Most people are lucky not to have to take any medications on an ongoing basis. But for folks with chronic conditions, it can be awful to manage.
Enter Pillpack, a company whose online pharmacy coordinates with doctors and insurance providers to deliver people the right medications at the right time, without all the hassle. The company is announcing today that it closed an $8.75 million funding round about a month ago, not too long after disclosing its first $4.1 million in funding back in February.
Pillpack is a fully operating, independent online pharmacy. It sends you two-week supplies of their prescription medications, vitamins, and over-the-counter medications individually packaged and organized by date and time you need to take them. Pillpack then bills you in four-week increments for the copayments and costs you’d normally encounter — pretty nifty and not more costly than the old-fashioned solution. Pillpack also has pharmacists ready to answer questions 24 hours a day via online message, call, or chat.
Founder TJ Parker, who grew up in the pharmacy business and spent his teen years delivering medicine to local customers and later worked for Massive Health, told VentureBeat that he came up with the idea after years of watching how awful the experience is.
“Is there an app I can build to make this better?” he asked himself. With 30 million Americans taking five or more medications per day, according to Parker, he saw a massive opportunity to improve the process.
Since its launch in February, the company has added about eight new states to its roster for a current total of 40. In July, it also did away with its $20 monthly fee to be totally price-competitive with brick-and-mortar pharmacies.
With its new cash infusion, Parker plans to focus on spreading awareness about his service, improving its product, and building out its operations and distribution. A mobile app is also on the roadmap and a very high priority, although Parker declined to share a specific release date, adding that it’s still early in the process and even 2015’s first quarter would be a very tentative goal.
Pillpack was recently joined by Y Combinator-backed Zenamins in the pill-mailing business (Zenamins sends you vitamins to help make sure you take them). The company’s bigger selling point is actually its goal of building a database that could help recommend better vitamin recommendations to people. Still, Pillpack is in no hurry to diverge from its current business model, though Parker said the company could do interesting things with its data someday down the line.
Accel Partners led this round of funding, with additional participation from Atlas Venture, High Line Venture Partners, QueensBridge Venture Partners, Andy Palmer, and David Tisch. Accel Partners’ Fred Destin is joining the company’s board as part of the deal.
Pillpack was founded in 2013 by TJ Parker, Brian Hoffer, and Elliot Cohen and is based in Cambridge, Mass. It previously raised $4.1 million from Atlas Venture, Box Group, and Founder Collective, among others.
Pharmacy Simplified. We leverage service and technology to simplify the management of complex medication regimes for the 32 million people taking more than 5 medications a month. PillPack uses design to create an unparalleled patient e… read more »
Fred Destin joined Atlas in 2004 and is a partner in the technology group where he focuses on technology enabled services and consumer facing innovation. He helps build companies and is particularly fond of the earliest stages of a com… read more »
With a fresh $8.75M, Pillpack’s online pharmacy now delivers to 40 states
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