Cash Flow: WIT Fitness Bags £1.5m, Headspace Secures Another $47.7m, Employee Healthcare Platform Peppy Raises £1.7m

The game-changing investment, acquisition and funding news impacting the industry and driving the business of wellness this week.

Meditation app Headspace secures another $47.7m

Headspace has secured another $47.7m in an extension to a Series C round that closed in February. 

The Los Angeles based mindfulness and meditation app, which previously raised $93m in the round led by Blisce, has now raised approximately $216m, since launching in 2010.

As of February, the brand said it had amassed over 62 million downloads in 190 countries and had more than 2 million paid subscribers.

Cue Health raises $100m to fuel portable coronavirus test development

Cue Health Inc., a healthcare technology company developing a portable coronavirus test has closed a Series C financing round, raising $100m in new capital.

Investors included Decheng Capital, Foresite Capital, Johnson & Johnson Innovation and other investment firms.

Proceeds from the financing will be used to complete development, validation, and scale-up of manufacturing of the Cue Health Monitoring System and Cue Test Cartridges. The company plans to increase its footprint to over 110,000 sq ft to better support development and commercialization of its products, including a fast, portable, and easy-to-use molecular test for COVID-19, which is currently under review by the FDA for an Emergency Use Authorization.

WIT Fitness bags £1.5m of follow-on funding from VGC Partners

Sportswear retailer WIT Fitness has bagged £1.5m of follow up funding from VGC Partners, after growing revenues by 56 percent in the last year.

The business, which has locations in London and New York, plans to expand its reach across all functional fitness categories, and bring more exclusive branded products to the market. 

VGC Partners, which initially invested £2m in the business in 2019, believes the brand’s execution of e-commerce, experiential shopping and product activation has led to its rapid growth.

The game-changing investment, acquisition and funding news impacting the industry and driving the business of wellness this week.
Image: WIT FITNESS
Employee healthcare platform Peppy Raises £1.7m in seed funding.

UK startup Peppy — an employee healthcare platform with a focus on female health and family support, has raised £1.7 in seed funding.

The raise, led by Outward VC, also featured participation from Seedcamp, Hambro Perks and Form Ventures. According to the startup, the capital has been earmarked to fuel its next stage of growth, including the expansion of its team and offerings, including new fertility and mental health support.

Founded in 2018 by Mridula Pore, Evan Harris, and Max Landry, the company already counts CBI, Aldi, Penguin Random House and the National Lottery Fund as customers.

Innovation Department raises $3.7m to accelerate DTC brand technology platform

Innovation Department, a tech-empowered platform that creates and builds DTC brands, has closed $3.7m in capital from investors including Long Light Capital, Synergis Capital, Ambridge Capital, and others.

The company, which streamlines the process of building DTC brands through a vertically-integrated, technology platform optimized for acquiring omnichannel customers with capital efficiency and growth velocity, has already successfully built and scaled multiple DTC brands, including wellness and nutrition brand WellPath

This first round of outside capital will be used to further substantiate, test and scale new methods of innovative brand building for its portfolio.