The Deal Structure
Eucalyptus, the ANZ telehealth startup founded in 2019, sold to NYSE-listed Hims & Hers for $1.15B USD ($1.6B AUD). The headline number is roughly 10x the $111M in venture funding raised over four years.
The company last raised $50M at a $520M valuation in April 2023. They were hunting for unicorn-level funding when this deal landed.
The Catch
The fine print matters here. Investor and employee payouts are tied to multi-year earnout targets, not immediate cash. That means the people who built this are waiting on performance milestones while the acquirer's stock continues sliding.
Hims & Hers shares are down 64% over 12 months, including a 55% drop in the first two months of 2026. The stock fell another 8% in the days after announcing the Eucalyptus deal.
What This Means
For ANZ startup employees holding equity: this is the reality of earnout structures. The headline valuation and the actual cash you see are different numbers, sometimes years apart.
For sales teams at high-growth startups: understand your equity comp structure. Ask about liquidity timelines, earnout conditions, and what happens if the acquirer's stock tanks before you vest.
The Eucalyptus deal shows why ANZ liquidity remains an issue. Big exits happen, but the cash flow to employees and early investors depends on factors outside their control, including US public market performance and hitting post-acquisition targets.
Both companies sell online consultations and treatments for weight loss, sexual health, hair loss, and mental health. The merger is betting that combined scale beats standalone growth, but investors are skeptical. The market sold off Hims & Hers immediately.
Patient capital works both ways: investors wait for exits, then employees wait for earnouts. The gap between announcement and payout is where the real story lives.