ESSAY
NOV. 2024

Well & Good
A short, irreverent look at the wellness economy.

BY OPENING ROUND

The art of being well has taken hold of a generation of consumers in North America. From herbal tonics, to sober Octobers, to guided hydrotherapy sessions there is no shortage of ways for millennials to spend their time and money on products and experience aims at capturing the optimal ‘vibe’.

The opportunity to be well isn’t just an consumer driven initiative, though. Whole markets centered around self care and a sense of well-being have sprung up in the 21st century and the category of better for you has proliferated through the last decade for founders, CPG titans and venture investors. Even Michelle Obama has thrown her hat into the ring of companies selling pleasantly packaged wellness.

If you’re reading this you’ve probably micro dosed; at least once.

Popularized in the early oughts with the rise of Goop and catalyzed by the Paltrow-effect in the mid teens, the industry of wellness no longer novel. But what used to be a fringe exercise in finding joy, regulating your nervous system or purely escaping a sometimes dismal reality has become completely normalized. According to the Global Wellness Institute ‘the wellness economy’ was valued at $5.6 trillion in 2022 — and it’s projected to rise to $8.5 trillion by 2027.

A once highly conceptual and controversial space - the business of being well seems to be here to stay. The dynamics of wellness have shifted such that many consumers of wellness no longer slavishly preach by the serum or practices that they love, it’s become a more intimate part of their identify. Similar to climate change, whether or not you buy into wellness as a commodity, it’s happening around you.


The Global Wellness Institute defines wellness as a group of industries that enable consumers to incorporate wellness activities and lifestyles into their daily lives, breaking the space down into 11 varied and diverse sectors:

(1) Traditional Complimentary Medicine

(2) Wellness Real Estate

(3) Mental Wellness

(4) Public Health, Prevention and Personalized Medicine

(5) Healthy Eating, Nutrition & Wellness

(6) Workplace Wellness

(7) Wellness Tourism

(8) Physical Activity

(9) Personal Care

(10) Springs

(11) and, Spas.


In 2024, Seed founder Ara Katz told ‘The Quality Edit’ in an interview that the work of building a science-backed wellness company is the work of setting new standards.

Seed Health studies the microbiome and develops probiotics, which are sold direct to consumers. Founded in 2012, the company has been at the forefront of a cultural movement towards products that are better for you and scientifically backed.

Advances in research reveal the vast potential of microbes to transform how we live and care for ourselves, our children, and our environment. We are inspired to steward this next generation of probiotics and microbiome-based innovations that will disrupt and forever change the global categories of health, hygiene, diet and self-care.

The company completed a $40M seed round of financing in 2021. And Seed isn’t the only example of the scalability of wellness startups. The intersection between wellness and venture has become more and more obvious for consumers and investors alike. Companies like Healios, Tonal, Eight Sleep and Bravenly independently raising hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital & private equity over the past decade and Gwenyth Paltrow joined the panel on Shark Tank in 2022. None-the-less the industry still entertains many skeptics both inside and outside of the business community.

The skepticism around the industry is well-earned. Much has been written about the infamous rise and fall of the blood-testing company, Theranos, that raised a grand total of $700M USD and managed to clear a $10B USD valuation. The company raised from predominantly unconventional venture investors, but the veracity of the product and the legitimacy of its core product, the Edison, fell completely flat leading and the company ended in complete failure. Apart from the management team’s failure to disclose information about the lack of efficacy across their product offering, the company failed to cross an important barrier for products in the space: the customer sniff test.

While Elizabeth Holmes has become something of a lightening rod for the legal & ethical risks of running too fast towards a miracle product, Australian wellness influencer Belle Gibson presents an even darker side of the industry of wellness.

The Whole Pantry App founder Belle Gibson cites a lifelong battle with the truth as the cause of the companies fatal woes.

Gibson claimed she had been given six weeks to live when doctors found a malignant brain tumour in 2009. She said chemotherapy treatment made her sick and she turned to alternative therapies.

The influencer launched The Whole Pantry app in 2013, and published a book with Penguin of the same name, off the back of her claim she had cured her cancer with a gluten and sugar free diet and a wellness lifestyle. The app was downloaded 200,000 times within its first month.

Three years later, Gibson found herself under investigation when the public became aware of the fact that her cancer diagnosed, and by association the healing effects of her whole pantry methodology were invented whole cloth. Gibson was ultimately fined €4100,000 by the state of Victoria and reportedly retired to a small village in Ethopia, adopting the name Sabantu.

The importance of efficacy in the wellness economy doesn’t just exist within the media. According to McKinsey, efficacy and scientific credibility to consumers when selecting wellness products. While the share of the wellness economy inevitably shifts towards millennial and gen z consumers, it stands to reasons that these high-information consumer segments that have grown up with questionable actors in full view will demand more, not less, efficacy in their wellness product assortment.

It’s hard to imagine a version of the wellness economy that doesn’t host some level of controversy, but it seems that that controversy will not, and has not stopped hte industry from pummelling forward.

Fortune magazine estimates that consumers Americans will spend an average $5,300 a year on wellness in 2024. Combined with the fact that millennial stand to earn an increased share of the wealth in North America as we continue to see the biggest wealth transfer of all time - it stands to reason that this industry has only growth in front of it.

Betting on the wellness economy could be the best kept secret in venture. For the investors and innovators ready to ride the wave of well-being, here’s a list of the next wave of wellness trends set to expand the cult of woo in 2024.


Pictured to the left: Other - hydrotherpay focused wellness club in Toronto, Ontario.

It’s hard to imagine a version of the wellness economy that doesn’t host some level of controversy, but it seems that that controversy will not, and has not stopped hte industry from pummelling forward.

Fortune magazine estimates that consumers Americans will spend an average $5,300 a year on wellness in 2024. Combined with the fact that millennial stand to earn an increased share of the wealth in North America as we continue to see the biggest wealth transfer of all time - it stands to reason that this industry has only growth in front of it.

Betting on the wellness economy could be the best kept secret in venture. For the investors and innovators ready to ride the wave of well-being, here’s a list of the next wave of wellness trends set to expand the cult of woo in 2024.

The report’s comprehensive list of 2024 wellness trends: 

  • Climate-Adaptive Wellness 

  • The Power of the Pilgrimage 

  • From Manning Up to Opening Up 

  • The Rise of Postpartum Wellness 

  • Longevity Has Longevity 

  • A Wellness Check for Weight Loss Drugs 

  • Sports Finds Its Footing in Hospitality 

  • The Home as Highest-Tech Health Hub 

  • A New Multisensory, Immersive Art for Wellness

  • Under the Radar: Future Trends Including Blue Zones 2.0 and Wellness Real Estate

Go Deeper:

This article was written by Marlon Thompson, founder of Opening Round.