Startup Spotlight: The Pill Club’s tele-birth control

San Francisco, California-based healthcare startup The Pill Club offers online birth control prescription and delivery.

Operating in all 50 states in the US, as well as Washington DC, the company both prescribes and delivers birth control. The former function is achieved via an online questionnaire, while the latter is based around automatic refills with free shipping. Free with insurance, the firm also offers medication to the uninsured for a price.

A total of $61.7mn has been raised by the company across four funding rounds since its foundation in 2014. In 2019, the firm raised some $51mn in a Series B round led by VMG Partners.

In a press release at the time Nick Chang, founder and CEO of The Pill Club, said: “Dependable, seamless and discreet aren’t words typically associated with obtaining birth control and contraceptives.

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“When we launched in 2016, we realized that many new members didn’t have easy access to the prescriptions they needed. Our driving force has always been to put power back into the hands of women, and we’re thrilled to work with our investors as we continue enabling members to make important personal decisions through our easy-to-use service.”

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, The Pill Club framed its work on telemedicine as a potential lifeline for women denied access to contraception during the pandemic, saying in a blog post: “At Pill Club, we serve hundreds of thousands of women across the country, regardless if their local clinic remains open or closed. Telemedicine doesn’t require women to see a doctor in-person to get a prescription and is a safe and trusted resource for women who have questions about their sexual health needs. That’s key to opening access to women’s reproductive health care and essential to ensuring women have a safety net to fall back on during the COVID-19 outbreak.”