StripSupply, a Boston-based reseller of diabetic test strips, announced on Tuesday it has closed an undisclosed seed round. The funding was led by LaunchByte Ventures, and it includes office space out of the LaunchByte offices in Back Bay.
"We need to firm up the tech stack, so we can handle all the customers that are coming on," said Jay Hastings, co-founder and CEO. Also, the company will use the money to grow its six-people team with the addition of customer support and digital marketing roles.
Incorporated in February 2018, StripSupply was born thanks to an intuition of co-founders Hastings, who previously worked in finance at Orig3n, and Salvatore Viscomi, MD. The company purchases in bulk diabetic strips—disposable devices that people diagnosed with diabetes can use to test blood glucose—and resell them at a much more convenient price than pharmacy chains, they say.
Hastings had the first glimpse of a business opportunity with StripSupply after having dinner with his future mother-in-law, Valerie. As a Type 1 diabetic, she told him she needs around ten strips a day to test her blood glucose. The problem was that she had to pay out of pocket for her strip supply, an expense that adds up to $400 a month.
"I thought that it was really unfortunate, so I said I would find a better solution," Hastings said.
Digging deeper, Hastings said he discovered that each strip costs less than 15 cents, but has a retail price of up to $2. Moreover, it's not that branded strips are more accurate than others, because the Food and Drug Administration upholds the same standards for everyone. By selling online generic as well as branded strips, StripSupply said it can cut the additional costs (like physical store-related costs and ads) and make the purchase more affordable.
Currently, the company sells strips supplies nationwide starting at $9 a month with no need of prescriptions or insurance. The strips are purchased from licensed distributors and then stored in a fulfillment company in the Midwest.
The company declined to disclose information about its revenue and its total funding to date. As part of the funding announcement, Tan Kabra, founder and managing director of LaunchByte Ventures, and Cindy Nguyen, CFO of Circulation, will be added to the company's board of directors.
