Telehealth company Hims & Hers is making its stock market debut Thursday after completing a merger with special purpose acquisition vehicle (SPAC) Oaktree Acquisition Corp.
The San Francisco-based company made its name by offering online consultations and discreet shipping for men's personal care products treating hair loss and erectile dysfunction, but it has since expanded into women's products and a suite of primary care and mental health offerings.
In New York City, the brand's cheeky subway ads have been ubiquitous since the company launched in 2017.
Andrew Dudum, founder and CEO of Hims & Hers, told Cheddar the company is well-positioned to take advantage of the emerging field of telehealth.
"It's just an amazing opportunity to bring great consumer-first access to health care to the masses for $20 to $30 per person," he said. "When you think about the traditional health care system, for most of us, a co-pay on our insurance plan might be $40 or $50 dollars just to see a doctor once."
Hims & Hers' model has powered nearly three million telemedicine consultations since its launch, according to the company. This has fueled a surge in revenue growth amid the coronavirus pandemic, with the company posting a 91 percent year-over-year gain in the third quarter of last year.
Despite these gains, Hims & Hers remains unprofitable, but Dudum said the cost of acquiring new customers is falling as the brand achieves greater awareness among consumers.
"As we get bigger, as people more know of our brand and talk about our brand, our ability to acquire customers at more efficient cost is only getting more improved," he said.
Dudum explained that the company had been exploring a traditional IPO until this year's SPAC boom offered an efficient alternative.
"We decided to go public via SPAC because for so many reasons it was more efficient, more affordable, and a lot more flexible than the traditional IPO process," he said. "The SPAC process takes roughly six months or so to go public, relative to maybe 12 or 18 months with a traditional IPO."
