Why it matters:
- Interest in probiotics has surged in recent years, driven by growing recognition from consumers and scientific and medical communities of the gut microbiome’s reported role in supporting overall health.
- The Nutrition Business Journal estimates total probiotic sales in the supplement industry at $2.05 billion in 2024.
- Seed Health set out to transform consumers’ understanding of probiotics—microorganisms that support the good bacteria living in the digestive system—with a transparent, science-first approach to the supplement business. That approach led the startup to profitability as it became the fastest-growing probiotics brand at Target.
To change peoples’ lives—while also running a profitable business—you have to meet consumers where they are, said Ara Katz, Co-founder of Venice, California–based probiotics company Seed Health.
It’s a strategy she and her Co-founder, Biotech and Wellness Entrepreneur Raja Dhir, tapped as they set out to upend the probiotics market with a science-first approach that combines probiotics (live beneficial bacteria) with prebiotics (plant-based compounds that feed the bacteria) in a supplement designed to promote gut health.
Seed Health’s probiotic and prebiotic products are informed by peer-reviewed scientific research with ingredients chosen based on clinical trial results. To build trust with consumers and support its products’ efficacy and safety, the company invests heavily in preclinical and clinical trials. In most countries, including in the United States, probiotic makers aren’t required to conduct clinical trials before selling products as long as they’re marketed as dietary supplements.
After initially launching direct-to-consumer, Seed Health’s flagship DS-01 Daily Synbiotic is now—nine years after the company was founded—overtaking legacy players. It ranks among Amazon’s top five probiotic supplements. Seed Health products are sold on Amazon and in Target stores across the United States. And the company is turning a profit, with revenue growth of over 500% the past three years.
“With direct-to-consumer, it’s easy to be precious,” Katz told CO—. “You can tell your story, you can have that direct contact with your customer.” But a significant amount of probiotic purchases don’t happen online, she added. “And we needed to go where people were shopping for their and their family’s health,” Katz said.
Seed Health founders spent two years building the brand and working on product development before they started to raise funds
Prior to Seed Health, Katz founded an e-commerce startup to enhance the mobile shopping experience, invested in wellness media and lifestyle company Mind Body Green, and worked in marketing and communications, helping to build brand awareness. She learned valuable skills around strategic messaging, audience engagement, and content creation.
Around a decade ago, she was pregnant and wasn’t thinking about starting another company when a friend who works at Apple introduced her to Dhir. Both had the microbiome—the microorganisms that live on and inside the body, especially the gut microbiome—and its connection to people's health and well-being on their mind.
“I had this pivotal moment in my journey of, how can I take all these skills in building brands and translating tech for human impact and turn them into something more meaningful for me?” Katz said. She’d had an interest in science and scientific research ever since her mother died from pancreatic cancer when Katz was 16.
Katz and Dhir spent several years researching, planning, and developing their product so it would stand out from existing probiotic brands on the market. “We thought a lot about the brand and the product and the rigor of science,” she said. “We put a lot of foundational work in prior to starting to fundraise.”
They founded Seed Health in 2016, fundraising kicked off in 2017, and they launched their first commercial product in 2018.
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Celebrity backers helped to build buzz as Seed Health launched its probiotic products direct-to-consumer
The co-founders discovered some investors were cautious about putting money into companies creating products around the microbiome because rigorous clinical evidence was limited and translating microbiome science into reliable products was a challenge.
“The perception in Silicon Valley was that the microbiome was early,” Katz said. “At the same time, probiotics were growing a lot.” Rather than focusing on the company’s stewardship of the microbiome as a field, Katz and Dhir decided to pitch Seed Health as a consumer probiotics product. “The story we told was that we were going to reinvent probiotics,’ she said, “and I think we have reinvented the category in the U.S.”
The Nutrition Business Journal (NBJ) estimates total probiotic sales in the supplement industry at $2.05 billion in 2024, and around $3.29 billion when combined with the prebiotic/probiotic/synbiotic (combinations of probiotics and prebiotics) market. Interest in probiotics has soared in recent years—from consumers and scientific and medical communities—amid a rising awareness of the gut microbiome’s impact on overall health.
