Consumer focused venture capital fund Sixth Sense Ventures has invested Rs 95 crore ($12.7 million) in Nobel Hygiene Pvt Ltd, days after Quadria Capital ploughed capital to provide exits to some of the diaper brand’s early institutional backers.
Nobel Hygiene will utilise the capital to gear up for a substantial jump in discretionary spend by Indians, now that the virus is waning.
“With our current expansion in Gujarat, in conjunction with a slew of hires made for our leadership team, we are rightly placed to take advantage of this market expansion,” said Kamal Johari, founder and CEO of the firm.
Mumbai-based Nobel Hygiene was founded in 2000. It makes adult diapers, maternity pads, adult pull-ups, under pads, nappy pads and baby diapers. It markets its baby diapers under the Teddyy and Snuggy brands while adult incontinence products are sold under the Friends brand.
Nobel Hygiene claims to be India’s first indigenous manufacturer of adult and baby diapers with 10 manufacturing lines.
“Nobel Hygiene fits perfectly well into the thesis of betting on first generation founders pioneering products for the new age consumer within the over $860 million diaper segment,” said Nikhil Vora, founder of Sixth Sense Ventures.
Veeba Foods, Soothe Healthcare (Paree), LEAP India, Fullife, and Eupheus Learning are some other successful bets by Sixth Sense Ventures made over the years. Recently the fund made an investment in listed Parag Milk.
VCCircle was the first to report that India and Southeast Asia-focused Quadria Capital invested nearly Rs 500 crore in Nobel Hygiene. The transaction gave exit to early backers including alternative asset management firm CLSA Capital Partners and homegrown private equity firm Access PE. A source said that a minor part of this transaction was fresh infusion into the company.
In February 2015, CLSA Capital Partners invested $10 million in Nobel Hygiene. In 2013, Access co-invested with other individual investors in a deal worth around $11.5 million.
In 2018, Nobel Hygiene acquired diaper brand Snuggy from Godrej Consumer Products Ltd.
The company had posted net sales of Rs 421 crore during fiscal year 2019-20 as against Rs 341 crore a year before. Net profit rose to Rs 17.6 crore from Rs 4.6 crore during the period under review, as per VCCEdge.
In the baby diaper segment, Nobel Hygiene competes with big brands such as Procter & Gamble's Pampers, Kimberly-Clark's Huggies and Unicharm's Mamy Poko Pants.