Clinical Science Meets Longevity with IM8

Speaker 1:
Welcome to TD Cowen Insights, a space that brings leading thinkers together to share insights and ideas shaping the world around us. Join us as we converse with the top minds who are influencing our global sectors.
Oliver Chen:
Okay. IM8 is redefining the premium wellness category. Welcome to the Retail Visionary Podcast series, a podcast about visionary ideas and people. My name is Oliver Chen. I'm TD Cowen's new platforms retail and luxury analyst. In this episode, we'll explore how IM8 is redefining the premium wellness category while building one of the most compelling growth stories in consumer health. Today I'm joined by Danny Yeung, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Prenetics Global and IM8, the health and wellness brand he co-founded with David Beckham. Since launching in December 2024, IM8 has grown to approximately 200 million in annual recurring revenue, making it one of the fastest growing wellness brands in the industry.
Danny spent more than two decades building and scaling consumer businesses. Prior to founding Prenetics, he built and exited a company acquired by Groupon where he later served as the CEO of Groupon East Asia. He went on to build Prenetics into a global health company and take it public in 2022, helping position the business at the intersection of healthcare diagnostics and consumer wellness. Danny, it's a pleasure to have you here.
Danny Yeung:
Great. Thank you for having me, Oliver.
Oliver Chen:
Danny, you've built companies across e-commerce, diagnostics, and now consumer health. What originally drew you to building Prenetics and ultimately launching IM8? What surprised you the most while building this as well?
Danny Yeung:
Yeah, I mean, just to give everyone a bit of context, right? So, I left Groupon in 2024, I was thinking, what do I do next? Naturally, as an entrepreneur-wise, I was going to continue as an entrepreneur and I felt healthcare was an area where there wasn't that many entrepreneurs tackling this space, especially here in Asia. So, I started with genetic testing, life sciences with Prenetics. When COVID hit, we pivoted doing PCR testing to the tune of about 700 million revenue over a course of about three years time. This is where we listed the company on a NASDAQ in 2022. And post-COVID, we went from 40,000 daily PCR tests to zero. So, we knew we needed to do something dramatically different.
And coincidentally, via a good mutual friend, I was introduced to David Beckham. He asked me actually, yeah, he was... We're actually here in Hong Kong. My good friend, Michelle Lamuniere, he said, "Hey, he's going to meet with David in London next week." And casually he's like, "Hey, you want to join?" And then of course, I thought he was kidding actually. He's meeting with David Beckham, right? So, I was like, "Yeah, sure. Why not?" And then he's like, next day he texts me back, "Hey, are you able to make it to London?" I was like, "Yeah, of course. Why not?" So, I flew over to London, met with David. We got along really well.
And he was very intrigued about my consumer background with e-commerce as well as the life sciences piece. And that's where we started thinking, talking about, "Wow, wow, there could be something interesting here." Because David was also sharing his frustration in the supplements' category where it was very difficult for him to maintain his routine of taking dozen or so supplements on a daily basis. Him and Victoria, for that matter of fact, especially given his active lifestyle, he's traveling on a weekly basis. And then given my backgrounds, hey, is there something that we can do about this? Because I'm sure he was certain that many, many people around the world were facing the same dilemma.
How do you make nutrition supplements easy? And so, this is where we came up with the idea about IM8. We wanted to put really great ingredients, recruit a world-class scientific advisory board, and this is where the origin of IM8 came from. So, that was literally almost three years ago. And we launched a brand in December of '24. So, it's been a rollercoaster journey ever since. And then we've really simplified nutrition. Again, the USP of IM8 for our initial product was via a powder that you mix with water, 90 ingredients, and you replace 16 different supplements in one great tasting formulation.
