Homegrown personal hygiene products company Soothe Healthcare, on Monday, announced that it raised Series C round of funding of INR 130 crore from A91 Partners.
Soothe’s fast-growing feminine hygiene brand Paree has quickly established itself as a homegrown domestic leader in the feminine care category. Soothe will direct the new capital raised towards marketing activities and deepening distribution channels to achieve its goal of establishing Paree as a household brand in India. By leveraging on its core competence in feminine hygiene with Paree and its extensive distribution network, Soothe also launched its Baby Diaper brand Super Cute’s which has received an overwhelmingly positive response from consumers, the company said.
"Paree is among a select few offline brands to achieve a 100 crore, the top line in 4 years since launch. We have stayed focused on offering a great product with a good value proposition to become a trusted personal hygiene brand across the country. With this investment from A91 we’re on a solid track to achieve our goal of a significant market share in the next few years,” said Sahil Dharia, founder and chief executive officer, Soothe Healthcare.
The company leverages both offline and D2C capability - deep distribution channels throughout India, modern trade, hypermarket stores, and an online presence.
According to Abhay Pandey, general partner, A91 Partners, "Sahil has built Paree on a solid foundation of product and distribution focus. We believe that Paree will be among a few significant Indian brands in this underpenetrated segment. With complimentary products like Diapers, we see Soothe becoming a major player in the Personal Hygiene business in the next 5 years.”
The investment by A91 Partners included a secondary transaction with Sixth Sense Ventures. The secondary sale allowed for a successful exit for Sixth Sense Ventures’ first fund that had invested in Soothe. Sixth Sense continues to hold its investments from its second fund.
“The journey of Soothe for Sixth Sense and me, personally, has been extremely gratifying. We were Soothe’s first investor and our belief in backing Sahil, the feminine hygiene space, and the way the market has been addressed has paid us rich dividends. In a category that is one of the most underpenetrated and yet completely duopolised, Paree has created its strong salience and indeed distribution. It’s rare to get into a category that has almost a 40-year lien on a consumer life cycle. We, at Sixth Sense, continue to remain bullish on the absorbency category in India and Soothe in particular,” shared Nikhil Vora, founder, and chief executive officer, Sixth Sense Ventures.
“We congratulate Sahil and the Soothe team on this milestone and welcome A91 as a new partner. The fresh capital, together with the high quality of Soothe’s management, will ensure the continued successful growth of the business to make it a leading domestic champion,” added Sunil Chandiramani, chief executive officer, Symphony Group.
The brand Paree was launched in 2018 through offline FMCG distribution channels. The young company has raised several rounds of investments from leading foreign institutional and domestic investors including London-listed investment company, Symphony International Holdings Ltd. and Mumbai-based consumer fund, Sixth Sense Ventures amongst other backers.