“Probiotics are trending for sure in the supplement industry, particularly in certain condition-specific formulas like brain health, mood and mental health, and women’s health,” said NBJ’s Market Research Analyst Erika Craft. “I would say [Seed is] one of the top brands when it comes to synbiotics. Particularly because of their rise in Amazon and now of course in Target, especially at such a high price point.” (A thirty-day supply is about $49.99.)
Seed drew early support from celebrity backers—Cameron Diaz, Jessica Biel, and Karlie Kloss, along with Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. In 2021, it secured $40 million in Series A financing led by impact investor The Craftory, alongside TechBio investor ARTIS Ventures and life science investor GISEV. Funds went towards growing its product offerings and expanding its global reach and clinical research.
Katz said her understanding of how to scale products on the internet—a lesson she learned in her past roles—helped as Seed Health launched direct-to-consumer. When it became apparent there were plenty of prospective customers who would buy Seed Health products through big retail, the company began to look for partners.
“With direct-to-consumer, it’s easy to be precious,” [Seed Health Co-founder Ara] Katz told CO—. “You can tell your story, you can have that direct contact with your customer.” But a significant amount of probiotic purchases don’t happen online, she added. “And we needed to go where people were shopping for their and their family’s health,” Katz said.
A strong brand identity and science made simple has helped Seed Health outpace legacy probiotic brands at mass retail
Amazon was a natural foray into mass retail. The brand launched on the site in February 2024, and its DS-01 product broke into the top five probiotics on Amazon within a year.
Then Target approached Seed Health about selling its products. “Target has had success with categories like ours,” Katz said, “and they’re so collaborative.” Target started selling supplement brand Ritual last spring and Kourtney Kardashian Barker’s vitamin and supplement brand Lemme in January.
After Target introduced more than 1,000 new wellness-related products, including hundreds exclusive to the brand, from gummy supplements to protein-forward foods to vitamins, Seed Health launched its probiotic products in all Target stores across the United States and on Target.com in September 2024. Its offerings include a Target exclusive, a new probiotic called DS-01 14 Day Gut Reset.
Within three months, DS-01 became a top 10 product in Target’s Vitamins, Minerals, and Supplements (VMS) category, outpacing competitor brands that have been in-store for years. Seed Health also recently launched nationwide in Sprouts Farmers Market. Katz attributes the company’s success first and foremost to creating a unique, effective product that’s in demand. Then, you have to have incredible brand awareness, she said.
“You need to have a brand that resonates and that stands for more than you just selling something,” said Katz. Seed takes an educator approach. Its scientists on the forefront of microbiome research strive to simply explain new findings. Seed Health carefully cultivates its Instagram platforms, for instance, for its some 7 million followers with content that strives to translate science into accessible language and spotlights environmental storytelling. “People feel aligned and they participate,” added Katz. “We believe science isn’t finished until it’s communicated.”
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Two secrets to entrepreneurial success: Overspend on operations early on and ‘love the humans you work with’
To be successful, entrepreneurs have to be confident in what they’re building, and not “boil the ocean,” said Katz, meaning don’t try to do everything all at once. Instead, focus on smaller, more manageable goals and parts of a solution. Also “love the humans you do it with,” and build a team that’s aligned with your vision and way of working, she said.
Katz also stresses the importance of overspending on operations early. “Initiating a scalable OS [operating system] for your company early on pays dividends as you scale,” she said. “Also, hone your recruiting processes into experiences that select for extraordinary people.”
Seed Health is currently on track to launch both additional products and land new retailers later this year. Katz is hopeful both will help to further shift probiotics from what had once been “supplement aisle fluff” to a purchase that’s closer to biotech or medical-grade health products in the eyes of both consumers and clinicians.
“When we think about the future of truly preventable health, the opportunity to have probiotics be taken seriously as a true medical health intervention versus silly Instagram ad brands is very important,” said Katz, “because public opinion does shape the potential of these fields.”
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