When the Hims & Hers offer came, the price was more than three times what Eucalyptus had been worth just three years earlier. Tim Doyle, the outspoken chief executive who had started the company with three friends, was about to take home a reported US$160 million and a new job as the American buyer's head of international.
The pitch he gave for the company at its start was oddly humble. It was, he has said, a bet that generalist talent from Australia could build a globally competitive consumer healthcare business. Not a medical breakthrough. Not a patented drug. A bet on people who could learn fast.
Local backers Blackbird and AirTree stayed in, and so did Woolworths' venture arm.
Four founders began it in 2019: Doyle, Benny Kleist, Alexey Mitko and Charlie Gearside. The public record says little about their childhoods or schools, and the story is better told by what they built than by what they were.
The idea was simple to say and hard to do. Treat conditions people are shy about, such as hair loss, erectile dysfunction, weight and menopause, through online clinics where a doctor consults, prescribes and a pharmacy ships. Instead of one brand, they built several. Pilot for men's health. Juniper for women's weight loss and menopause. Kin for fertility. Software for prescription skincare. Each brand spoke in the voice of its customer.
Money followed fast. An A$8 million Series A in May 2020. A$30 million that July of 2021. A$60 million in January 2022 led by Bond, the fund of Mary Meeker. Local backers Blackbird and AirTree stayed in, and so did Woolworths' venture arm.
Then came the hard part. In 2023 an A$50 million raise valued the company at around A$520 million, and the same year Australian press raised questions about the online prescription model itself. Telehealth that sells medicines sits in an uncomfortable spot between healthcare and retail, and regulators and doctors watch it closely. The company also was not profitable, with a A$15.2 million after-tax loss in the 2024 financial year.
What changed the maths was growth in the United States and Britain. By 2025 the business was running at more than US$450 million a year in revenue, with triple-digit growth in some quarters. In February 2026 Hims & Hers agreed to pay US$1.15 billion, with about US$240 million at closing and the rest deferred over 18 months plus earnouts tied to targets through early 2029.
For a founder reading this, the useful point is the shape of the bet. Eucalyptus did not win by inventing a new medicine. It won by building a repeatable machine for launching brands, and by hiring people who could learn a new category in months. Doyle's own description of the company, generalists with ambition, is the closest thing to a founding philosophy the record gives us.