Brands
Pee Safe wipes In $32 Mn as Orbimed bets big on women’s hygiene
MUMBAI: Breaking taboos has turned into big business for Pee Safe. The women’s hygiene and wellness brand has raised $32 million (around Rs 290 crore) in growth capital from global healthcare-focused private equity firm Orbimed, marking one of the larger recent bets in India’s consumer healthcare space.
The funding round includes a mix of primary capital and secondary share purchases from early investors. Pee Safe founded by Vikas Bagaria and Rithish Kumar, Pee Safe has quietly built scale while staying in the black, clocking over Rs 150 crore in annualised net revenue, a rarity in India’s consumer start-up ecosystem.
The brand, best known for its leadership in toilet hygiene and feminine hygiene products, has steadily expanded into personal care and wellness, serving millions of women across India and select global markets. The fresh capital will be channelled into widening its offline retail footprint, stepping up brand-led marketing, and accelerating growth across quick commerce platforms and leading online marketplaces.
According to the founders, profitability has remained non-negotiable even as the company scaled. That discipline, they say, made the business attractive to a healthcare specialist investor rather than a purely consumer-focused fund. On Orbimed’s side, the firm sees Pee Safe as a differentiated, trust-led brand operating in large, under-penetrated categories with repeat demand.
As part of the deal, Sunny Sharma and Sumona Chakraborty will join Pee Safe’s board, signalling Orbimed’s intent to play an active role in the next phase of growth.
With fresh capital, a profitable core, and ambitions that stretch well beyond niche hygiene products, Pee Safe now appears set to scrub up into one of India’s more credible consumer healthcare scale-ups proving that when it comes to wellness, clean thinking can also mean clean numbers.
Brands
Hardik Jhaveri named senior director marketing at Colgate-Palmolive Asean hub
Former Hill’s Pet Nutrition general manager returns to the company to steer marketing for South Asean from Kuala Lumpur
KUALA LUMPUR: Hardik Jhaveri has been appointed senior director marketing for the South Asean hub at Colgate-Palmolive, marking a return to the consumer goods major after a three year stint with Hill’s Pet Nutrition. He will be based in Kuala Lumpur and will lead marketing strategy for the region.
Jhaveri joins the role after serving as general manager at Hill’s Pet Nutrition in Taipei, where he led a cross functional team and oversaw the business with full profit and loss responsibility. The role placed him at the helm of operations in Taiwan, managing growth in what he described as a start-up style environment within a global multinational.
Before that, Jhaveri spent over a decade with Colgate-Palmolive across several marketing and innovation roles in Asia. As associate director innovation for Apac excluding China, based in Hong Kong, he led new product development and launches across multiple markets.
His portfolio ranged from developing specialised oral care products such as a diabetes focused toothpaste for the Indian market to launching premium oral care experiences under the Colgate Total brand in Australia. Alongside innovation, he also worked on launch planning, brand strategy and communications for the company’s oral care portfolio.
Earlier in his Colgate-Palmolive journey, Jhaveri held roles including marketing manager innovation, senior brand manager and brand manager. His work spanned urban and rural markets in Mumbai and customer development responsibilities in the Greater Kolkata Area.
Prior to his long association with Colgate-Palmolive, Jhaveri worked as brand officer home care at Unilever, where he helped drive marketing initiatives for the Rin detergent brand, including nationwide relaunch and on ground activation campaigns.
He began his career in advertising with Bates David Enterprise, working on brands such as IDBI Bank, The Leela Hotels and The Times of India.
Jhaveri holds a post graduate programme in management from the Indian School of Business and has also completed a level 4 diploma in wine from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust.
Announcing the move, Jhaveri said he is excited to begin his new chapter at Colgate-Palmolive’s South Asean hub and thanked colleagues and mentors who supported his journey at Hill’s Pet Nutrition.