Oliver Chen:
Danny, why is it named IM8? And also, how did your background in PCR testing and genetic testing help you become such an amazing entrepreneur with respect to health sciences in IM8? Yeah,
Danny Yeung:
So, I think IM8, it means I am. And eight, actually, we flip it around, means longevity and infinite possibilities. We wanted something memorable and easy to pronounce in three letters, right? So, now looking back, of course, everyone tells us, "Hey, it's an amazing name," right? But early on wise, we had mixed feelings from everyone, but we knew we had a strong product, strong ingredient, and we wanted something easy to remember, right? Any interesting. Great question you asked about my background in Prenetics, right? So, again, I would say the stuff that we were doing from a life sciences and clinical perspective at Prenetics was talking about targeted therapy, DNA testing, genome sequencing.
So, from a parascientific perspective, it's significantly much more advanced than the supplement category. So, going into the supplement category, we really wanted to approach it with a scientific pedigree that you don't normally see in a supplement category. So, this is why from day one, even before we launched a brand, we had clinical trials done by San Francisco Research Institute. There was a 90-day clinical trial that showed 95% of individuals that took IM8 had more energy. 85% of individuals that took IM8 had less bloating, better gut health, right? And so, these are different things that you don't normally find with a supplement brand with clinical trials. We also had third-party testing by Eurofins.
We also had NSF certification for sport. So, that means if you are a professional athlete, you know it's free from 280 banned substances. And when you're a professional athlete, you're not going to take your chance with it, right? There's too much at risk. So, that certainty of a clean formulation, and a lot of that thinking process had to do with my background with Prenetics. We wanted to set the new standard, a higher bar in a category that was unregulated by the FDA.
Oliver Chen:
That's a really important point of innovation. What's on your mind ahead in terms of clinicals and the scientific aspect of driving IMH innovation? How will you stay ahead in this way?
Danny Yeung:
Correct. And then I think we're one of the very few companies in this categories that continue to invest in clinical trials. So, right now, in fact, we are doing two new clinical trials on further efficacy on the product, looking at before and after based upon your biomarkers to quantifying what it means from a change in terms of blood testing. So, I was looking at a 300% trial across three months before and after, as well as looking at individuals that are looking at placebos as well. So, we're investing almost $2 million just alone in this clinical trial, which again, it's a lot of money.
And there's a lot of uncertainty with the results, but we're very, very confident that we'll get positive results just given how many people that we've supplied IM8 with. And just to share the numbers wise, since December of 24, we've now shipped out more than 55 million servings. On a daily basis, we ship about 200,000 servings of IM8 every 27 seconds. So, we get a new order of IM8 across 46 different countries.
Oliver Chen:
Danny, what are the hero products today for those who are less familiar, and how do consumers incorporate them into their routines?
Danny Yeung:
We only have two products, right? So, for the first 10 months or so, we only had daily ultimate essentials. And again, this is nine ingredients replaces 16 different supplements in one powder that you mix a volume you just take every single morning. Or some individuals, they take in an afternoon, but it's really depending on individual's preference. I like to take it every single morning before coffee or before anything is the first thing I do every time... It's the first thing I do every morning. We also launch a daily ultimate longevity. So, that's for healthy aging. We launched this last October.
So, it's really for individuals that are above, I would say, age 35. And you need a little extra to maintain your healthy aging and it's formulated to come back all the signs of aging.
Oliver Chen:
Amazing.
Danny Yeung:
And again, it's very similar. You would take in the morning, I take two sachets, mix it in the water, and that's what we ultimately call the Beckham stack. And of course, that's what David takes on a daily basis as well.
Oliver Chen:
Longevity's a key topic for us at TD Cowen, and we see the convergence of many trends, including biology meets AI and personalization as well as consumer and healthcare. But what does longevity mean to you in the context of IM8 and what are our biomarkers?
Danny Yeung:
Yeah, so longevity, again now, again, to be fair, it means something different for everyone. But to me, specific longevity is when you're getting old, you can still be very active. So, I think this is conflict and everyone's talking about longevity is, hey, it's not about now, but when you're 50, 60, 70, or even 80, can you still be living a very active and healthy lifestyle? So, I think that's the key thing for longevity. And there's a lot of compounds and ingredients that are now proven to help you stay healthier for longer, right? And so, I think that's the key thing. And then you can also see there's a big trend now. People are drinking less, they're taking much greater care for their health.
