A healthcare start-up is buying Birchbox in a $45 million deal with plans to revitalize the business.

WHO: Founded in 2010, Birchbox redefined the way people discover and shop for beauty and grooming by pairing a monthly subscription of personalized samples with relevant content and a curated e-commerce shop.

Founded in May 2020 by Dr. Kimon Angelides and publicly launched in October 2021, FemTec Health is the leading health and beauty sciences company focused on women's health. Angelides has brought together a women-led team with decades of experience across healthcare, wellness, and consumer products in public and private companies. FemTec Health's mission is to revolutionize women's healthcare by using state-of-the-art genomics, predictive intelligence, and digital technologies to create an experience that is unified, coordinated, and provides personalized services and products that are meaningful and effective for women.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS: Katia Beauchamp, founder of Birchbox, says, "I have always believed in the power of women as a community, and I believe this is a natural step in the evolution of Birchbox. Eleven years ago, we were compelled by an ability to build deep customer relationships month after month. FemTec's vision for the future of women's healthcare was inspirational to me and I could see the opportunity for the thousands of women in the Birchbox community to extend beyond consumer beauty products to a more holistic health and wellness offering."

The vision is to create a "health and beauty sciences company," said Chief Scientific Officer Kimberley Capone, who was formerly with Johnson & Johnson. "What we're doing is bringing the science into beauty and wellness.” She added, "Women's health care in particular is quite fragmented," noting that there are companies that focus on menopause or sexual wellness, but that they don't often come together in a comprehensive, easy-to-navigate system.”

“We will have gathered information so you don't have to see thousands of products," says FemTec Executive Chairman Kimon Angelides, who has a PhD in bioorganic chemistry. "We'll make suggestions on the things that match your biology and match your life stage.”

“Women don't know what to use, when and how," says Capone, whose research at Johnson & Johnson led to the use of prebiotic oats in Aveeno and Johnson Baby products to better lock in the skin's moisture. "What we're doing is bringing all this together.”

DETAILS:

• FemTec Health acquired Birchbox in a $45 million deal. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
• Birchbox cofounder and CEO Katia Beauchamp will sell her remaining interest in the company and become a strategic advisor.
• In 2018, Birchbox sold a majority stake to existing investor Viking for $15 million and Walgreens took a minority stake later in that same year. The business had raised $90 million and was once valued at half a billion dollars.
• The company will begin asking its 300,000-plus subscribers to share personal health information and collecting data through methods like skin tests.
• FemTec has plans outside of Birchbox, too. Next year, it will be launching a concierge-style telehealth platform called Awesome Woman, helping women navigate pregnancy, menopause, and everything in between.
• FemTec has raised $38 million in funding to date at a valuation of $380 million from investors that include Longmont Capital, Hellas Med, Walgreens, Trinity, Unilever, and the Estée Lauder Cos.
• The company has also acquired Mira Beauty, a digital beauty shopping tool and search engine, and Liquid Grids, a social marketing company focused on the healthcare sector.
• The business is also building out its own direct-to-consumer brand called Awesome Woman, which will sell supplements, and is considering more acquisitions.