Assisting women to access birth control via telemedicine and mail-order pharmacy services, The Pill Club in its bid to offer enhanced online services has raised $51 Mn in Series B funding, bringing its total funding up to $67 Mn. VMG led the round with support from GV and ACME Capital (new investors) as well as Base10 and Shasta Ventures (existing investors).
Through The Pill Club’s online service, women with a present prescription can get a diverse type of birth control — including more than 100 kinds of the pill as well as emergency contraceptives and female condoms — dispensed by mail, with no delivery charge and, depending on their protection there will be no co-pay. The service at present is accessible in all 50 states.
Besides, in 35 states The Pill Club can order birth control via telemedicine visits, so patients do not need to have a pre-existing prescription. The shipments also come with “chocolate and sample gift items,” as per the company’s website. In extension to addressing potential issues with stigma and logistics, The Pill Club also automatically triggers refills, which could conceivably improve adherence for some users.
The company particularized three main goals for the funding: developing technology to automate more processes and expand accessibility of prescription services, increasing education services to assist users to understand their options, and hiring; the company plans to grow its human resources by 50 percent this year.
What is in store for the company judging the market situation is at least two other firms are on a related path to The Pill Club.
With Chelsea Clinton on its board, a startup called Nurx raised $36 Mn last year to administer birth control prescriptions via telemedicine to women in rural areas. Nurx also proposes free delivery, in addition to PrEP treatments for HIV inhibition and a home screening examination for HPV. Additionally, another organization, which gives online and mail-order men’s health products such as medications for hair loss and erectile dysfunction, have expanded its offerings to incorporate a women’s line, which gives for birth control among its atonement.
