Press release

Innovation Department Raises $3.7 Million to Accelerate DTC Brand Technology Platform

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Sponsored by Businesswire

Innovation Department, a tech-empowered platform that creates and builds Direct To Consumer (DTC) brands, announced today that it has closed $3.7 million in capital from investors including Long Light Capital, Synergis Capital, Ambridge Capital, Ryan Freedman, General Partner of Corigin Ventures and Carter Reum, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of M13 Ventures. Innovation Department streamlines the process of building DTC brands through a vertically-integrated, technology platform optimized for acquiring omnichannel customers with capital efficiency and growth velocity.

Innovation Department has already successfully built and scaled multiple DTC brands, including wellness and nutrition brand WellPath, which was designated as an Amazon Prime Day Partner in 2019 and has increased revenue annually by 400 percent, and soon-to-launch pet brand Finn. Through its technology platform, coupled with proprietary insights and expertise, the company has proven the effectiveness of the DTC holding company model, which enables brands to pool their resources, operational costs, and institutional knowledge to accelerate growth and achieve profitability at a faster rate. This first round of outside capital will be used to further substantiate, test and scale new methods of innovative brand building for their portfolio.

“We have found that DTC brands that adopt the holding company model philosophy and use existing resources and institutional knowledge to build their brands are much better equipped to scale quickly and efficiently,” said Alex Song, Co-Founder and CEO of Innovation Department. “We are confident that our unique brand-building approach which maximizes proprietary learnings, capital investment and the collective expertise of our team, can provide our brands with differentiated advantages for developing sustainable businesses. With the support of our strategic investors, we are now able to accelerate the evolution of our innovative platform and maximize our growing portfolio of startup brands.”

Founded in 2015, Innovation Department has developed three brands in-house, including helping WellPath differentiate itself in the crowded wellness sector, and pet wellness brand Finn, launching in Q3. In the last six months, Innovation Department’s total revenue has doubled and headcount has increased by 30 percent.

“What the Innovation Department team has developed is hugely impressive, especially their approach to building and creating wholly-owned brands and their understanding of what today’s customers are really looking for,” added Carter Reum, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of M13 Ventures. “We’re excited to be collaborating with a company who truly understands the future of the DTC landscape and how to expand the holding company model that they have successfully re-imagined and implemented to create a series of repeatable brand wins.”

“WellPath has benefited greatly by tapping into the greater resources offered by a platform approach,” said Colin Darretta, Co-Founder of Innovation Department and CEO of WellPath. “Since launching WellPath, we have grown to 13 products, including four new products launched in the last six months with several more on the way this year. By working with proprietary technology tools developed for the platform and focusing on operating discipline, we have been able to realize significant success in a short period of time. All of this sets us up to navigate a complicated COVID-19 impacted economic environment so that we can continue delivering our best-in-class wellness products to thousands of customers every day.”

About Innovation Department

Innovation Department is a tech-empowered startup studio building the DTC brands of the future. Innovation Department streamlines the process of brand building by leveraging their competitive advantages: a proprietary growth acquisition engine, owned media assets, diversified distribution channel expertise, and maximum capital efficiencies to build brands from the ground up. For more information, please visit https://www.innovationdept.com/.