When we first recommended NowRx to you in July 2018, its valuation was $20 million. Last November, we recommended you invest in the company again at a $65 million valuation — a more than 3X increase on your original investment price. We were impressed by its execution and believed the startup was poised to do great things.
To refresh your memory, NowRx delivers medicine to your home on the same day you order it… and it’s free. For a $5 fee, it will deliver within the hour.
The company uses robotics to bottle your pills in less than a minute. It uses AI to figure out the most efficient routes to reach your home. And its high-tech approach has paid off with bigger margins than its competitors.
NowRx has five facilities in the San Francisco Bay area. And it’s working on expanding into Los Angeles. Then onwards to San Diego and Washington — and eventually the rest of the country.
The startup was doing well before COVID-19 hit. Now it’s seeing “an unprecedented surge in demand,” according to NowRx founder and CEO Cary Breese.
Home delivery pharmacy service is exactly what people need right now. And NowRx is even more critical “for patients with underlying health conditions, many of them older,” says Cary. “The last thing you want to tell a patient (after a virtual appointment) is get out of your pajamas, put on your clothes, walk down to CVS and stand in line.”
COVID-19 has driven NowRx’s revenue to new heights. Its first quarter of 2020 revenue is 30% more than last year’s fourth quarter revenue. And it increased its customer base by 84% during that same time period.
In March, when COVID-19 hit the west coast hard, 2,000 new customers signed up for at least one delivery. That’s a 62% increase in signups from February and a 167% increase compared to March 2019 signups. NowRx also cracked the $1 million mark in sales for the first time in March. It recorded sales of $1.1 million.
As good as March was, April should be even better (NowRx hasn’t made April’s numbers available yet). May and the summer months should also see strong customer growth and revenue numbers.
Cary says this is more than just a temporary phenomenon. “The coronavirus outbreak has created a permanent paradigm shift towards delivery of daily consumer goods and services,” he says. “It’s especially impactful in the healthcare setting like pharmacy.”
NowRx is taking the necessary precautions you’d expect from a responsible healthcare service company. It’s dropping deliveries off on the doorsteps of patients when legally permissible. Its delivery and pharmacy personnel wear masks and gloves while on the job. The company wipes down all pharmacy and delivery vehicle surfaces daily. And workers get their temperatures checked at least once a day.
Cary didn’t plan for COVID-19, of course. But now that it’s here, he’s glad that NowRx can help Americans stay safe in their homes and still get the medicine they need.
And he’s substantially increased NowRx’s growth projections and expansion plans. “I do not believe you can find a better counter-cyclical investment than NowRx,” Cary says. I agree.
Many startups are making a big difference during this very difficult time. Several of them are now part of the First Stage Investor portfolio.
NowRx, however, is the only one we’ve recommended you invest in more than once. And we recommended you invest in them (twice!) before the pandemic reached our shores. NowRx’s upside is even higher now. So is the probability of NowRx realizing its upside.
If you haven’t invested in NowRx, there’s still time. Its raise is still live on the SeedInvest site. Just click here to invest. We thought it was a really good investment opportunity back in November. Now it’s a really great one. (And you still get the November price!)