LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ritual ( www.ritual.com ), the direct-to-consumer women’s vitamin subscription company, has just announced $25 million in Series B funding.
Founded in 2015, Ritual has quickly become a leader in the vitamin and supplement industry by developing a science-first, reimagined multivitamin that delivers clean essential nutrients many women lack in their diets. Reporting over 1 million bottles sold, the direct-to-consumer, subscription-based company has disrupted the vitamin supply-chain with absorbable ingredients that previously were too expensive to include in multivitamins. Ritual's core philosophy is that all women deserve better products to live healthier lives.
The Series B funding is spearheaded by existing investors Lisa Wu at Norwest Venture Partners (Jet.com, Plaid, Opendoor), alongside Kirsten Green at Forerunner Ventures (Hims, Dollar Shave Club, Glossier), and Brian Singerman at Founders Fund (Stemcentrx, Oscar Health, Airbnb). Wu also joins Ritual’s female-led board, bringing her e-commerce acumen to usher in the next chapter of Ritual’s end-to-end digital customer experience.
Ritual’s recent round of funding will be invested directly into product innovation and scientific research and development as they continue to challenge the status quo and work to improve the quality of vitamins for all of womankind.
Founded on the mission to create a daily multivitamin that gives women only nutrients their bodies need, Ritual launched its first product, Essential For Women, in 2016. From there, Ritual evolved based on consumer feedback releasing its second product, Essential Prenatal, in 2018. In offering transparently-sourced, rigorously-researched alternatives to the typical multivitamin and an improved vitamin-taking experience, Ritual has successfully transformed many women’s behavior—59 percent of customers surveyed said they didn’t have a consistent vitamin habit prior to trying Ritual. The future of the brand will lean heavily into continued innovation to formulate and launch category-defining essential vitamins that support women’s health at every stage—from young adulthood through menopause.
“Four years ago, I started by asking if we even need vitamins at all,” said Ritual Founder and CEO Katerina Schneider. “Through our team’s research, we discovered most women actually don’t need the typical 20-30 nutrients in most multivitamins, but that there are specific nutrients that are especially hard to find in our food sources alone. We’ve reimagined the vitamin from the ground up with a ‘by skeptics, for skeptics’ approach. We are grateful to see our philosophy resonating–the enthusiasm we’ve seen from our investors, team, as well as our customers inspire me to continue pushing the envelope to reimagine products for womankind.”
As a science-first company, Ritual will be using some of the new capital to invest in testing and research—kicking off a large, independent clinical human study on effects of its vitamin at a top US university. Further, Ritual has recently hired a Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Nima Alamdari—a Harvard-trained physiologist with extensive experience in consumer health—as well as Dr. Mastaneh Sharafi, Director of Scientific and Clinical Affairs. Along with early-hire Dr. Luke Bucci, a nutritionist, biochemist, and cell biologist, Ritual believes that continual investment in the diversity and strength of its scientific team is the true differentiator behind the company. The team’s primary focus going forward will be formulating the expanded vitamin line, providing an upgraded sensory experience, and making sure the brand stays at the forefront of nutrient delivery technology—giving customers a multivitamin their bodies can best utilize.
Together with the growing science team, Ritual will continue to invest in key senior hires, among them Creative Director Jonny Leicht, previously at TBWA/Apple and North Face, and VP of Program Management Kadie Bowen, previously at Dollar Shave Club, Saatchi and DirecTV. A female-first brand, Ritual is not only female-founded, but the majority of its board members and leadership team are women. Notably, Ritual’s female leadership includes COO Liz Reifsnyder, who previously led Business Development & Strategy at Dollar Shave Club and was there though its $1B acquisition by Unilever. Another area of investment will be engineering as Ritual goes beyond the product itself to build a custom e-commerce technology platform to improve end-to-end customer experience, leveraging modern software engineering tools and other practices not typically used in e-commerce companies.
“Katerina and the Ritual team have elegantly combined science, design and commerce to disrupt the multi-billion dollar vitamin industry,” said Lisa Wu, Partner at Norwest Venture Partners. “The company has fast become an innovator known for its high-quality ingredients and transparent supply chain, while creating a relationship with every single customer via its direct-to-consumer model. We are thrilled to back this phenomenal team in this next phase of growth.”
To date, Ritual has raised $40.5M and earned accolades such as “Top 20 Female-Founded Startups” by Angel.co and “2019 Best Places to Work” by BuiltinLA. Additionally, Founder and CEO Katerina Schneider was named “30 Under 30” by Forbes in 2015.
For more information and updates please visit www.ritual.com
About Ritual:
Ritual is a health meets technology company that believes in quality, traceability and ingredients that work best in the body. After becoming pregnant, Ritual founder Katerina Schneider inspected all of her products with fresh eyes–from her cleaning supplies to her deodorant–to eliminate harmful chemicals and questionable ingredients. But during her search for a clean prenatal multivitamin, she noticed that many of the top and most suggested brands actually contain potentially harmful colorants, hidden and misleading ingredients, and unproven dosages. So she decided to do something about it. Led by an evidence-based or bust mentality, Ritual’s scientists sifted through thousands of independent research studies to determine the nutrients included in its products. The team then selected forms of each nutrient backed by a significant body of research. In keeping with the brand’s rejection of pseudoscience and commitment to transparency, Ritual has made key research studies that informed the team’s choices available on its website. Ritual was born out of the belief that better health begins with better ingredients. Ritual sources essential nutrients straight from suppliers to combine clean and absorbable ingredients at a fair price, offered direct-to-consumer at Ritual.com. Currently, Ritual offers a daily multivitamin , Essential For Women and a prenatal multivitamin, Essential Prenatal.
