Naman Shrestha
With a vision for a better future that involves less plastic waste in the oceans and landfills, close friends Achal Patel and Russ Gong noticed how the market and pharmacy aisles are filled with billions of single-use plastic medicine bottles. So, given their experience in the healthcare industry, the two friends turned into entrepreneurs and founded Cabinet Health intending to replace those bottles with eco-friendly products. To scale their business, they presented their pitch in ‘Shark Tank’ season 14 episode 11. The importance of the product in question was enough to make us dig deeper into the company and chart its growth! Here’s what we found!
Cabinet Health: Who Are They and What Do They Do?
Cabinet Health is the brainchild of Achal Patel and Russ Gong. The former is a Foreign Affairs, History, and Pre-Health graduate from the University of Virginia, where he was a part of Student Entrepreneurs for Economic Development and Jefferson Public Citizens. Following his graduation, Achal bagged the job of a Business Analyst at Deloitte Consulting in August 2013. Due to his determination, he moved up the ranks and became a Consultant in two years before moving on to the Senior Consultant post in 2017.
Having grown up around the 1960-established OTC business of acetaminophen of his grandfather in Gujarat, India, Achal had a sufficient understanding of the industry. He put all his knowledge and experience to use when he embarked on his own business venture with Russell Gong, who studied Political Science at the University of Richmond before enrolling in the Artificial Intelligence in Business program at MIT Sloan School of Management.
Russell’s volunteering experience includes serving as a member of the board of directors in a couple of companies — Concero Connect, Catchafire, and Highland Support Project. He also served as an Infantry Officer in the US Army for several years. Russell crossed paths with Achal while working on a Deloitte project, which laid a strong foundation for their friendship as well as their professional capacities. Despite hailing from different backgrounds, what connected Achal and Russell was their shared determination to put up an impactful fight against plastic use in the medical industry.
Hence, the two combined their experiences and varied skill sets to form Cabinet Health, which they say created “the world’s first and only sustainable and refillable medicine system.” Driven by their ambition to make the world produce less plastic waste, it was only their first step toward building a sustainable and environment-friendly ecosystem within the healthcare industry as they aim to eradicate the use of single-use plastic from medicine completely.
Besides the founders, Cabinet Health is driven by a team of experts with the same objective — to combat plastic waste and enforce positive climate change. After thousands of designs, hours of research and pharmacy visits, and investing life savings in research and development, Cabinet Health launched version 1.0 of refillable, reusable, and shatter-proof glass bottles, which also keep the medicine inside it fresh and safe.
Cabinet Health is Thriving Today
While Cabinet Health was established in 2018, its products were certified by B Corporations in May 2021. Moreover, in 2022, the company was named one of the 10 most innovative companies in the social good category of Fast Company magazine, which mainly puts innovation in technology, design, and leadership, in the spotlight. Ever since its establishment, Cabinet Health has partnered with many companies, including Valisure, Grove, rePurpose, Techstars, and most recently, Lomi.
In December 2022, the eco-friendly medicine packaging company raised $17 million in growth funding. It was a combination of debt and equity led by Global Impact Fund with involvement from other mission-driven investors, such as Natureza and Unreasonable Group. After this successful funding, the company’s total funding climbed up to $23.6 million, which involved previous investors, including the likes of TechStars, SOGAL Ventures, Gaingels, and Pixel Perfect Ventures.
You can find Cabinet Health products for sale on their website, and online retailers like Amazon and Grove Collaborative, with room for more partnerships to come as the company grows in the coming years. By accepting and using the sustainable medicine storing system, you can play your part in reducing plastic waste and walk together with Achal and Russell as they aim to fill up all the pharmaceutical aisles with their recyclable and eco-friendly products. Thus, considering the company’s drive and determination to solve this global problem, as well as the successful funding and partnerships, we are confident that the company’s graph is only likely to go upward in the near future.
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