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Islandia, N.Y. — Pharmapacks, a leading e-commerce company with a proprietary technology platform that empowers brands to reach millions of consumers with a complete and cost-effective logistics, fulfillment, marketing and sales solution, today announced it has raised $32.5 million by selling a minority stake at an undisclosed valuation. The strategic round was led by multinational consumer packaged goods company RB with additional investments from McKesson Ventures, Sealed Air and The Emerson Group.
Pharmapacks sells both direct-to-consumer through leading online marketplaces including Amazon, Walmart.com, and eBay among others, as well as on Pharmapacks.com. In addition to selling well-known everyday consumer goods, Pharmapacks serves as a “launch pad” for emerging brands by giving carefully selected new Millennial and Generation Z brands access to the Pharmapacks e-commerce platform and consumer base. This enables brands to focus on product research and development, while Pharmapacks strategically sets competitive price points and builds a connection between the consumer and the brand.
“We are excited to see Pharmapacks growing at a rapid pace, especially in an ecosystem monopolized by big e-commerce players,” said Andrew Vagenas, chief executive officer of Pharmapacks. “The fundraising, together with the associated partnerships, will enable us to scale operations both domestically and internationally as well as serve our customers in an even more efficient and cost-effective manner, while expanding the number of brands we can support with our unique logistics / e-distribution capabilities.”
Pharmapacks will use the funding to grow its 350 person team by 20% and scale its current 140,000 square foot warehouse in Islandia, N.Y. Additionally, the funding will enable Pharmapacks to drive its profitability by advancing its automated technology and to expand its inventory levels and delivery reach from the U.S. and Canada to Europe, Asia and beyond.
“With ecommerce becoming a leading driver of growth for our brands like Enfamil, Lysol, Mucinex and Airborne, we are excited to partner and invest with Pharmapacks,” said Nitish Kapoor, executive vice president, North America, RB. “We believe that this partnership will help both companies serve our online shoppers better and grow at an even faster pace.”
Unlike many third-party retailers, Pharmapacks has an in-house technology team dedicated to building automated assistance tools, which are an integral part of the company’s streamlined process and scaling success. Pharmapacks also has a partnership with Sealed Air, whose I-Pack system uses laser technology to measure the contents of a package then custom fits each box to that size, removing excess air and wasted space. This drastically cuts down on shipping expenses and has enabled Pharmapacks to expand throughput, giving consumers a less than 24-hour turnaround time for order deployment.
“In addition to enhancing the consumer experience upon delivery, Sealed Air and Pharmapacks are having a positive impact on the environment by eliminating excess packaging waste, and nearly eliminating the risk of damage during transit,” said Ken Chrisman, president of Sealed Air’s Product Care division. “Pharmapacks shares our commitment to use technology and data to solve fulfillment complexities. Through the upcoming expansion, we will continue to work with Pharmapacks to provide reliable and sustainable packaging solutions that address today’s social and environmental challenges.”
“Pharmapacks is optimizing the direct-to-consumer channel on behalf of health care brand’s making the buying process more convenient and price effective for both the consumer and their supplier partners,” said Tom Rodgers, SVP and managing director of McKesson Ventures. “With this infusion of cash, we are excited to see the operations scale what is already an industry leading marketplace, and continue to build out a competitive platform that complements a brand’s omnichannel strategy.”
“The Emerson Group is pleased to partner with Pharmapacks. With a shared commitment to excellence in providing our clients industry-leading
capabilities and cutting-edge logistics technology, we can deliver the efficiency that is so vital to success in these challenging retail times,” said Scott Emerson, CEO of The Emerson Group. “Our alignment with Pharmapacks will help us deliver increased consumer exposure to our client brands resulting in the brand growth which is the core of our corporate mission.”
Pharmapacks was founded seven years ago in a Bronx, NY based mom-and-pop retail pharmacy. After opening its first warehouse in Queens, Managing Members Andrew Vagenas, Adam Berkowitz, Brad Tramunti, James Mastronardi and Jonathan Webb enhanced the businesses by building e-commerce, logistics and fulfillment software meant to be easily integrated into partners’ existing sales platforms including Amazon, Walmart.com and eBay. Now the company’s catalog consists of 28,000 unique items and processes and ships over 30,000 orders per day to all 50 states in the U.S. and Canada.