They're spending more on their health, right? And then so they're testing more as well, right? On top of supplements, again, with biomarkers, it's basically getting routine blood testing so you know what you need to look out for, right? So, biomarkers are basically testing key things in your body, blood testing, cholesterol, et cetera, et cetera, right? Blood pressure, these all biomarkers that individuals can be testing.
Oliver Chen:
As we think about your role with David, what role does David play in shaping the brand business today? And what have you learned about creating authentic athletic alignment?
Danny Yeung:
Yeah, so David plays from day one, he played an integral role. Because again, he's not just an ambassador, he's the co-founder of the brand. And then so that's significant because again, for David, for the last 30 years, people have been asking him to do something in this category and he's rejected ever since. So, just the fact that he's putting his name as a co-founder means a lot to everyone. And again, I think that means a lot of trust and credibility and authenticity because there's a lot of people... a lot of celebrity brands out there, and they just put a name to the face and they just put a name to the brand, right?
And we speak to his team on a weekly basis, and we've been doing this for the last pretty much three years, right? And from a strategic perspective, from a brand perspective, David's involved. From a taste perspective, he's also highly involved because he wants to ensure it's not just a formulation, but everything about the taste, the profile, the packaging is all very well-thought-out. So, that's why when you receive the IM8 package, there's a lot that goes into the detail. And again, a lot of times, we'll consult David to get his views and insights. And at the same time, David also provides lots of insights in terms of new categories that we should go into, right?
So, for example, we're launching hydration in Q4. We're launching gummies in Q1 of next year. So, these are all new categories that we get insights from Dave in terms of this, right?
Oliver Chen:
I like the cards inside the box.
Danny Yeung:
Oh yes, of course. Yeah.
Oliver Chen:
And also the color and the taste elevated as well as digestible. So, all exciting.
Danny Yeung:
Yeah. And then there's a lot of dot and detail that goes into. Everything has been very intentional, I would say, from day one. And so, that's a big reason why we've been able to grow so fast in such a short amount of time, right? We looked at this not from a short-term perspective, but we wanted to build a brand that lasted through time. And to be fair, I mean, even from day one, I told David, if we do this together, it needs to be bigger than David, right? So, this is where, again, your question about additional athlete, our equity models or our partnerships, we've now have Aryna Sabalenka, world number one tennis player. Giannis, again, NBA superstar on board. We have Ollie Bearman, F1 Phenom Driver.
We have the Inter Miami team, and we're now the official health supplements brand for Inter Miami, right? And all of these partnerships are not just cash transactions, but they are a combination of cash and equity. So, we have alignment, not just from the short term, but for multiple years.
Oliver Chen:
Danny, what have been the key drivers behind growth and what's worked better than you expected?
Danny Yeung:
I think key drivers for growth, again, we're 100% direct to consumer. So, that's key from day one. From day one, which is also surprising for many individuals, is that we ship to 31 countries. And then a lot of brands in this space, they may just do US for first two, three, four years. But from day one, we're international, and now we ship to 46 countries. And then so I think that has been actually quite interesting. And I would say a bit surprising is that we've been able to grow in so many different markets with basically one skill or two skills now. US represents our biggest market, which is 40%. Canada, number two, UK number three. Australia, number four, number five, Singapore.
So, it's truly global. So, that has been a bit of a surprise. I think our growth engine evolves also on a lot of content. So, for Meta, for example, at any given time, we have 3,000 plus ads live. We do a significant amount of testing. Every single week we're testing 800 to a thousand ads. And for the ads that work, then we scale those up. So, I think I would arguably say we have one of the world's best marketing engines here at IM8.
