Just 30% of allergy sufferers are content with the allergy medications that are now accessible, despite the abundance of over-the-counter remedies and the billions of dollars spent annually. With over 90% of patients reporting improved alleviation, Allermi delivers a tailored treatment.
Allermi, a San Francisco-based healthtech startup providing a customized approach to allergy relief raised a $3.5M seed round led by Nelstone Ventures, who twice funded Apostrophe – a direct-to-consumer telehealth service providing customized skincare solutions – and helped lead their nine figure sale to Hims & Hers. In addition to Nelstone Ventures, FourSight Capital Partners also participated in the round.
The funding will be used to deliver a personalized solution to allergy care. It will also be used to continue national expansion; build and scale business, marketing and product operations; and enlarge marketing channels to meet the growing demand.
“There are approximately 110M Americans that suffer from nasal congestion and rhinitis. With a custom combination of the right medications at the right dosage, millions of rhinitis sufferers can now achieve far superior relief compared to one-size-fits-all options at the drugstore,” said Co-Founder and CEO Shani Bocian. “This recent funding will allow us to continue innovating our customized solution and make it accessible to allergy sufferers nationwide.”
“We first met the Allermi team nearly a year ago and were intrigued by their approach to improving patient care for rhinitis and allergy sufferers through their customized solutions and telemedicine offering,” said Rich Nelson, Founder & Managing Director of Nelstone Ventures. “Since then, we have been very impressed with all that CEO Shani Bocian and the rest of the team have accomplished and are very excited to partner with them as they enter their next phase of growth and expansion.”
Dr. Robert Bocian, an allergist with more than 30 years of experience, co-founded Allermi with his daughter Shani. He is also an associate professor of allergy and immunology at Stanford University and the creator of Bocian’s Potions, the company’s first custom approach that combines and modifies the doses of several clinically-tested medications into a single nasal spray bottle to treat patients’ particular symptoms.
Allermi, which debuted in California in July with a $1.25M pre-seed round led by Lucas Venture Group, has been growing at a rate of more than 30% month over month. Allermi is now available in 28 states across the country.
Patients fill out an online intake form before Allermi prescribes their drugs, which is then reviewed by an Allermi allergist. The company makes a tailored spray using the data, writes a prescription, and mails the medication on a monthly or as-needed basis. The price per month is $45.
Allermi is currently available to residents 18 or older in 28 states including: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Washington.
Founders background
Shuba Iyngar attended medical school at Duke University after graduating from UC Berkeley, while also earning her MPH at UNC. Shuba finished her residency at Stanford after completing a research internship at the NIH, followed by a fellowship in allergy-immunology at Boston Children’s/Harvard. Shuba returned to the Bay Area to work with Dr. Bocian at a big multi-specialty health system, where she assisted in the management of an allergy practice. She co-founded Allermi in order to make specialist allergy care more accessible to everyone. Shuba resides in the Bay Area with her husband, a Stanford cardiologist, and twin boys.
Robert received his MD and PhD at the University of Illinois at Chicago before moving to the Bay Area to complete his residency and allergy-immunology fellowship at Stanford. Robert has been an adjunct clinical associate professor of allergy-immunology at Stanford for the past 30 years. Robert also oversees many allergy departments at a big multi-specialty health system in Northern California, including his own large Palo Alto-based practice. Robert lives in Palo Alto and Los Angeles with his wife and four children.
