By LYNETTE HAALAND, Four Points News
Locally based Restore Hyper Wellness is planning on rapid growth after a $140 million investment last month.
The company has come a long way “given that this business was born at a kitchen table in Steiner,” said Steve Welch, who launched Restore in 2015.
“The average American lifespan is 79 years, while the average American healthspan — the years we live in general good health and disease free — is only 63 years,” said Welch, Steiner Ranch resident. “That means that the last 16 years of the average American’s life is increasingly debilitated, unable to do the things they love.”
Welch is hoping to change that.
“Customers can feel better every time they visit,” he said. “Long-term, we hope to prove we can help extend our clients’ healthspans, allowing them to continue to live life to the fullest while simultaneously reducing the healthcare costs of the system.”
According to the company, Restore is the largest retail provider of IV drips in the U.S. that infuses a liter of saline with essential vitamins, nutrients, minerals and amino acids. Restore’s medical team provides guidance to customize an IV drip and help achieve health goals, whether they be boosting energy and focus or recharging the body’s defenses.
Restore has also designed one of the best whole body cryotherapy experiences in the world, according to the company. Through its proprietary cryotherapy chambers, the body is immersed in temperatures as low as -166oF for up to 3 minutes. This can help to optimize sleep, relieve pain and swelling, decrease stress, boost mood and energy and help heal injuries.
Other Restore modalities include biomarker assessments, intramuscular shots, and mild hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
In 2021 alone, Restore delivered over 1.5 million services. The company’s system-wide sales grew by 158% last year, which follows similar year-over-year growth from 2020.
Restore’s footprint includes 115 predominantly franchised locations in 34 states. In 2022, Restore aims to open a new store every four days, on average.
Steve’s wife Nicole has also played an important role in the company.
“Nicole, who was an officer of a publicly traded company at 29, but left work once our second child was born, returned to work and helped build this business from the ground up into one of the fastest growing companies in America,” he said. “Nicole is currently our chief compliance officer, but she built our entire medical operations from scratch in just a few years. We now employ over 2,500 people.”
Trent York, longtime Four Points resident and former CFO of Homeway, has joined Restore as CFO.
Restore serves a wide range of demographics across gender, age and socioeconomic backgrounds.
“The democratization of wellness is long overdue. Better outcomes and options should not be reserved solely for the affluent. We take great pride in making Restore accessible to every walk of life,” said Jim Donnelly, Co-Founder and CEO of Restore.
The $140 million investment several weeks ago was led by General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm. Piper Sandler & Co. advised Restore.
“Jim and Steve are visionary founders who have created a new comprehensive model that seamlessly integrates proactive wellness and preventative medicine,” said Shaw Joseph, managing director at General Atlantic. “We look forward to leveraging our experience supporting innovative, high-growth businesses as we partner with the Restore team to scale their services to populations of all kinds, from chronic pain sufferers to elite athletes.”
True entrepreneur
Welch started his first big entrepreneurial success, Mitos, in 2001 without raising outside money. He built it into a global company in the biotech manufacturing field before selling it in 2007 to a Fortune 500 company. Mitos developed several critical innovations and patents which transformed the manufacturing process of biological drugs and vaccines and allowed Mitos to develop a global sales and distribution network. Welch sold the company at the age of 29.
Welch then co-founded DreamIt Ventures, a new business accelerator model. In 2015, Forbes ranked DreamIt the #3 accelerator in the world.
DreamIt takes entrepreneurs from all over the world, puts them all in the same space, gives them the resources they need and takes away as many impediments as possible. Then in an intense several month period, entrepreneurs will either achieve their next important market milestone i.e. product launch, first revenue, establishing product-market fit or will learn that their business idea is not viable.
Since its founding in 2008, Dreamit has partnered and helped grow over 320 startups especially in healthcare, security, and real estate tech. Dreamit companies include LevelUp (acquired by GrubHub), Trendkite (acquired by Cision), SeatGeek, HouseParty (acquired by Epic Games), Adaptly (acquired by Accenture), Wellth, Biomeme, Tissue Analytics (acquired by Net Health), Redox, Eko Devices, NestEgg, Cylera and Elevate.
As a 2009 Eisenhower Fellow, Welch has spent time around the world studying all aspects of economic development. Throughout Asia, Europe and North America he has examined how economic development is impacted through 1) government policy 2) technology transfer institutions 3) funding sources and 4) culture.