Oliver Chen:
And how did you pioneer your engine in terms of advertising and that very attractive return on ad spend engine? Your subscription revenue is over 90%. You have a very high LTV to CAC, 2% to 3% plus, and 80,000 active subscribers.
Danny Yeung:
We have way more than 80,000 active subscribers now, right? I think that's probably old data. Yeah. Yeah, we have close to 150,000 active subscribers, right?
Oliver Chen:
Congrats.
Danny Yeung:
You can easily do the math there. But again, a big part of this is that the product works as advertised. If you have a great product, your recurring subscription revenue will be there. We just released earnings. We just announced that we had a record month in July where we had more than $21 million in monthly revenue. So, that already gets us to analyzed run rate revenue of more than $250 million in basically our 20 month of operations. So, that's attributed to just a great product, great retention cohorts. And ultimately that's the reason why about two weeks ago, we made the announcement General Catalyst just committed to us at $1 billion in growth financing, right?
So, that's very significant because we gave all of our raw data to General Catalyst for the last 19 months since first day they have all of our data. And they saw that the key metric was that for area $1 we've invested in marketing, we've gotten back a $1.44 in gross profit. So, what that means is if we stop the marketing engine, we can be profitable tomorrow. But of course, given the massive opportunity we have in this market and this category, of course we're going to continue for growth. So, for us, profitability is a choice, not a destination.
Oliver Chen:
And Danny, how are you thinking longer term about your relationship with other platforms beyond Facebook and Meta, as well as thinking potentially about wholesale as you get into other categories and what kind of physical presence customers might want to see?
Danny Yeung:
Yeah, so for Meta, of course, Meta's primary growth engine right now, we've been able to crack and unlock a lot of spend and doing it very efficiently on Meta, as you've seen with the data. We're of course Google's number two. We're exploring now with TikTok. We're doing a lot of testing on TikTok, AppLovin. We're going to get into streaming and TV. So, these are all additional channels and of course podcasts as well. So, we expect to continue to diversify our spend and marketing channels over the coming quarters. In terms of retail and wholesale, to be fair, we're still seeing significant upside and continual efficiency as we scale online, that the reality is we don't need retail right now.
Yeah, that could change though, I would say in the next 24 to 36 months, but we're seeing so much great traction online that, again, there's just so much opportunity there.
Oliver Chen:
Danny, what do you think about the future of wellness and preventative health? We spoke about some of these trends earlier, but what's your vision for what's happening over the next five to 10 years?
Danny Yeung:
I think again, we're starting to see this take shape in the last, I would say even post-COVID. Individuals are taking proactive measures to their health. They're doing much more analytics, data, blood testing. And of course, when it comes to supplements and paying for validated products, consumers are very willing to pay for that, right? They just want to be able to ensure that the tests, I mean the products, what they're ever taking has done the trials, has done the third party tested and is safe.
And you can see that trend now is that every time I go to the US, which is quite frequent now, there's a lot of individuals, they're drinking less, they're paying much more attention to their health, they're exercising. And this is all part of something that I don't believe is a trend. It's just going to be more and more standard of care that again, in the next five to 10 years... if you think about it, I think right now on average-wise, in the past, I think there's one stat that said that basically 70% of individuals, at least in the US, they're on one type of supplement or another, and they're paying $50 a month, right?
So, I think we're already seeing that that is changing, that consumers are very willing to pay more as long as you can show evidence that the product works and they feel the difference. And then that's a key thing about IM8 is that individuals that tested the product, they feel the difference, right? We have more than 20,000 plus five-star reviews. We have almost 2,000 plus reviews on Trustpilot, and this is for a 20-month-old brand.
Oliver Chen:
What's the hardest part of scientific credibility?
Danny Yeung:
It has to be multifaceted. You have to have the right scientists, physicians, doctors on board. I think one great thing that I'm very proud of, and David's very proud, is that we have so many doctors and physicians recommending the product to their patients, right? And this is, for example, why Aryna Sabalenka, she reached out because her performance coach and nutrition coach recommended the product to Arena. Jay Shetty, right? Jay Shetty's doctor recommended the product to Jay, right? So, if we look at ingredients-wise, it's all backed by science. And again, we ran clinical trials on this, and we have the third-party testing, the NSF certification for sport. So, it's not just one thing.
