Exclusive: Women’s Supplement Startup Rae Wellness Closes $9.5M Series A

Minneapolis-based Rae Wellness got a cash infusion of $9.5 million in Series A funding to continue developing its supplements targeting women’s well-being in sexual, hormonal and mental health.

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PowerPlant Partners led the round and was joined by M13, Able Partners and Victress Capital. Co-founder and CEO Angie Tebbe founded the company in 2019. She did not disclose the company’s total funding to date.

Three years ago, Tebbe was a Target executive with two toddlers when she noticed that her own well-being was not a priority.

“I thought about what wellness meant to me,” she told Crunchbase News. “I grew up in a holistic household and wanted an opportunity to honor that. I left my career to pursue my own well-being and take better care of myself.”

A believer in the power of supplements, she went in search of the right ones for her. During that diligence, she found that either quality products did not exist — many were sugary and gummy — or they were very expensive. That’s where Tebbe said she saw whitespace to create products.

Rae Wellness started out as direct-to-consumer in 2019, but by 2020 was on shelves in Target stores and selling on Amazon. It is also available in Anthropologie and will be in Thrive Market and other retailers later this year, she said.

“We’ve been ramping up fast — it’s a crazy dream come true,” Tebbe added. “We needed a big infusion to get to the scale we want, which includes creating an omnichannel brand.”

The company is going after the global dietary supplement market, which was valued at $140.3 billion in 2020, and is expected to grow at an 8.6 percent compound annual rate from 2021 to 2028, according to market research firm Grand View Research.

In the first year of business, Rae Wellness reached 1 million customers, and Tebbe said the company is poised for triple-digit growth this year. As such, the new funding will go toward that growth of reach, brand awareness and partnerships.

“We are thrilled to see women are putting themselves on the priority list,” she said. “We are continuing the journey to create pure and powerful supplements to support women’s journey to feel better.”

Dan Gluck, partner at PowerPlant Partners, said his firm is tracking the supplement category and that the opportunity is huge, with the U.S. market forecasted to be $50 billion by 2024, as more adults take dietary supplements.

With the increasing concern around health and wellness and clean beauty, companies like Rae Wellness have an opportunity to take market share, he added. By focusing on clean and green brands and ingredients that come at accessible price points, Gluck said Rae is resonating with customers.

“From Angie’s experience as a Target executive, she has an insight that most entrepreneurs don’t have,” Gluck said. “We also loved her vision, passion and enthusiasm, as well as her rationale around building the business into a world-class organization.”

Illustration: Dom Guzman