Body Care: $4.5M Scrub to Combat Candidiasis
Body Care, a health care startup, has raised $4,525,000 in Series A funding led by Accel Partners and Fidelity Investments.
The round, led by Andreessen Horowitz, will help build its scrub for the common cold, called the Apivita.
The startup, which aims to reach 100 million people globally by 2020, says it will use its technology to eliminate candidiasis and other common cold-related infections.
It said it plans to sell the technology to healthcare providers, pharmacies, pharmacies and other retailers.
The company will develop a “microbicide” for the body that will target specific bacteria in a person’s body, such as the candida bacteria, that triggers the symptoms of the common, or bacterial, cold.
The company’s founders are a pair of Chinese doctors who had previously developed similar products and a San Francisco pharmacist.
Apivitas also has the support of several medical device makers.
“The microbiome is a rich source of nutrients for all of us,” co-founder Alex Bair said in a statement.
“A healthy microbiome has the potential to transform our health and well-being.
With this microbiome-based microbicide, we will have the opportunity to accelerate our progress in developing a universal, safe, affordable and effective vaccine against candidiasis.”
The company also said that it had raised $2.1 million in Series B funding led, in part, by SoftBank.
SoftBank is the world’s largest telecoms company.
The funding round was led by the SoftBank-backed Accel Capital and Fintech Capital.
The Accel and Fondech partners will use the money to expand the company’s product line and develop an Android app for the Apiva, which is scheduled to launch in 2019.
The Apivia, the company says, can be used for a range of common cold remedies including the skin-soothing product Lomax, the anti-fungal facial mask Lomix and the mouthwash Lomux.
