[Funding alert] Menstrual hygiene management startup PadCare Labs raises pre-seed round from Venture Center

Pune-based menstrual hygiene management startup, PadCare Labs, raised an undisclosed amount in its pre-seed funding round from technology startup incubator Venture Center under BIRAC’s LEAP Fund.

According to the official statement, the funds will be used to grow capabilities in R&D, operations, team expansion, manufacturing and expanding the market footprint.

“In 2018, from recycling a single pad to now having a facility with a recycling capacity of about 1500 of pads per day, our mission-oriented team is helping to enhance hygiene standards globally through its state-of-the-art technology-based products. Through our efforts, we aim to provide end-to-end MHM solutions to B2B enterprises using our subscription-based business model. With the current round of funding, we are looking forward to taking PadCare from pilot demonstration to commercialisation,” said Ajinkya Dhariya, Founder and CEO of PadCare Labs.

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Earlier this month, the startup also won the Villgro-FPAI Innovation Challenge and has been awarded cash prizes up to Rs 3.5 lakh. The startup also has associations with Toilet Board Coalition, Dassault Systems, Tata Trust, Unlimited India, CIIE, MSINS, and Pune International Center, and has received product development grants from central and state government schemes such as BIRAC- SOCH and NITI Aayog - Atal New India Innovation Challenge.

PadCare Labs was founded in 2018 for providing menstrual waste management services. The startup’s UV-C based products SANECO and UVECO have been designed to ensure proper disposal of sanitary napkins. 

In an earlier interaction with YourStory, Ajinkya had explained that the startup is aimed at creating a circular economy by converting hazardous sanitary napkin waste into eco-friendly waste, and recycle the residual byproducts of sanitary pads such as paper and plastic pellets for new use.  

“Padcare's proprietary technology for processing sanitary waste leverages multi-disciplinary capabilities in physics, mechanical engineering, electronics, chemistry and biological sciences to come up with solutions aligned to the needs and preferences of business customers. Venture Center found this integration of different capabilities to solve a very pressing problem of society extremely interesting. The enthusiasm, creativity and resourcefulness of the team behind Padcare also convinced Venture Center to support the company,” Dr Premnath, Director at Venture Center, said in a statement.

With the COVID-19 outbreak, the startup also pivoted its business model to help solve the pandemic crisis. Using its expertise in UV-C disinfection technology, it developed two products, namely UVSATHI and UVHANDY, to disinfect surface areas and inanimate objects.