We went way above and beyond what we're regulated to do. And that's by design. We want to set a new standard in the category of supplements.
Oliver Chen:
Danny, how do you see the General Catalyst investment supercharging what you're doing? And also, could you highlight what you see as the largest international growth opportunities from here and your thoughts on what's next with China?
Danny Yeung:
Yeah, so the General Catalyst is very, very significant. I would say one of the most significant events since our founding of the brand 19 months ago. Because I think General Catalyst, it really validated the unit economics. Because for General Catalyst, they're one of the world's best investors. And they typically only work with multi-billion dollar companies in terms of this fund. And so, it really valid the unit economics, the cohort data, the retention data, because if our retention data wasn't good, our cohorts wasn't good, this doesn't work and doesn't happen. So, the fact that they chose to give us or commit to us $1 billion is really significant sign of credibility and trust into us.
And what that means is that for our future marketing efforts, 70% of that is going to be funded by General Catalyst. And the key thing to also understand is that there's no dilution. We don't give them any equity. And if the cohort doesn't perform, let's say, the monthly cohort doesn't pay back, the risk is on General Catalyst and not on us. So, it's one of the best ways for us to continue our growth. And really this really secures our future opportunity as well, right? Because then we don't have to think about capital raising, dilution. We don't have to think about debt financing. So, this has been really great for us.
And I think if you look at just another public company Pear, back in about three, four years ago, the other public company they work with is Lemonade. And when they did this with Lemonade, Lemonade was a $1 billion market cap company. Today, they're almost five billion with this type of structure. And for us wise, we believe we're in similar trajectory, is that in Q3 with the Lemonade financing, it will be the first quarter that will be positive cashflow, which is very significant. I'm sure you know, right? And that means the path to profitability is right there. Because the path to profitability, the first piece is going to be about positive cashflow, and this enables us to be able to do so, right?
And again, we have more than $100 million of cash on a balance sheet. So, I think this positions us very well for growth. Yeah, across all the markets that we operate, 46 countries. And as you mentioned, Oliver, we're not even in China yet. So, with China, we want to be very strategic and deliberate about that. And we expect that we'll get into China '27 or '28. And we're not in any rush just given the growth that we're experiencing. This year, we'll do 210 to 220 million in full year revenue. Next year, we've guided a market that will do a minimum of 400 million revenue. So, yeah, I think we're very excited about the opportunity with this, especially with our new SKUs coming up.
Oliver Chen:
Danny, and we talked about this as well. Retention. You've had impressive retention statistics. What have you learned about habit formation, consumer behavior, and how do you retain your customers?
Danny Yeung:
Yeah, so I think retention-wise, again, early this year, we announced quarterly subscriptions. And so, that also has been a big uplift for us is that individuals that subscribe at three months at a time, because you form a routine. And so, that has significantly improved our retention. And then so that has been really positive for us. And also for that is that they're paying $235 for a three-month subscription versus $89 monthly, right? And more than 50% of new customers coming in are purchasing the quarterly subscriptions. And we've seen that trend across the world, right? So, that has been very positive for us because again, that also gives consumers more time for the routine to take factor.
And again, consumers feel the difference after they're on a product, right? So, that has very, very significant to help us improve in retention. But I would say GC told us in this category, our retention cohort is one of the best they've seen.
Oliver Chen:
Got it. Congrats. Yeah, I've used David Beckham's cologne and also hair product and Victoria Beckham's color cosmetics. But as you think about adjacencies, what's appropriate for IM8 as you think about hydration, creatine, kids' wellness? What's on your roadmap or on your mind?
