Bayer completed in November 2020 the acquisition of 70% of Care/of, the D2C nutra platform based on personalized quizzes and monthly subscription, at a valuation of USD 225 million. In June 2024 it announced the closure of the operation, with the layoff of 143 employees by July. The official cause, reported by NutraIngredients and TechCrunch, was the "loss of internal funding"; the more in-depth analysis published in the following weeks identified the real factors: increase in Customer Acquisition Cost in a saturated digital market, high churn in the first month of subscription, margins eroded by the logistical complexity of the personalized multi-SKU model. The Care/of case is the canonical reference for discussing the D2C nutraceutical model in 2026.
In the 2024-2026 period, the two main players that followed alternative trajectories confirm the picture. AG1 — Athletic Greens — generated approximately USD 600 million in revenue in 2024 according to Fortune, with a valuation of USD 1.2 billion in the 2022 round, building on a single premium SKU and on marketing largely entrusted to podcasts and influencers with declared affiliate commissions around 20%. New CEO Kat Cole took office in October 2024. Persona Nutrition, acquired by Nestlé Health Science in August 2019, returned under the control of founders Brown and Thudia in 2024, pivoted toward white-label B2B and launched Persona Pro with over 400 healthcare professionals in July 2025. Three different trajectories, three complementary lessons for those planning an Italian D2C nutra in 2026.
The benchmarks that decide
The economic benchmarks published by Foundry CRO in their DTC Supplements Marketing Benchmarks for 2025-2026 provide the quantitative framework within which a D2C nutraceutical is sustainable. Customer Acquisition Cost for vitamins and multivitamins today is between USD 45 and 80, rising between USD 100 and 200+ for premium-greens products like AG1. Lifetime Value falls between USD 300 and 600 for standard vitamins, between USD 600 and 1,200 for premium greens. Monthly churn is between 5 and 8%, but first-month churn — the critical constraint — is between 20 and 30%. The subscription rate at checkout for brands offering default-subscription is between 40 and 70%. The sustainability threshold accepted by the market for an LTV/CAC ratio is at least 3 to 1.
Translated operationally: if an Italian nutraceutical company launches a D2C in 2026 with effective CAC at EUR 80 and LTV at EUR 250, the model is not sustainable. CAC in digital advertising — Meta, Google, TikTok — grew between 40 and 60% in the 2023-2025 period, and alternative channels — podcasts, influencers, organic content marketing — require ramp-up of six to twelve months before producing acquisitions at competitive cost. The margin to misdesign the economics is reduced, and Care/of showed that not even a USD 225 million acquisition covers the mistake if the fundamentals do not converge.
AG1 vs Care/of: two models, two outcomes
The contrast between AG1 and Care/of, one of the most discussed stories in the D2C nutraceutical sector between 2022 and 2025, is less a comparison between models and more an illustration of how product complexity impacts channel economics. AG1 sells a single SKU — its own greens powder — at approximately USD 80-100 per month on subscription. Marketing is concentrated on "product ritual", branding is premium, personalization is zero. Care/of sold customers a monthly personalized package of different sachets starting from a quiz of thirty to forty questions, with complex multi-SKU logistics and a value proposition based on personalization. The first model scales economically, the second does not.
The structural difference is unit margin and re-engagement frequency. AG1 produces the same product in high volumes with a supply chain optimized for few ingredients; each new customer leads to linear incremental volume. Care/of had to maintain stock of dozens of different SKUs, compose personalized packages for each customer, update personalization at every renewal. Operational complexity grew non-linearly with the number of customers, and first-month churn of 20-30% made the coverage of fixed personalization costs fragile. Persona Nutrition recognized this dynamic and pivoted toward a B2B model in which personalization is driven by the healthcare professional on pre-composed packages, reducing logistical complexity.
The Italian model: phygital between pharmacy and digital
Italy's specificity, within the global D2C nutraceutical picture, is the rootedness of the pharmacy channel that remains dominant with 78% of sales. Italian D2C nutra startups that attempted the pure quiz-subscription model have shown significant difficulties in reaching scale. Vitamina, active since 2017 with a base in Florence, and Cuure, a French startup also active in Italy with over 200,000 European customers after the 2020 seed, are among the few documented players. The most promising Italian model seems to be the "phygital" one, in which digital product personalization coexists with the physical presence of the pharmacy.
Apoteca Natura, of the Aboca Group, is the most structured Italian case of phygital nutra. The network covers over 1,300 pharmacies in Italy, Spain, Portugal and France, has B Corp certification, and is powered by the MyApotecaNatura platform developed with Relatech RePlatform. The model integrates the pharmacist's consultation with an app that tracks the customer journey, suggests products, manages loyalty and repurchase. Promising Italian D2C in 2026 is not the one that imitates Care/of or AG1: it is the one that uses digital to amplify the consulting value of the pharmacist, maintaining the physical point of sale as a trust anchor. VMS multinationals — Haleon, Bayer — are building similar hybrid strategies, recognizing that pure D2C is not the winning model in Italy.
The new frontier: AI on anamnesis, not on the quiz
The limit of first-generation personalized quizzes — Care/of, Cuure, Vitamina — was the linear and self-declared nature of the questionnaire. Thirty to forty questions do not produce clinically significant personalization, and the consumer perceives it over time. The new frontier 2025-2026 is the combination of guided anamnesis, integration with optional biometric data (wearables, microbiome kits), and dynamic product personalization based on behavioral signals — adherence, energy, self-reported sleep quality. Nestlé with ZOE, 23andMe in its health segment, some European biotech startups are building this category.
For Italian D2C nutraceuticals in 2026 the strategic choice is articulated on three options. The first is the premium single-SKU model in the AG1 style, which requires significant brand investment but has simple logistical economics. The second is the phygital model integrated with the pharmacy, in which the digital channel amplifies the physical point of sale — the Apoteca Natura model. The third is the AI-driven model on the new frontier, which requires significant technological investment and longer scaling times but is the segment with the highest growth trajectory according to MarketsandMarkets — USD 15.79 billion in 2025, USD 30.94 billion by 2030, CAGR 14.4%. The pure quiz-subscription model that died with Care/of in June 2024 is not a recommended direction for those entering in 2026. The lesson has been paid, there is no reason to repeat it.
