Feminine hygiene brand Sanfe raises Rs 8 crore in seed funding round

New Delhi headquartered hygiene brand Sanfe (Sanitation for Female) has raised Rs 8 crore ($1.1 million) in a seed funding round from venture capital firm SucSEED Venture Partners, Snapdeal founders Rohit Bansal and Kunal Bahl-run venture capital unit Titan Capital, the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) and pharmaceutical company Elixir Pharma.

Individual investors who participated in the round include former group chief financial officer of DLF, and executive director of finance and strategy of GMR Infrastructure Saurabh Chawla; former managing director and co-head of Carlyle Asia Growth Partners Shankar Narayanan; managing partner at South Handlooms Sunil Kumar Singhvi; former president of strategy and finance at Hero Corporate Services Rohit Chanana; technology professional and an active investor at SucSEED Bhoomija Gupta; co-founder and managing partner at SucSEED Vikrant Varshney; and managing director at Grid Logic Group and investor at SucSEED Pariekshit Maadishetti.

Redroom Technology, which owns and operates Sanfe, plans to use the fresh capital to strengthen its team, the company said in a statement.

“New India is witnessing a drastic shift in mindset and perceptions attached to menstrual hygiene and care. It has now become a lifestyle symbol for the country’s progressive women and millennials. Sanfe also intends to capture the pulse of the global feminine hygiene market by taking its success story to other parts of the world,” Archit Aggarwal, founder, Sanfe, said.

Incubated at IIT Delhi, Sanfe was founded in 2018 by the university’s graduates Archit Aggarwal and Harry Sehrawat. 

Before founding Sanfe, Aggarwal was the chief business officer at Myobeam and business development officer at Flexmotiv, while Sehrawat was the chief operations officer at Myobeam.

Sanfe currently sells its products such as menstrual cups, sanitary pads and intimate washes in over 1,500 retail outlets and on ecommerce platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart and Nykaa in India.

The company also has a presence in global markets such as the US, Nepal and Kenya. It aims to expand to European and African markets in the next phase of growth.

“The feminine hygiene products market is expected to garner $42.7 billion by 2022. In the Indian feminine hygiene space, Sanfe is expecting a 300% growth by 2022 against the existing industry growth of 21%, and we were keen to support them in the journey,” Vikrant Varshney, managing partner of SucSEED Venture Partners and an angel investor, said.

The sector, which includes companies such as Purganics, Pee Safe, and PeeBuddy, has seen some interest from investors in the recent past. 

Last month, Delhi-based pregnancy and fertility platform Crysta, operated by Redcliffe Life Sciences, raised Rs 10 crore in a seed round led by the family office of the Jaipuria Group.

In October last year, hygiene and wellness brand Pee Safe raised Rs 30 crore in Series A funding, led by Alkemi Growth Capital.