Envision a drug store where conventional prescriptions, treatments, and toiletries are co-mingled with natural health care products and you have the core vision behind Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy. Right now, the Boulder, CO-based retail chain has just 20 stores, but it plans to grow fast—adding another dozen stores per year. And two local venture funds, Highland Capital Partners VII and the Highland Consumer Fund, have joined forces with Physic Ventures of San Francisco to provide $20 million in growth capital to enable Pharmaca to carry out its aggressive expansion plans, the firms announced today.
We wrote about Pharmaca in December, as part of a profile of the new Highland Consumer Fund. As the fund’s managing general partner, Ted Philip, said about Pharmaca at the time, “they’re doing to the conventional pharmacy industry what Whole Foods did to the traditional supermarket industry.”
The consumer fund was formed last year. The Pharmaca investment is being shared with Highland Capital Partners VII because Pharmaca’s business lines up with Highland’s traditional interest in healthcare. Philip said that both funds are investing equally in the Colorado company.
Author: Robert Buderi
Bob is Xconomy's founder and chairman. He is one of the country's foremost journalists covering business and technology. As a noted author and magazine editor, he is a sought-after commentator on innovation and global competitiveness. Before taking his most recent position as a research fellow in MIT's Center for International Studies, Bob served as Editor in Chief of MIT's Technology Review, then a 10-times-a-year publication with a circulation of 315,000. Bob led the magazine to numerous editorial and design awards and oversaw its expansion into three foreign editions, electronic newsletters, and highly successful conferences. As BusinessWeek's technology editor, he shared in the 1992 National Magazine Award for The Quality Imperative.
Bob is the author of four books about technology and innovation. Naval Innovation for the 21st Century (2013) is a post-Cold War account of the Office of Naval Research. Guanxi (2006) focuses on Microsoft's Beijing research lab as a metaphor for global competitiveness. Engines of Tomorrow (2000) describes the evolution of corporate research. The Invention That Changed the World (1996) covered a secret lab at MIT during WWII. Bob served on the Council on Competitiveness-sponsored National Innovation Initiative and is an advisor to the Draper Prize Nominating Committee. He has been a regular guest of CNBC's Strategy Session and has spoken about innovation at many venues, including the Business Council, Amazon, eBay, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.
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