Care/of, which offers personalized subscription vitamin packs, said it would cancel all subscriptions and no longer take new orders from Monday 17 June.
The news doesn't come entirely out of the blue, as Care/of previously said in a New York Department of Labor filing that it planned to lay off all 143 employees by July 3 due to “funding losses.” Now the company has become more specific and definitive about the closure, taking to Instagram yesterday to thank customers and saying, “Unfortunately, we no longer have the funds to operate the way we used to.”
“We are actively exploring options for the brand, but there is nothing definitive we can communicate at this time,” the post said. We hope to be able to share more soon.”
Founded by Craig Elbert and Akash Shah in 2016, Care/of asked customers to fill out a quiz about their lifestyle and values, which led to personalized vitamin and supplement recommendations. Investors included Juxtapose, Goodwater Capital, Tusk Venture Partners, Bullish, and RRE Ventures. They gave the company a total of $46 million in funding.
Pharmaceutical giant Bayer acquired a 70% stake in Care/of in a $225 million deal in 2020. Earlier this month, Christin Miller, Bayer's director of strategic communications, told NutraIngredients: “By ceasing further investments in Care/of, Bayer will be better able to invest in future innovations that help people manage their personalized health. “We will be able to do it,” he said.
