DTC’s Daily Digest brings you the latest news on the world’s fastest growing direct-to-consumer brands. In today’s edition: Quip: From toothbrushes to insurance; Commuter Club beats fundraising target; TV working for touch of modern. 

Quip: From toothbrushes to insurance

Quip, maker of electric toothbrushes, is making use of its most recent acquisition to launch a dental insurance alternative to customers in New York City this summer. Called Quipcare, the service operates on the back of Afora, a dental insurance alternative startup Quip acquired last May.

Simon Enever, CEO, Quip outlined that the goal is to modernise the dental care experience. “People are used to being able to pick up their phone to book, pay for and track every aspect of their daily life,” Enever said. “We believe that seamlessness is something we can bring to dentistry.”

Additionally, the plan is to make prices more transparent so that people know exactly what they’ll pay before the treatment. Quipcare is rolling out this summer in New York and plans to roll out more broadly next year. Thanks to the Afora acquisition, Quip already has hundreds of providers on board for Quipcare. And before launching Quipcare, Quip already had 40,000 providers on its Dental Connect platform. 

Commuter Club beats fundraising target

Season ticket subscription service Commuter Club has smashed its fundraising target. The UK-based business, which initially sought to raise £1.85m, is currently at over £2.1m in its Seedrs round. 

Already the leading independent retailer and finance provider in the UK’s £6bn season ticket market, Commuter Club is growing fast. To date, they have issued £70mn+ in loans to over 20,000 customers and achieved a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 300% (2014-2018). Now with a proven acquisition model, attractive unit economics, great customer lifetime value, and improving margins with scale, we expect to issue tens of millions in tickets and loans this year.

For commuters, the value proposition is strong: they can save up to (and sometimes even above) 20% compared to buying monthly or weekly tickets or using contactless. Since their last fundraise in 2017, they have also relaunched their mobile-first customer journey, achieving a doubling in conversions and lower cost per acquisition. 

One-fifth of the investment will be put back into the core platform, while another fifth will be put towards marketing and engineering. The remaining 60% will be used to brand build and acquire new customers. 

TV working for Touch of Modern

Touch of Modern, a digitally native, members-only site and app has boosted their growth rates through recent TV campaigns. 

The social media channels deployed to launch the company had reached a point of saturation, and the venture-backed company was looking for new channels to maintain momentum. The business partnered with Marketing Architects, to incorporate both brand and performance marketing tactics, and has since seen revenue growth accelerated. 

Jeremy Hum, co-founder and CEO, Touch of Modern says “TV is now the biggest portion of our marketing spend. If I were advising another company, I would tell them to test TV.” He outlined that advertising on TV went from an experiment to the brand’s primary marketing channel, supported with a USD$15m (£12m) investment.

Touch of modern has raised USD$17m (£14m) to date, since being founded in 2012. Most recently, the business raised USD$14m (£11m) in a Series B in June 2014. Investors here included Partech and Silicon Valley Bank.