Bird&Be Raises $13M and Targets Nearly 1,000 Ulta Beauty Doors

Bird&Be, a fertility supplement and at-home testing brand, has closed a $13 million funding round as it moves toward national retail scale. Founded in 2021 by Samantha Diamond and Breanna Hughes, the company plans to use the proceeds for product development and an expansion into nearly 1,000 Ulta Beauty locations, a move that would mark a significant shift from its direct-to-consumer origins.

The brand has grown into an eight-figure business, per company figures, with nearly 100 percent year-over-year growth. Its catalog covers a broad range of reproductive health products: daily prenatal supplement packs formulated for both female and male consumers, at-home ovulation and pregnancy tests, and sperm analysis kits that span basic at-home screening to comprehensive laboratory testing. Diamond, who serves as chief executive, and Hughes, who serves as chief operating officer, each played a founding role informed by personal fertility experience, a positioning the brand carries through its product development process, which draws on a team including reproductive endocrinologists and naturopathic doctors. The company describes its approach as combining conventional and naturopathic medicine, with a personalized supplement system built around a consumer quiz and an emphasis on inclusive care across gender identities and conception paths.

Why it matters

The Ulta Beauty placement is a meaningful strategic move for a brand that has built its audience online. Ulta has emerged as a key retail gateway for wellness brands seeking mainstream visibility without the clinical connotations of a pharmacy shelf, and Bird&Be's entry into nearly 1,000 doors signals that the fertility category is gaining enough consumer normalcy to sit alongside prestige beauty and everyday wellness. For the broader category, it suggests that reproductive health brands no longer need to position themselves as clinical outliers to reach scale. The dual-gender product strategy also distinguishes Bird&Be from most fertility brands at retail, which have historically focused on women. Covering male fertility alongside female fertility substantially widens the addressable retail customer base and gives the brand a differentiated shelf story.

What to watch

Whether Bird&Be can sustain near-doubling growth through the demands of a large-scale brick-and-mortar rollout will be the defining question. Moving from direct-to-consumer to nearly 1,000 physical doors requires investment in in-store education and merchandising that online-first brands sometimes underestimate. How quickly the brand builds retail velocity at Ulta, and whether its personalization model translates meaningfully to a shelf environment, will signal whether this round is a bridge to profitability or a prelude to a larger capital raise.

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Sources

• Bird&Be - Doctor-Formulated Prenatals, Fertility Supplements & Tests
• About Us - Bird&Be