Manual Founder – George Pallis | Image credit: Manual
“Nearly 90% of men don’t seek help unless they have a serious problem” – says Manual.co
London-based Manual claims to challenge the outdated notion that real men shrug their shoulders and carry on. The startup offers a go-to men’s health platform, providing men with access to medical support, advice, and treatment choices.
Manual.co raises funding
In a recent development, the wellness platform for men has raised $30M (approx €25.58M) in its Series A round of funding from new investors including US-based Sonoma Brands and Waldencast. In addition, existing investors including Felix Capital and Cherry Ventures also participated in this round.
Investors to help expand services
Manual’s international investors will bring their experience to the table, supporting the company in its mission to help more men worldwide. US-based Sonoma Brands, Europe-based Felix Capital, and Cherry Ventures have deep-rooted experience in the branding and scaling of consumer businesses.
Apart from Waldencast and GISEV, FJ Labs has also invested in this round.
Funds to remove the stigma surrounding how men approach their health
The raised capital will help the startup to develop impactful products and solutions, as well as in building a vertically integrated healthcare and wellness platform for men – from providing everything from diagnostics to treatments to ongoing care.
George Pallis, Founder and CEO of Manual, says, “This investment will allow us to expand our offering and we’re excited to continue to grow our community, normalising health conversations among men, breaking the stigma, and championing a holistic approach to men’s health.”
The startup will continue to expand across Europe, Asia, and Latin America, and to support this growth, it looks to increase headcounts across its product and expansion teams.
The go-to platform for men’s health and wellbeing
George Pallis, CEO and Founder of Manual, previously led marketing at Wise and Deliveroo throughout their high hyper-growth stages. That demanding journey led to him ignoring his health until his early 30s when he took action reactively to look after himself.
He then realised this is an enormous problem for the majority of men worldwide and decided to build Manual – a destination that normalises the approach of men with their health and gives them conveniently the most effective solution to look after it.
Founded in 2018 by George Pallis and Michalis Gkontas, Manual offers health testing and diagnostics to offer data-driven medical advice and treatments, and a community to help destigmatise conversations around men’s health.
The startup in its early days addressed sexual health and hair loss. And, now the platform has evolved, allowing users to tackle multiple aspects of their wellbeing, including testosterone, heart health, gut health, sleep, energy, and immunity.
Manual’s recent growth
Pallis says, “We’ve been encouraged to see men of all ages increasingly turning to Manual to solve multiple health problems, with almost half of our customers seeking help for more than one issue. It’s clear that a health concern may have more than one cause, and we can provide customers with the ability to treat their health in a more holistic way. Using different treatments to understand and improve their wellbeing.”
In the last 12 months, Manual has grown at a fast pace, quadrupling its revenue and expanding from the UK to Brazil, with a team of only 30 people.
Manual’s mission is to become the global wellness platform for the modern man. Its end-to-end solution fixes the health journey by helping men overcome barriers such as limited time, stigma, and lack of information and proactively address their health concerns early.
According to Manual’s statement, research shows that 9 out of 10 men would rather endure an illness or health problem, than visiting a doctor.
“Changing the narrative on men’s health and their approach to wellbeing is incredibly important for us. We believe that through building a platform and community where men have easy access to medical support and health treatments, we can drive positive change for men not just in the UK, but all over the world,” adds Pallis.
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