Dive Brief:
- Amid a slew of complaints from vendors and customers, Birchbox’s assets have been acquired from FemTec Health by Retention Brands, according to a Friday press release. Retention Brands invests in e-commerce and subscription commerce.
- FemTec Health, which is winding down its business, engaged a financial consulting firm earlier this year to help explore the potential sale of “its non-core and underperforming assets.” Women’s health company Awesome Health has acquired the remaining assets from FemTec Health and Longmont Acquisition Corporation, including Mira AI, Liquid Grids, Nutrimedy, Awesome Woman and AvaScience-FMTC GmbH.
- Retention Brands did not respond to questions about its plans for Birchbox or the acquisition price at the time of publication. Meanwhile, FemTec Health creditors can now submit claims for money owed, according to a Friday notice of assignment for the benefit of creditors.
Dive Insight:
The sale of Birchbox’s assets comes nearly two years after FemTec Health acquired the subscription service.
FemTec Health, a women’s health company, bought Birchbox in 2021 for about $45 million. The beauty box subscription company was co-founded by Katia Beauchamp in 2010, but the company ran into challenges on its path to scale. In February 2020, Birchbox laid off about 25% of its staff.
FemTec’s acquisition was meant to help grow Birchbox after it experienced obstacles during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think that after the pandemic year, which was just a lot of changes and uncertainty, we definitely were excited by the fact that FemTec wasn’t just a big vision, but it was going to be a really well-financed vision,” Beauchamp told Retail Dive at the time of the acquisition.
But Birchbox’s issues only grew under FemTec.
In November 2022, Birchbox told its more than 520,000 Instagram followers that it was facing unprecedented setbacks and was searching for a viable solution. Birchbox customers have been left with unfilled orders, vendors have complained of unpaid bills and its website was also inaccessible for a while earlier this year.
Beauchamp has demanded about $2 million from FemTec Health and its CEO Kimon Angelides, alleging they have failed to pay the sum agreed upon in a July 2021 Share Purchase Agreement, according to legal correspondence obtained by Retail Dive earlier this month.
