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Image credits: her1

In the latest development, her1, a Berlin-based female wellness startup, has raised €5.5M funding in a Series A round led by FoodTech investor Five Seasons Ventures. 

Existing investors, including Rheingau Founders and IBB Ventures, also participated in the round, bringing the total funding to €9M. 

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Five Seasons Ventures is a European fund focused on investing across the food value chain. The VC partners with Food Tech entrepreneurs to build a healthier, more sustainable, and more efficient food system.

Fund utilisation

The company will use the funding to accelerate growth in the European market, develop new products for different life stages, and expand the team. her1 is hiring across its finance, marketing, and product teams. 

The investment will be used to develop new products addressing female health-related topics such as hormone balance, mood, sleep, and holistic wellbeing.

Female wellbeing startup

Founded in 2017 by serial FoodTech entrepreneur Chanyu Xu, her1 provides ingestible products to help women with everything from gut and skin health to essential vitamins for pregnancy.

The company aims to become a digital health impact company dedicated to female wellbeing. 

How was her1 born?

In the official blog, Chanyu Xu says, “My parents came to Germany from China in the mid-1980s. They studied first and later became self-employed. In doing so, they made everything possible for my brother and me – in addition to education, they also gave us the freedom to pursue our passion and shape our lives independently. That’s why I founded her1 with the vision of supporting women of all ages and in all life stages.”

her1 is Chanyu Xu’s third startup in the field of food technology. “A vicious cycle of stress, eating on the go and feeling unwell quickly begins. This is why digestive problems are among the most common diseases of our time. Unfortunately, women are more often affected by it,” she says.

Back in 2009, she co-founded her first successful SaaS startup, “Customer Alliance”, which is used by over 3,500 Hotels in 35 Countries and grew to over 100 employees.

Before starting her1 in 2017, she co-founded “eating.de” in 2015, which received funding from one of Europe’s largest VC funds and became one of the first Berlin-based startup investments by a prominent US-based fund. 

With her1, Chanyu wants to help women to approach and understand health problems holistically from within. 

her1 products

In 2019, the company launched its flagship product – Inner Beauty, which has over 25 billion active, natural, and good microorganisms per daily serving to support a healthy microbiome. 

The German startup claims to develop products using natural, plant-based, gluten and sugar-free blends made from locally sourced whole foods and containing prebiotics and probiotics to feed the gut microbiome.

The company also helps customers with creating new healthy habits and provides accessories. 

Recently, the company launched Gut One, a daily supplement to help the gut-brain-axis with probiotics and essential B-vitamins for optimal brain and cognitive functioning, which is also available on subscription. 

Expanding beyond German-speaking countries

her1 already has customers across Europe but has to date operated in German-speaking countries. 

However, the company is planning to make its website and products available in more European languages to cater to its growing market. 

Chanyu Xu, Founder and CEO of her1, comments, “My mantra for her1 is that you are what you eat, and everything starts from within. her1 was created to accompany women through different life stages with essentially everything they need, focussing on the connection our general health and wellbeing has with what’s happening in our guts. From mood and sleep to cognitive performance and sexual wellbeing, everything is connected. With this investment and the support of Five Seasons Ventures, we’ll be introducing more products to an even wider market as we look to expand to help more women across Europe.”