This pharma startup is providing a ‘silver’ lining during the pandemic with its sanitisation and disinfectant solutions

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a spike in the sales of disinfectant products. In these testing times, when more importance is being given to health and sanitisation, companies like Tranquiil Speciality Products are gaining momentum.

Started by Rushang Shah in 2013, Tranquiil is a Mumbai-based startup that has recently developed a sub-brand named GermiGo, which offers a range of eco-friendly sanitisers and surface disinfectants.

The startup claims to be providing India's first and only certified disinfectant formulation resistant to various viruses and bacteria, including COVID-19, H1N1 viruses, and Tuberculosis bacteria.

“Our target audience is mainly the government. Our products have the best certifications that are needed by the government like Baba Atomic Research Centre, Haffkine Institute, UD city, and ICT. The products are now even certified against the coronavirus from ICMR,” Rushang says.

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Roots of entrepreneurship

Rushang majored in Finance and Economics from Richmond University in London. Prior to that, he studied marketing from Boston University in the United States.

Rushang took up his first job as a marketing executive at the age of 15 at Shimnit Utsch India, a company owned by his family, which manufactures high-security licence plates.

Under the mentorship of his father Nitin Shah, Rushang learnt the Indian spirit of business. The lessons learnt from his father encouraged him to go beyond sitting in the cabins to doing groundwork, research, and negotiating with vendors and clients.

His passion and love for learning and his business drive helped him venture into the real estate sector for investment purposes. Rushang says, he has invested in a luxury apartment project, Fortius Waterscape, in Bengaluru.

Along with this, he also started working on building Tranquiil Speciality, a company which develops innovative solutions for health and safety, agricultural products, wastewater treatment, pest control, and mosquito menace. For the past four years, the team has been engaged in research and development of sanitisation solutions.

Rushang says, “We have been working on disinfectant products since 2017, and we always thought that it is important for some kind of aerial disinfection in public spaces. We were working on this as we wanted to develop something which could automatically dispense disinfectants in the air in public spaces, and that’s where we got the idea.”

Rushang’s love for psychology and science, including chemistry and biology, helped him while building the brand GermiGo.

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The product

One of the key components in the formulation of Tranquiil products is the silver microparticles. According to the founder, silver is an effective component that exhibits strong bactericidal effect on various bacteria, and is not toxic when exposed to animal cells, thus highlighting its beneficial characteristic in being a prospective disinfectant to prevent multiple infections, including serious ones like COVID-19, TB, H1N1 virus, etc.

“GermiGo solutions can kill up to 99.9999 percent of germs, viruses, pathogens, and bacteria, including H1N1, TB, and most bacteria from the Corona family,” the founder adds.

With FDA approval and compliance with WHO guidelines, GermiGo claims to be the only product in the world to use the innovative formula involving hydrogen peroxide and the technology of extraction of microparticles along with alcohol to develop sanitisation solutions, which are capable of killing most viruses from the corona family and the pathogens effectively.

All GermiGo products are claimed to be certified, organic, non-toxic, non-hazardous, and are made by reclaiming, preserving, sustaining, and enhancing the natural and man-made resources in an eco-friendly and economically feasible way.

“The priority of GermiGo has been to establish quality standards, conduct field trials, and to achieve certifications. The conformity and trustworthiness of the product is ensured by regular surveillance and inspections over quality specifications. The company has its marketing network across India, which makes it a one-stop-shop for all the hygiene needs.”

As of now, GermiGo has three products - GermiGo X Sanitiser, GermiGo Surface Disinfectant, and GermigGo Foos Foos+. The price of these products ranges from Rs 100 to Rs 2,500.

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The market

A report by IBEF suggests that the Indian pharmaceutical sector is expected to grow to $100 billion by 2025 while the medical device market is expected to grow $25 billion by 2025. Tranquiil joins the likes of startups such as Pharmeasy, mfine and Medlife.

Rushang attributes the market space to be extremely crowded. He says,

“Since we are concentrating on B2C and B2B operators, the customer really doesn't care or they don't have time to get educated. The first thing they look at is the price, and so, it is a price centric market and that's a challenge we are facing to educate them on quality products.”

Another challenge the team is facing is the oversupply of products, which are not disinfectants. Because of the opportunity provided by the pandemic, every other pharmacy is manufacturing similar products, leading to an oversupply of wrong products. Hence convincing the customers and standing out among them operators is a challenge.

The team, which is having a revenue rate of about $4 million, wants to be a health and hygiene company with multiple brands.

Bootstrapped to date, Rushang envisions it to be a global brand known for developing the best health and hygiene products.

The startup is also coming up with a whole new product series addition, which includes mouth-wash, hand and body wash, fruits and vegetable cleanser, fish and meat cleaner, etc.

Tranquiil Speciality said it is soon going to be launching nationwide campaigns to help all achieve better sanitisation standards.