Decoding Shorts - 13
India has made rapid strides in almost every walk of life. However, talking about fundamentally important topics like women's hygiene, periods, sex is still considered taboo. Sanitary pads advertisements still use "blue liquid." TV channel still gets quickly changed when a condom advertisement pops up. Girls are still told to avoid PT sessions in school when in periods. And the situation only worsens in Tier 2/3 cities. On a positive note, over the last few years, the situation has improved slightly. The government and various brands have taken the initiative to bring India on the path of "thought freedom" by eliminating these myths, stigma, and shame. And today, we'll be covering the story of one such brand – Pee Safe, founded by Vikas Bagaria.
Mr. Bagaria and his wife Srijana Bagaria were on a road trip from Gurgaon to Gujarat when Srijana fell sick and was diagnosed with an acute UTI (after using a public washroom). Approximately 60% of women in India are diagnosed with either vaginal or urinary tract infections every year. Pee Safe was born out of Mr. Bagaria's eagerness to solve this issue – a toilet seat sanitizer spray. This became a blockbuster hit, and Pee Safe currently owns 90%+ of the Toilet Seat Sanitizer Category market.
Realizing that this was only a tiny bite of the rapidly growing $670mn feminine hygiene market, Pee Safe then went on to launch various products and brands in the men and women hygiene segment. As of now, it has developed 40+ products across ten categories and has also entered the sub-personal hygiene segment with various brands. The company has been bold with its marketing – with campaigns like #OwnTheRed & #DoItTheNaturalWay, which aim to challenge the long-held stereotypes and normalize having a conversation on taboo topics.
Now let's do some number crunching. Pee Safe scaled its revenue from 2.25Cr in FY18 to ~INR 14Cr in FY20. During the pandemic, the company's online business jumped, and it achieved a 70% YoY growth in FY21. On the back of recent funding raised and favorable tailwinds, the company is looking to clock INR 120 Cr revenue by FY22 and INR 250 Cr by FY23. Being a growth stage D2C brand, the CAC is ought to be on a higher side (the company has earmarked ~40-45% of its annual revenue for marketing alone). For a brand like Pee Safe, which has shown strong results and has a strong brand recall due to aggressive and smart marketing, the retention can be assumed to be ~25%. This, coupled with good margins, should help the company make money going forward.
It would be exciting to see whether Pee Safe can achieve these numbers and create a lasting impact in the feminine hygiene market. Let's see how the story unfolds, do let us know your views on the same.
Author - Yogakshem Dangi