Health and wellness brand Pee Safe on Wednesday said it has raised Rs 30 crore ($4.2 million) in its Series A funding round led by Alkemi Growth Capital.
The company said in a statement that it will use the funds to boost its distribution and research and development capabilities.
Vikas Bagaria, founder at Pee Safe, said the fresh capital infusion will also help the company in hiring in areas such as sales, marketing and finance.
Pee Safe, which was founded by the husband-wife duo of Vikas and Srijana Bagaria, started as an isopropyl alcohol-based toilet seat sanitizer.
The brand was earlier part of SafetyKart.com, an e-commerce platform for safety and hygiene products operated by SafetyKart Retail Pvt. Ltd. However in April 2017, Gurgaon-based venture capital firm Redcliffe Capital made a strategic investment in SafetyKart.com. As part of the deal, Redcliffe acquired PeeSafe and moved the product line into a newly founded entity Redcliffe Hygiene Pvt. Ltd.
Pee Safe's other products include sanitary pads, organic cotton tampons, menstrual cups, panty liners, breast pads, natural intimate washes and wipes and sweat pads. It also offers pollution safe anti-pollution dust masks.
In February last year, the company raised Rs 6.3 crore ($1 million) in a fresh round of funding from new and existing investors. In July 2017, the company raised a similar amount from Mumbai-based Venture Catalysts, Detroit- and Mumbai-based Alfa Capital, Green Shots Capital and Real Time Ventures.
Startups working in the health, wellness and hygiene segment have been attracting funding from investors over the past few years.
Earlier in July, Sirona, a startup that sells women-focussed hygiene products such as urination device PeeBuddy, raised an undisclosed sum of money from the Indian Angel Network in a follow-on funding round.
Prior to this, Azah Personal Care and Nua also attracted investor interest this year.
In August last year, Carmesi, a premium natural and biodegradable sanitary pad brand, raised $500,000 in its pre-Series A round of funding from a clutch of individual investors.
The following month, VCCircle reported that hygiene products maker Wetex raised funding from a venture capital firm.
Noida-based Soothe Healthcare Pvt. Ltd, the company behind the Paree brand of sanitary napkins, has attracted significant investor interest.
Investor
This is Alkemi's fifth investment from its debut fund which focuses on healthcare and wellness.
In August, the Delhi-based investment firm led a Series A funding in health-tech startup Doxper.
In May, VCCircle reported that it backed wellness food and beverages company Akiva and diagnostics-focussed health-tech startup Healthcube.
Alkemi made its first investment in New Delhi-based fertility services aggregator Elawoman last year. Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures India) had co-invested in the company.
