Los Angeles-based Perelel Health, specializing in prenatal and postnatal vitamins, announced securing a $6M Series A investment, led by Unilever Ventures. Additional investors include Willow Growth and Selva Ventures.
Founded in 2020 by Alex Taylor, Victoria Thain Gioia, and Dr. Banafsheh Bayati MD, OB/GYN, Perelel Health has shown consistent growth, evidenced by its year-over-year expansion. To date, the company has raised a total of $12.1M. Its recent funding round includes returning investors from a $4.7M seed round in May 2022.
According to Perelel, the brand saw the sale of over 31 million capsules in the last year, with a significant portion of customers returning for prenatal support in subsequent pregnancies. Perelel now plans to use the fresh capital for team expansion, clinical studies of its products, development of new products, and to enhance its direct-to-consumer subscription model.
“We’re not taking on this capital to do something outside of what we’ve been doing for the last three years,” said Gioia in an interview with Glossy. “We’ve seen so much momentum and growth, [so we’ll use the funding] to give us a sound financial foundation to push growth and use this year as a springboard into scale.”
Perelel’s retail presence spans over 250 doctor’s offices and stores such as Revolve, Erewhon, and Free People. However, the co-founders stated they are currently not actively seeking further retail expansion. According to the founders the investment will strengthen Perelel’s financial base, allowing them to focus on growth and scale. They also plan to bolster department leads with additional staff, aiming to increase their workforce to about 20 employees this year.
Perelel initially started with five specific prenatal vitamin packs and has expanded to 14 additional SKUs, catering to various stages of the reproductive journey. This includes products for hormone balance and the egg-freezing process. The company also offers nutrition supplements like green and sleep-supporting drink mixes, probiotics, and pills for libido support and bloat relief.
“Women’s health remains a chronically under-funded, under-researched and, consequently, underserved area,” Rachel Harris, partner at Unilever Ventures, said in a statement. “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.”
