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Hims & Hers (HIMS-6.09%) is expanding its playbook across the Atlantic — the U.S.-based telehealth company announced Tuesday that it will acquire European telehealth platform Zava. The acquisition grows Hims & Hers’ presence in the U.K. and gives the company a foothold in Germany, France, and Ireland, marking the company’s biggest international move to date.
The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but the translation is an all-cash one expected to close later this year. Hims & Hers stock was up over 17% Tuesday morning — and is up an astounding 165% year to date.
The deal adds more than 1.3 million active users to the company’s existing 2.4 million subscriber base and positions Hims & Hers to roll out its digital healthcare model in some of Europe’s largest healthcare markets. Weight-loss drugs will likely be a central part of that expansion.
Andrew Dudum, Hims & Hers’ CEO, told The Financial Times that there’s a “huge opportunity” in obesity, noting that Zava already offers branded weight-loss treatments and has seen growing demand. Hims & Hers is perhaps best known in the U.S. for its direct-to-consumer offerings across categories such as hair loss, sexual health, and anxiety — but its compounded GLP-1 medications have become one of its fastest-growing offerings.
The company, which recently struck a deal to offer Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, has been threading a regulatory needle: offering custom formulations to a “meaningfully smaller group of patients,” as CEO Andrew Dudum put it to The Financial Times.
With the Zava deal, similar offerings could be on the horizon for Europe. In the U.K., compounded medications can legally be dispensed under certain conditions, providing an opening for Hims & Hers’ approach. Lower pharmaceutical prices and public health system constraints could accelerate adoption. And with U.S. compounding regulations tightening and the branded supply stabilizing, international expansion could create a path for further growth.
This isn’t Hims & Hers’ first international foray — the company acquired London-based Honest Health in 2021 — but the Zava deal adds an established European presence and could position Hims & Hers to build a branded footprint in key European markets while leveraging Zava’s infrastructure.
“Early traction in the U.K. gives us confidence that we can scale our platform globally,” Dudum said on his company’s recent earnings call.
Zava CEO and co-founder David Meinertz will remain on board as general manager of the international business, and the Zava brand will reportedly stay live for a few quarters before rebranding as Hims & Hers. Meinertz said the deal could help ease pressure on Europe’s strained healthcare systems.
“The medications are priced more competitively than in the U.S., so more people can actually afford it, and we are seeing a huge demand,” Meinertz told CNBC. “The demand is increasing with additional strains on the statutory systems that telehealth can alleviate.”
Hims & Hers is betting on that growing pressure on national health systems.
“Whether in rural towns, vibrant cities, or remote communities across Europe, people battling widespread, often silent chronic conditions like obesity, depression, and more will have access to the personalized, high-quality care they deserve,” Dudum said in the company’s press release. “The demand for simpler, more personalized healthcare is universal.”