Venture capital firm Lightbox India Advisors Pvt. Ltd has made its debut investment from its third fund in a female wellness brand, a top executive told VCCircle.
Lightbox has led a $4 million (Rs 27.9 crore) investment in Nua, said Prashant Mehta, partner at Lightbox. Existing investor Kae Capital also participated in this funding round, he added.
Nua, operated by Lagom Labs Pvt. Ltd, plans to use the funding for technological and product development as well as for hiring and marketing.
The company offers products and services aimed at women's health and wellness. Currently, it makes sanitary pads and sells online. Nua allows women customers to customize the pack, quantity and delivery of the sanitary pads.
“Lightbox was looking at the space for a company which was approaching women's health and wellness in a unique manner," said Mehta, "Nua fitted our bill as it looks at women's wellness in a holistic manner. The way we think about Nua is we want to make it India's leading technology-led female care brand," he added.
He said Nua is looking to come out with more products in the broader women's wellness segment.
Nua also has an active social media engagement where women can ask questions, have discussions and suggest ideas on health and wellness. "We are using the social channels to capture strong signals on what women are talking about and we see our innovations coming directly from our customers," said Mehta.
The startup, which was founded by Ravi Ramachandran, Swathi Kulkarni and Projjol Banerjea in 2017, had raised its first round of institutional funding from Kae Capital last year.
Ramachandran, who is the CEO, has earlier been associated with FMCG major ITC. Kulkarni is the chief marketing officer and was earlier associated with companies such as Komli Media and Inksedge, according to their LinkedIn profiles. Banerjea is "the silent" co-founder of the company. He is also the founder and chief product officer of Zeotap, which provides data to the digital marketing ecosystem for better mobile targeting and insights. A graduate of US-based DePauw University, he has also been an active angel investor.
Lightbox
The venture capital firm had raised a bulk of its third fund after expanding its total corpus to $200 million (Rs 1,448 crore) in September last year.
It had expanded the fund size as it intended to continue with its strategy of doing fewer deals, unlike most venture capital firms, and invest in a business through their lifecycle.
Lightbox has backed just six startups from its second fund raised in 2014 and the $54-million expansion vehicle set up two years later. Its portfolio includes online furniture rental startup Furlenco, quick-service restaurant chain and online food delivery company Rebel Foods, online car marketplace Droom and jewellery e-tailer Melorra.
The third fund will continue to explore opportunities in brands and fast-moving consumer goods, financial services, education and healthcare.