Jillian Michaels is well known for her commitment to improving personal health and well-being. The personal trainer shot to stardom as one of the preeminent fitness gurus in the entertainment industry after appearing on NBC’s The Biggest Loser. Now she shares her exercise tips and workouts with more than 1.4 million followers on Instagram as well as through her own mobile app, featuring customized workouts and meal plans.
On food and diet, Michaels is putting her money down on Thrive Market, an online grocery store that sells items pitched to be healthier than the usual stuff at your local supermarket or convenience store. Shoppers can personalize their searches around dietary restrictions (certified vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, etc.). Popular items added to digital shopping carts include gluten-free birthday cake cookies by Partake Foods, instant bone broth beans with Spanish yellow rice by A Dozen Cousins, and a clean greens superfood face mask by Golde.
Michaels recently shared more with Fortune about why she invested in the brand.
- Startup: Thrive Market
- Location: Los Angeles
- Year founded: 2014
- Valuation: Declined to disclose
- Investment level: Series A
- Number of employees: Less than 1,000
- Other major investors: Greycroft, Powerplant Ventures, CAVU Venture Partners, Invus
Why she invested, in her own words
I am deeply passionate about health, and Thrive Market is the health-first membership for conscious living. Since their founding in 2014, I’ve loved how they offer the highest quality healthy and sustainable products—from snacks to frozen foods and more—but their mission to make it easy, affordable, and accessible to all and to democratize healthy living was what sealed the deal for me.
Thrive Market’s vision for democratizing access to healthy food and goods and their founder-led team convinced me to invest. At the onset of my career, I helped individuals feel their best and having access to the highest quality and sustainable products was a huge barrier; Thrive Market removes that barrier by delivering goods direct to your doorstep and makes it easy and affordable to shop through their site. Some of my favorites from Thrive Market include Thrive Market’s Organic Coconut Wraps and Mary’s Gone Crackers, Original—and have become staples because I know that their hyper-curated catalog of 5,000 better-for-you consumer staples are thoroughly vetted and sourced, and I know I’m getting it all at member-only prices through Thrive Market’s health-first membership. And, as I have my Thrive Market box delivered by carbon neutral shipping, I know that sustainability was thought through at every step; behind the scenes, their entire platform is supported by their mission-aligned operating model, which places environmental sustainability at the same priority level as efficiency and member experience.
With such a purpose-built approach from day one, Thrive Market is growing quickly (and now has more than 1 million paid members), and their mission has stayed the course during the past seven and a half years. I truly believe that their purpose-built position is jockeying to be the leading platform for the rise of conscious consumerism—a broad-based shift in consumer lifestyle toward health and wellness, environmental sustainability, and social impact. I’m so happy I invested early on, and I’m thrilled to see how Thrive Market is continuing to show up for their members by making healthy living easy, accessible, and affordable to all.
This is an installment of Why I Invested, a series featuring famous investors from all different backgrounds and industries, revealing what inspired them to invest their own money in a new business.
