ByHeart Secures $90M Series B Financing and Achieves All of its Clinical Trial Endpoints

July 26, 2021

NEW YORK, July 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ByHeart, the baby nutrition company founded by Ron Belldegrun and Mia Funt, today announces it has secured $90M in series B funding, following their $70M series A in April 2020. This coincides with the completion of the brand's 311 baby, multicenter clinical trial - the largest conducted by a new US infant formula brand in over 25 years - successfully meeting all of its endpoints. This achievement is a critical final step in submitting ByHeart's New Infant Formula Notification to FDA, and ultimately in bringing their highly anticipated infant formula to market.  Reaching this clinical milestone and securing another substantial pre-market investment collectively underscore the company's groundbreaking innovation to date and investors' confidence that ByHeart is at the forefront of next-generation baby nutrition.

Three companies have dominated the infant formula space for decades and new companies that have entered the market have used the same third party manufacturer who handles end-to-end production and manages supply chain and ingredients. Creating a formula recipe that incorporates modern advancements in baby nutrition beyond the industry standard requires ownership of the entire manufacturing process and running a new clinical trial. Due to this high barrier to entry, breast milk research and nutrition science have outpaced innovation. ByHeart's clinical trial was designed to meet and exceed the rigorous requirements set by the FDA and they are the first new brand to include a breastfed reference arm, a significant and elective addition to the study, which will yield additional data to follow.

"Five years ago, we set out to build a company that would transform baby nutrition with products and resources grounded in breakthrough nutrition science and breast milk research," explained Belldegrun. "When we discovered that much of the industry was still relying on existing research as opposed to conducting new, more comprehensive clinical trials, we knew that true innovation would require starting from scratch and building entirely from the ground up."

ByHeart's Series B funding will be used for the impending launch of ByHeart's first formula, as well as to advance the company's innovation pipeline of mom and baby products which address a $70B global market. The company is committed to modernizing the entire nourishment continuum from pregnancy through early childhood with next-to-nature quality, leading nutrition science, and ingredient transparency.

In April 2020, the company completed its $70M Series A. The Series B funding was led by D1 Capital Partners with continued participation from OCV Partners, Polaris Partners, Bellco Capital, Two River and Red Sea Ventures – all of whom also invested in ByHeart's Series A – as well as new investment from AF Ventures, a leading 'better-for-you' food investor, and Gaingels, a fund dedicated to promoting inclusive leadership and social change through business.

“We are excited to increase our investment in ByHeart at this pivotal moment,” said Dan Sundheim, Founder of D1 Capital Partners. “We invested pre-market, earlier than we typically invest, in part because we believe Ron, Mia and team have created a truly differentiated formula product that can deliver compelling benefits to babies.”

ByHeart's founders are driven by their belief that parents deserve a partner that will support them with no compromise products and parent centric resources so they can feel proud of how they nourish their babies. Collectively, today's announcements underscore ByHeart's consequential work over the past five years since its founders set out to break open the conversation – and the options – around feeding and nutrition.

About D1 Capital Partners
D1 Capital Partners is a global investment firm that operates across public and private markets. The firm combines the talent and operational excellence of a large, premier asset management firm with the flexible mandate and long-term time horizon of a family office. Founded in 2018 by Daniel Sundheim, D1 focuses on investing in the global internet, technology, telecom, media, consumer, healthcare, financial, industrial, and real estate sectors.