Pharmaceutical company Bayer AG has agreed to buy a majority stake in online personalized vitamin and supplement start-up Care/of.

WHO: Craig Elbert and Akash Shah co-founded Care/of in 2016. The healthcare technology brand is dedicated to simplifying consumer health. Their first product is a vitamin pack delivered monthly and personalized to the individual customer’s unique body, lifestyle, values, and health goals.

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. The Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability, and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2018, the Group employed around 117,000 people and had sales of 39.6 billion.

WHY: The German company is seeking growth from new sources and to expand its nutrition business.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS: “We believe this model and product type has the ability to expand into traditional retail channels as we aim to reach new consumers,” Bayer spokesman Dan Childs said to Bloomberg. “Together we plan to grow the Care/of business across new channels, new categories and new markets to deliver even more personalized nutrition.”

DETAILS:

• Bayer is acquiring a 70% stake in a transaction that values Care/of at $225 million and gives Bayer the option to buy the rest by 2022, a source familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
• The company was valued at $156 million in 2018 after raising funds from investors including Goldman Sachs’ venture capital unit.
• Care/of had raised a total of $84.7 million from investors RRE Ventures, Andy Dunn, Goodwater Capital, Tusk Ventures, Bullish, Juxtapose, GS Investment Partners, and Recharge Capital, according to Craft.