and crossed an annual run rate of $100 million for the first time. At the same time, it was clear that what we had built was just the start: that what we were doing was simplifying a daily need — access to a basic right in life — and in doing so, empowering women,” she wrote.

The Pill Club’s model

The Fierce Healthcare website explained The Pill Club’s model, saying prescriptions are written virtually using online questionnaires and text or video consultations. Existing prescriptions can also be transferred to The Pill Club’s pharmacy services from the member’s current pharmacy. The Pill Club then delivers its products — such as birth control pills, emergency contraception and non-hormonal barrier contraceptives — to members’ homes in discreet packaging. 

To deliver a good experience, Meyerdirk explained that the startup’s vision was to simplify a daily need — access to a basic right in life — and in doing so, it was empowering women.

“We were sitting on an even bigger opportunity to build a ‘by women, for women’ digital health business that addressed the full primary care spectrum,” she continued.

To that end, almost two out of three (62.5 percent) of the company’s executives are female, while 72 percent of the company’s employees are female. The Pill Club has 350 employees. Meyerdirk added that the company’s strength came from the diversity of its employees, “and being a leader in this space remains a top priority as we continue to grow and scale our business.”

Meyerdirk declared that The Pill Club, which was founded in 2016, is just getting started and there is more to come from the startup.

Other notable players

The Pill Club operates in the same space as Nurx. Nurx, a mail-order birth control company, recently launched a dermatology line for acne, rosacea and anti-aging treatments alongside sexually transmitted infection diagnostic testing and preexposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention. 

Simple Health, which is not too dissimilar to The Pill Club, operates a mail-order birth control service. A bigger company in the space is Hims & Hers, which expanded into women’s health in 2018.

Amazon is the obvious giant in this space and recently it announced new features on Amazon Pharmacy.

Telemedicine and digital health startups have been the in-thing in the VC funding space for some time now. The COVID-19 pandemic has also helped boost digital health startups.

Last year, digital pharmacy and drug delivery company, Alto Pharmacy, raised $250 million in a Series D round of funding that was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, bringing to more than $350 million that the company has raised since 2015.

You can read our ultimate guide to telemedicine here.