Below-belt and beyond: Personal hygiene brand SVISH secures INR 10 Crore in pre-series funding

To further strengthen their mission to make personal hygiene a lifestyle habit in India, SVISH On-The-Go has secured INR 10 crore funding in the pre-series A round led by Wami Capital and supported by existing investor LC Nueva AIF, with BrightBridge Advisors as the investment banking partner for this transaction.

The startup will focus on making provisions to expand its product portfolio, raise awareness about hygiene-below-the-belt products and regimens for men and women, and strengthen customer engagement strategies.

Svish on The Go was born at the height of the pandemic in October 2020, when a craft brewer and an advertising expert recognised a growing need for essential sanitisation products that looked and smelt better than what was already in use. Their flagship product was marketed as a hand sanitiser spray that “smells better than a body deodorant” and India’s 1st Gadget Disinfect Wipes. Following a seed funding round of USD 400,000, the brand focused on diversifying its product portfolio to include more products catering to hair hygiene and intimate hygiene.

A hygiene-focused startup for millennials and Gen Z, SVISH understands that complete hygiene is crucial to maintaining health - a message that has been heightened since March 2020 and has dominated most of the discussion around health during the pandemic. With time, however, co-founders Ishan Grover and Jaideep Mahajan realised that intimate hygiene was rarely the focus of such discussions. Even when people spoke of intimate care and hygiene, they almost always referred to products for women; there was virtually nothing catering to men’s intimate hygiene.

This led them to conceptualise dermatologically-tested and 100% natural hygiene-below-the-belt products like the zero fragrance intimate foam wash, intimate wipes, and the anti-chafing roll on, to name a few.

SVISH has set itself as the benchmark as the fastest growing D2C (Direct-to-Customer) personal hygiene startup in India. It looks to replicate and even exceed the growth targets set in the previous financial year. The brand saw a 900% growth in revenue in less than a year, where the average order value grew by 300%. The traffic on the SVISH website grew by 2000% in the past year, a testament to the popularity of the brand.

Now, SVISH has secured INR 10 crore in pre-series A round led by Dubai-based Wami Capital, a single-family office of Transworld Group that offers capital, mentorship, and operational support for emerging startups, with the participation of the existing investor LC Nueva AIF, an India domiciled Category II AIF Fund.

Backed by this funding, SVISH aims to earn INR 22-25 crore in revenue this financial year. The brand will utilise these funds to grow the portfolio of below-the-belt hygiene products by introducing several new products, including hair hygiene products, until December. SVISH is also looking into developing in-house formulations for its products.

The brand’s products are available at all leading marketplaces, including Amazon, Flipkart, and Cred, and online retail outlets such as 1mg and Big basket. The startup will utilise funds to focus on growing business on the website and these platforms as a growing D2C brand.