Musely, a direct-to-consumer telemedicine platform, has secured over $360 million in non-dilutive capital from General Catalystâs Customer Value Fund (CVF). The company specializes in compounded treatments for skin, hair, and menopause care. Musely co-founder and CEO Jack Jia told TechCrunch that when CVF investors reached out to him last year, he wasnât looking to raise capital.
Thatâs because Musely, which was founded in 2014 as a wellness community before pivoting to prescription skincare in 2019, has been cash flow positive for years, he said. Jia didnât want to reduce his ownership in the company by selling off a chunk of it to VCs. They frequently approached him about a potential round and he consistently turned them down, he said.
But unlike traditional venture capital, CVF wasnât looking to take an equity stake, nor was it offering a loan that would carry interest rate charges. Instead, CVFâs alternative financing is similar to a tiny revenue-share agreement: Companies with predictable revenue streams borrow capital, and then repay the funds along with a fixed, capped percentage of revenue it generates from the use of General Catalystâs fund. Although Jia was initially skeptical, he quickly realized CVFâs terms were more favorable than a standard bank loan and far less costly than a dilutive equity round.
âWhen I mathematically modeled it, I found this absolutely compelling,â he said. 2 million patients, acquiring new customers for DTC brands like Musely can be very costly, Jia explained. âWhen you become a billion-dollar revenue company, you need another billion in order to grow to the next billion,â he said.
â The funding from CVF solves this problem, providing Musely with a capital war chest to support its customer growth. The funding will support sales, marketing, and other customer acquisition efforts. Musely joins a CVF portfolio that includes Grammarly, Lemonade, and Ro.
The fund maintains its own distinct limited partners, and the capital it invests was not included in General Catalystâs last $8 billion fundraise. Unlike many of its peers, Musely has been remarkably capital-efficient. After raising $20 million from DCM and other investors in 2014, the company has not raised a single dollar of equity capital since, according to Jia.
Musely allows patients to access prescription products through asynchronous consultations with board-certified dermatologists and OB-GYNs.
