UPDATED 23:29 EST / JUNE 03 2015

NEWS

Money medication: pharmacy startup PillPack raises $50m Series C

Online pharmacy startup PillPack, Inc. has raised $50 million Series C in a round led by CRV that also included Accel Partners, Atlas Venture, Menlo Ventures, and Sherpa Ventures.

Founded in 2013, PillPack aims to take on pharmacy giants such as The Walgreen Co. by offering home-delivered customized prescription medication, along with vitamins and non-prescription over-the-counter meds.

The company pitches itself as “pharmacy simplified,” with a service that fills, sorts and delivers a customers medications based on when they need to be taken, assisting customers in making sure they take the right medication at the right time.

Not short on superlatives, PillPack says that their model is “reinventing pharmacy” by combining world-class customer service with design and technology to create an experience with the customer, at the center of it, delivering a service where “medicine can become a source of health rather than a source of stress.”

PillPack claims to have shipped more than 1 million “dose packs” (customized packs of multiple medicines they ship to customers) since the service went live in February 2014.

“In the last ten years, nearly every industry has been modernized to cater to its customers through convenience, service, and simplicity. Surprisingly, the pharmacy experience has been completely overlooked,” CRV Partner George Zachary said in a statement. “I was drawn to PillPack because they’ve taken on this challenge. Anyone who has to deal with the hassles of an in-person retail pharmacy can understand its value, especially people who have to manage multiple prescriptions of their own or for their loved ones. It’s truly transformative.”

Reinvention or retrospection?

Where the round gets interesting is that the money will be used to “build retail pharmacies in U.S. markets.”

“In the last two years, we’ve built and launched a better, simpler pharmacy experience that folks absolutely love,” PillPack Chief Executive Officer TJ Parker said. “With this funding, we’re excited to expand our physical footprint across the country, enabling both increased capacity as well as opportunities for an even more delightful experience for our customers.”

If that’s strange enough for an e-commerce play, Parker told TechCrunch that he aims to bring back the friendly neighborhood pharmacists of yesteryear in order to provide “an even more delightful experience for our customers.”

All that is old in new again?

Including the new round PillPack has raised $62.8 million to-date. Previous investors who did not participate in the new round include Slow Ventures, QueensBridge Venture Partners, High Line Venture Partners, BoxGroup, and a number of individuals.

Image credit: armymedicine/Flickr/CC by 2.0

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