Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but considering L Catterton’s $12 billion of assets under its management after merger with the venture capital arms of luxury companies LVMH and Groupe Arnault (and New York Times calling it the largest consumer-focused investment firm in the world post-merger), Vitamin Packs founder and CEO called the investment ‘significant.’
“I’ve been part of the industry before it was an industry—it was just hippies in the 70s who liked natural and organic food and health food stores that smelled funny,” he told NutraIngredients-USA.
With firms like L Catterton investing in the category, it’s saying that “personalization and wellness are becoming more important as people are successfully aging,” he argued.
“People are looking at how to grow their own personal knowledge and to get it their way. That’s what makes us different, that no two recommendations are the same,” Brown added.
This latest round of financing also included BrandProject, a prior investor.
Coming up next: Refining algorithm, focus on fitness
Funds raised during this round will help Vitamin Packs be “well-positioned take all the learning that we’ve accomplished,” Brown said.
This includes refinement of one of the company’s ‘evolving products’ – its health assessment questionnaire.
“Our questionnaire today is the best that we can make it, but new research has come out, so we continue to upgrade our questionnaire so that the assessment that you receive is more geared toward individual lifestyles,” he said.
“We’re furthering our algorithm, which currently gives you over 5 trillion combinations.”
Time and resources have also been spent to further develop products targeting people who are “more aggressively interested in fitness,” Brown added, “and for people who are part of the boomer lifestyle.”
In the booming personalized nutrition space, Vitamin Packs highlights the fact that it includes potential drug-supplement interactions in its algorithm as a differentiator.
Without delving into further details on its subscriber number and retention rate, the company said that 220,000 visitors have taken its health assessment test and it has a customer base in all 50 states.