Thrive Market raises $111m in funding round led by Invus
The cash injection – which comes hot on the heels of a $30m Series A round led by Greycroft Partners - will help the natural and organic foods start-up build its infrastructure, boost its marketing efforts and create more private label products, co-founder Nick Green told the New York Times.
Read our recent interview with Gunnar Lovelace and Nick Green, co-CEOs at Thrive, which sells the best-selling non-perishable 4,000+ health and wellness products from the top 400 non-GMO, certified organic and natural brands on the market at 25-50% below traditional retail prices. It also sells Thrive Market branded products including coconut oil and pasta sauce. Annual membership is $59.95.
Are Thrive’s prices sustainable?
Thrive Market has exceeded many people's expectations in a very short space of time. However, speaking at the Oppenheimer 16th Annual Consumer Conference in Boston on June 22, Whole Foods Market co-CEO John Mackey suggested that some of the prices being offered for natural and organic foods via online platforms were probably not sustainable:
“If you’ve got competitors that are being held up by venture capital money that are subsidizing their pricing in order to give sales, like Thrive Market is doing or Plated and Blue Apron are doing, eventually, you can't do that indefinitely. Well Amazon can, but no one else can.”
Speaking to us in January, however, Thrive co-CEO Gunnar Lovelace said the membership fee “allows us to cover our costs”, adding: “We then go directly to brands and buy premium products at wholesale prices so we can pass those savings directly onto our members.”
Shipping is free on orders over $49 and packaging is 100% recyclable and compostable. Everything is shipped within 24 hours from fulfilment centers in Los Angeles and Indiana serving 90% of the US population within two to four days.
