Well.ca, Canada's largest online health and beauty store, announced today that it has closed a $1.1 million round of financing from private investors led by Toronto based Thunder Road Capital, an investment company founded by Jordan Banks, former CEO of JumpTV CEO and Managing Director of eBay Canada.

Hilton Silberg, former founder of Day Night drugstore chain in the Hamilton area (acquired by Rexall Pharma Plus in 2007), Andrew Sloss, general manager of Kijiji Canada and former country manager of eBay Canada, and David Ceolin, former founder of Digital Cement (acquired by Pitney Bowes in 2007), are also among the investors participating in the new round.

In connection with the financing, Banks will join the Well.ca board of directors effective immediately, and will also helped to introduce Well.ca to other investors participating in the round.

Well.ca intends to use the funds to scale its warehousing and distribution capabilities, expand its product offering and add features to its website. The financing will help Well.ca continue to build on its impressive sales growth; sales have grown more than quadrupled between June 2008 and June 2009, and are doubling every four to five months.

Well.ca said it was approached by several US venture capitalists eager to participate in the round, but in the end decided to raise the money at home. Well.ca had considered several Canadian venture capital options before ultimately opting to work with a handful of well-known angel investors.

"The significant interest from venture capitalists, especially in a year when financings of Internet companies have declined dramatically, was a great validation for us," said Ali Asaria, founder and CEO of Well.ca. "We were fortunate to be cash flow positive when we started meeting potential investors. As a result, we felt we could be far more selective than most companies, and cherry pick the best investors to help us evolve our offering and continue to exceed customer expectations. We're absolutely delighted with the group we’ve been able to assemble, and we think they will have an enormous impact that goes well beyond what the money will buy."

"I've seen many creative strategies employed to capture the potential of online retailing over the years. What sets Ali and the entire Well.ca team apart is the scalabilty of their amazing technology and their collective ability to execute, which are both used as a means to providing an incredibly rich and evolving customer experience," commented Banks.

Guelph, Ontario based Well.ca offers almost 18,000 non-prescription products with more SKUs available than at any other Canadian drugstore retailer, including its selection of more than 3,000 Green & Natural products.