A few days ago, the American traditional Chinese medicine brand WTHN announced that it has received a $5 million Series A financing led by L Catterton, the world's largest consumer private equity under the LVMH Group. In addition, WTHN has also attracted many star investors such as Elizabeth Cutler and Julie Rice, the founders of Soulcycle, a well-known American fitness chain, and Nic Jammet, co-founder of Sweetgreen, a Japanese light food chain unicorn.
It is understood that WTN, founded in 2019 by former investment banker Michelle Larivinee, is a new traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture brand that puts the traditional ** in the Western SPA operation model, and the brand has opened 2 offline stores. The business is mainly divided into three major sectors, covering pain, spleen and stomach, insomnia, allergies, anti-aging, women's health and other fields through acupuncture, cupping, and Chinese herbal medicine.
WTHN said it plans to open several new stores in New York in 2024 and expand nationwide.
According to incomplete statistics, there are about 8,000 TCM clinics in the United States. More than 40 states in the United States have promulgated the "Acupuncture and Moxibustion Traditional Chinese Medicine Act" to provide formal legal protection for traditional Chinese medicine, so that more native Chinese medicine practitioners can join the team of traditional Chinese medicine in the United States, and the salary of traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine is comparable, and the annual income is generally 6.1 million US dollars, and it is not uncommon for more senior professional Chinese medicine doctors to be treated more than 200,000 US dollars.
As the birthplace of traditional Chinese medicine, China has been exploring the combination of traditional Chinese medicine with health care and spa in recent years. At present, there are four main modes of the combination of traditional Chinese medicine + healing: traditional Chinese medicine teahouses that focus on Zen tea scriptures, traditional Chinese medicine meals, and social salons; The traditional Chinese medicine spa hall focusing on meridian healing, moxibustion conditioning, and Chinese medicinal bath; The main TCM conditioning, massage, TCM salon TCM health care hall; The Chinese medicine beauty salon focuses on Chinese facial care, Chinese medicine meridian shaping, and private healing salons. Beijing's Shun Shi Drink, Chengdu Le Xiaotui, Wuhan Suwen Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shenzhen Shi Xingkai, etc. are some of the cases that have achieved the above combination innovation.
Some industry insiders said that in the post-new crown era, young users attach great importance to taking care of their bodies, and incorporate self-care rituals such as sexual massage or regular care into their daily life and work. How to use traditional Chinese medicine theory and practice to continuously inject new inspiration into modern medicine, so as to help more people solve the problems of diseases and pains is becoming the next important era.