Musely secures $360M from General Catalyst without giving up equity
Musely secures $360M from General Catalyst without giving up equity
Musely 从 General Catalyst 获得 3.6 亿美元融资，且无需出让股权
Musely, a direct-to-consumer telemedicine platform, has secured over $360 million in non-dilutive capital from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund (CVF). The company specializes in compounded treatments for skin, hair, and menopause care. 直接面向消费者（DTC）的远程医疗平台 Musely 已从 General Catalyst 旗下的客户价值基金（CVF）获得了超过 3.6 亿美元的非稀释性资本。该公司专注于皮肤、头发和更年期护理的复方治疗。
Musely co-founder and CEO Jack Jia told TechCrunch that when CVF investors reached out to him last year, he wasn’t looking to raise capital. That’s 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. Musely 联合创始人兼首席执行官 Jack Jia 向 TechCrunch 表示，当 CVF 的投资者去年联系他时，他并没有融资的打算。他说，这是因为 Musely 自 2014 年成立（最初是一个健康社区，2019 年转型为处方护肤品平台）以来，多年来一直保持现金流为正。
Jia didn’t 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 wasn’t looking to take an equity stake, nor was it offering a loan that would carry interest rate charges. Jia 不想通过向风投机构出售股份来稀释自己的所有权。他表示，风投机构经常就潜在的融资轮次与他接触，但他都一一拒绝了。但与传统风险投资不同，CVF 并不寻求获取股权，也不提供带有利率的贷款。
Instead, CVF’s 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 Catalyst’s fund. Although Jia was initially skeptical, he quickly realized CVF’s terms were more favorable than a standard bank loan and far less costly than a dilutive equity round. “When I mathematically modeled it, I found this absolutely compelling,” he said. 相反，CVF 的这种替代性融资类似于一种小额收入分成协议：拥有可预测收入流的公司借入资金，然后偿还本金，并支付利用这笔资金所产生收入的一定比例（设有上限）。尽管 Jia 起初持怀疑态度，但他很快意识到 CVF 的条款比标准银行贷款更优惠，且远比稀释股权的融资轮次成本更低。“当我进行数学建模分析后，我发现这非常有吸引力，”他说。
While Musely has been growing its revenue on average 50% year-over-year and has served over 1.2 million patients, acquiring new customers for DTC brands like Musely can be very costly, Jia explained. “When you become a billion-dollar revenue company, you need another billion in order to grow to the next billion,” he said. “That’s why most of the DTC companies, if you look at the capital burn, it is huge.” Jia 解释说，虽然 Musely 的收入平均每年增长 50%，并已服务了超过 120 万名患者，但对于像 Musely 这样的 DTC 品牌来说，获取新客户的成本可能非常高昂。“当你成为一家营收十亿美元的公司时，你需要再投入十亿才能增长到下一个十亿，”他说。“这就是为什么如果你观察大多数 DTC 公司的资本消耗，你会发现数额巨大。”
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 Catalyst’s last $8 billion fundraise. 来自 CVF 的资金解决了这一问题，为 Musely 提供了支持客户增长的资本储备。这笔资金将用于销售、营销和其他客户获取工作。Musely 加入了 CVF 的投资组合，该组合还包括 Grammarly、Lemonade 和 Ro 等公司。该基金拥有自己独立的有限合伙人，其投资的资本并未包含在 General Catalyst 最近 80 亿美元的募资中。
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. 与许多同行不同，Musely 的资本效率非常高。据 Jia 称，该公司在 2014 年从 DCM 和其他投资者处筹集了 2000 万美元后，此后再未筹集过一分钱的股权资本。Musely 允许患者通过与获得认证的皮肤科医生和妇产科医生进行异步咨询来获取处方产品。