Danny Yeung:
Yeah, so I think hydration is a natural category because we have so many athletes on the product. And then there's a lot of opportunity to further innovate on scientifically backed ingredients and formulation for cellular hydration. So, I think you'll see it, of course. And even though right now hydration, there's a lot of sugar in current products. We're going to come out with a very best in class product formulation launch in Q4. Again, with gummies, we're going to come out with a best in class zero sugar gummy. Yeah, so we believe from a basis, strong science, great taste, great packaging, great brand, great marketing. And that's the recipe for success.
Oliver Chen:
And how is AI benefiting you the most? What's underappreciated about AI or overappreciated and overrated?
Danny Yeung:
I think AI, I guess, is all parts throughout business, right? If you think about... I mean, from even myself, I use AI a lot. Organization management, finance, marketing, operations is embedded throughout. And we use a lot of testing in terms of landing pages, websites, ads to understand what works, what doesn't work. I mean, again, if you look at our efficiency, we're running, this year we'll do well over 200 million revenue. We have about 60 employees. So, if you think about that efficiency, we're having greater than three and a half million dollars USD per revenue per employee. So, that gives you idea in terms of how efficient we are as a company.
Oliver Chen:
Stepping back, who is your competition? And also, Danny, could you give us a snapshot of what your customer generally looks like?
Danny Yeung:
Yeah. I mean, competition-wise, again, of course, A21 was a pioneer in this space. We give a lot of credit for them to educate the market. Other all-in-one powders, multivitamins to some extent. But we are going after consumers and individuals that want the best product, right? Half of our customers today, they have a household income above 150,000 and above, right? So, these are individuals. Again, these are CEOs, entrepreneurs, doctors, athletes, bankers. So, again, we're getting a lot of amazing customers that just want the best product that you can get.
Oliver Chen:
What do you think, Danny, are your most durable competitive advantages?
Danny Yeung:
I think it goes by the product, right? So, if you don't have a good product, everything fails. So, we have an amazing product. We believe we have the best product in the market. Yeah. And I think that's a key thing, right? So, everything works around the product. So, all of the marketing, to be fair, the brand ambassadors, David, doesn't matter if you don't have a good product. So, we believe our best product in the world in our category.
Oliver Chen:
Final question about the future. What's a belief that you hold about the future of health and wellness and longevity that could be underestimated today? And any closing remarks you may have as well, Danny?
Danny Yeung:
I think this trend is not going away. It's a $200 billion category for the supplement category, and there's no real one or two or three players that are, I would say, market leaders, right? And then so right now, if you think about this year-wise, we're only capturing a very small percentage, about 0.1%, 200 million out of 200 billion. So, it's very realistic, let's say in the next two to three, four years that we capture, let's say 0.5% of this market, which gets us to be about a billion dollars in annual revenue. So, it's highly, highly realistic.
I believe we've been able to build a very strong brand from the gate, supported by clinical science, third party testing, amazing roster of athletes that you've never seen in the supplement category because they trust the brand. These are equity partners. And yeah, I mean, my goal is that we're building this for the long term. We're not looking to sell the company at zero interest. And that kind of identifies our thinking in terms of why we invest so much in terms of clinical trials and the brand. Hey, because we're building this for the next five, 10, 15, 20 years, is that a vision and aim is to be one of the world's biggest supplement brands in the world.
Oliver Chen:
And Danny, which part of the business has been the most fun for you?
Danny Yeung:
Oh, every part. I mean, it's a dream, right? Just growing, scaling, meeting with amazing individuals, which normally I wouldn't get a chance to, right? And I get to attend some amazing events, sports events around the world, right? F1, tennis, World Cup, football, basketball, everything, right? And then just impacting millions of people in their health.
Oliver Chen:
Thank you so much, Danny, for your time and talking to us about the convergence of these trends, as well as all the innovation that's underway at IM8. Congratulations.
Danny Yeung:
Great. Thank you so much, Oliver. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1:
Thanks for joining us. Stay tuned for the next episode of TD Cowen Insights.