DTC’s Daily Digest brings you the latest news on the world’s fastest growing direct-to-consumer brands. In today’s edition: Dollar Shave Club rolls out new deodorant; Pet-tech business Felcana receives investment; and Wefox announces Series B funding.

Dollar Shave Club rolls out new deodorant

Dollar Shave Club is branching out with its product offering, introducing a new range of deodorant. This will join the DTC’s range of products such as toothpaste and cologne, which have already diversified their portfolio of products.

Dollar Shave Club members can buy USD$5 deodorant sticks and USD$5.50 wipes. This is a page out of a playbook many DTC brands are using these days to scale beyond their initial wildfire product to drive repeat and new purchases in their category or adjacent ones.

These kinds of long-term strategies to broaden the customer base and deepen loyalty may be what DTC brands need to stand out in a space that is becoming more competitive by the day.

Dollar Shave Club is being forced to innovate as new entrants continue to enter the market. Founded in 2011, Dollar Shave Club had the advantage of being first to break ground in the DTC male grooming space. Since then, however, brands such as Harry’s, Wet Shave Club, and Birchbox Man, have come to the market, as well as P&G’s response to DTC, Gillette Shaving Club. With the launch of new products, Dollar Shave Club can leverage its data and loyal customer base to ensure that it continues to grow, despite stiff competition.

Pet-tech business Felcana receives investment

London-based veterinary tech business, Felcana has received an early stage venture capital investment from Global Venture Partners and Seedrs.

The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed. Founded in 2016, Felcana combines artificial intelligence, data analytics, and veterinary expertise to help predict, simplify, and treat over 90% of health issues for dogs and cats.

Felcana will use the fresh capital to expand its presence in the UK and to scale internationally. Felcana is essentially a direct-to-consumer veterinary brand, using a bespoke modelling process that tracks and monitors the activity and behavioural patterns of individual pets, 24/7. It then turns this activity data into insights, which are sent to the consumers smart phone, giving pet owners a deeper insight into the health of their pet, and allowing them to pick up on any irregularities sooner than the average pet owner would be able to.

Spyro Korsanos, managing partner at Global Venture Partners, said: “Felcana is propelling pet care to the next digital level. The ‘pet tech’ market is expected to reach USD$22bn (£17bn) globally by 2025 and the propensity to spend on pet wellbeing is rising rapidly.”

Wefox announces Series B funding

Wefox Group, the Berlin-based insurtech startup behind the consumer-facing insurance app and carrier One and the insurance platform Wefox, has raised USD$125m (£94m) in Series B funding. The round is led by Abu Dhabi government-owned Mubadala Ventures. Chinese investor Creditease also participated.

The investment, which Wefox Group says is the first tranche in the Series B round, will be used for expansion into the European broker market. The German company will also grow its product and engineering teams, specifically in relation to applying “advanced data analytics” to realise Wefox’s vision for an all-in-one insurance platform that places personalisation at the heart of how various insurance coverage is sold and delivered.

Wefox is a platform that connects insurance providers, brokers, and customers in an attempt to drag the insurance industry into the digital age. Rather than bypass human brokers entirely, Wefox lets independent brokers onboard their existing customers onto the platform to help deliver a better experience and more easily manage their clients’ coverage.

Efficiencies are achieved through a degree of automation, helping a broker scale the admin side of their business, while also ensuring customers get the most appropriate coverage. From a consumer’s perspective, the Wefox app and website also acts as a digital wallet, where they can store details of the various insurance coverage to which they have subscribed.