Nizel Pradhan
Nectar, an innovative and comprehensive allergy care platform, announced today its $16.5 million Series A round led by Harmony Partners, with meaningful participation from founding partners Juxtapose and Obvious Ventures, who co-built the company with Founding CEO Kenneth Chahine, Ph.D.
Nectar’s latest fundraising round, which builds on their March 2022 seed investment and brings total equity raised to over $24M, will allow the company to invest in three key areas in 2023: scaling its virtual care platform nationwide, launching its first physical location to comprehensively treat allergies, and initiating clinical studies. Nectar is the consumer-facing brand of Nectar Life Sciences, an allergy-focused healthcare holding company led by Dr. Chahine, one of the country’s leading entrepreneurial operators at the intersection of science and healthcare. Nectar launched in June 2022 with a mission to turn clinical research into personalized, accessible, and revolutionary allergy care and ultimately put an end to allergies.
“Today, over 120 million people in the US suffer from allergic diseases, yet most consumers feel under-served and constrained with the therapies available to them,” said Nectar’s Dr. Chahine. “We’re proud to tackle this chronic illness head-on with transformative personalized solutions that holistically treat the unique root cause of an individual’s allergies while also focusing on convenience and an exceptional customer experience.”
Nectar is building the first vertically-integrated platform for allergies, including a hybrid virtual and physical clinic model, compounding pharmacy, lab testing facility, and an allergist physician network to align incentives and deliver best-in-class customer experiences.
Nectar’s world-class medical board advises on every aspect of Nectar’s comprehensive allergy treatment program. It also helps drive clinical research efforts, ensuring all products and services meet the highest safety and efficacy standards. In November, three scientific and clinical experts joined Nectar’s Head of Medical, Shyam Joshi, M.D. on the company’s medical board, including Kari Nadeau, M.D., Ph.D., Stanford University, Mohamed Shamji, Ph.D., Imperial College London, and John Zwetchkenbaum, M.D., Chief Allergist and Founder of AAPRI.
“Nectar’s mix of cutting-edge scientific research, strong business and medical leaders, and an industry-changing approach to conquering allergies, made our choice to partner an easy one,” said Mark Lotke, Founder and Managing Partner at Harmony Partners. “We’re proud to help fuel Nectar’s transformative work as it scales its virtual care platform nationwide.”
Nectar’s inaugural solution, an alternative to allergy shots, offers custom-formulated drops for under the tongue, delivered right to patients’ homes. The dosage and formulation of the treatment come from patent-pending protocols that help a patient’s body tolerate their allergen triggers over time through a process called Sublingual Allergen Immunotherapy, training their immune system not to trigger an allergic reaction.
“Allergy care is a $450 billion market opportunity with no clear leader. Dr. Chahine’s impressive track record, including his role in founding AncestryDNA and Ancestry Health, makes him the perfect leader to build and grow Nectar,” said Patrick Chun, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Juxtapose.
“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Harmony and Juxtapose to help accelerate the success of Nectar,” said James Joaquin, Co-founder and Managing Director of Obvious Ventures. “Together we plan to improve the lives of millions of allergy sufferers.”
Learn more at mynectar.com.
About Nectar Life Sciences
Nectar is building a comprehensive, vertically integrated allergy healthcare platform that leverages data and clinical research to offer a personalized, patient-centric approach to allergy care. Led by founder and CEO Kenneth Chahine, Nectar is the direct-to-consumer brand developed by Nectar Life Sciences.
About Harmony Partners
Harmony Partners is a highly differentiated venture capital firm that makes expansion-stage investments in high-growth software, internet and tech-enabled companies. By eliminating the typical deal constraints of traditional growth equity firms around minimum check sizes and ownership percentages, Harmony fills a gap in the market. Harmony helps entrepreneurs craft ideal financings, minimize founder dilution, and save time and effort while accommodating outsized insider appetite and making room for strategic partners. Based in New York City but investing globally, Harmony was founded in 2010 by Mark Lotke, who has invested $1 billion in over 100 technology companies over the past 25 years, including Anaplan, AppDynamics, Alation, Arctic Wolf, E*Trade, Iterable, Klaviyo, Maven Clinic, Natera, Postmates, Priceline, SS&C, Swiggy, UiPath, and Zerto. To learn more, please visit www.harmonyvp.com.
About Juxtapose
Juxtapose is a creation-oriented investment firm that is exclusively focused on building industry-transforming businesses from the ground up. Founded by Patrick Chun and Jed Cairo in 2015, Juxtapose Ventures has supported the creation and financing of technology companies, including healthcare and tech businesses such as Care/of, Tend, Modern Age, and Forme Financial. Juxtapose partners with the world’s most experienced and talented entrepreneurial operators to found and scale category-defining technology companies that are set up to win in the industries in which they operate. Read more at juxtapose.com.
About Obvious Ventures
Obvious Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in startups and entrepreneurs reimagining trillion-dollar industries through a world-positive lens. Since launching in 2014, Obvious has backed over 90 companies using technology to create a smarter, healthier, more sustainable world. The fund has led investments in breakthrough companies such as Beyond Meat, Olly, Virta Health, and Recursion. Obvious was co-founded by Ev Williams, James Joaquin, and Vishal Vasishth. More information is available at obvious.com.
