D2C Home Care Startup Clensta Raises Series A Funding

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) personal and home care products startup Clensta has raised INR 20 Cr (~$2.6 Mn) in Series A funding from Hem Securities Limited, Venture Catalysts and Inflection Point Ventures. Existing investor N+1 Capital also participated in the round. 

Founded in 2016 by Puneet Gupta and Mitesh Shah, Clensta is a personal care and home care D2C ecommerce brand that focuses on a recurrent customer base. According to the startup, it has achieved a CAGR of over 130% the past year and aims to increase its revenue to INR 1,000 Cr in the next five years.

Clensta will use the funds raised to scale up its sales, ramp up brand marketing and expand its online and offline presence across India.

“Clensta’s entry into the D2C segment is likely to create a new category of personal and home care products. We are optimistic that  Clensta will become a billion-dollar tech-driven personal care brand in the next few years,” said Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, co-founder and president of Venture Catalyst. 

The global household cleaning products market size was $221.32 Bn in 2020, and the pandemic provided an unprecedented positive demand shock for the entire category across all regions. The market is projected to grow from USD 235.76 Bn in 2021 to USD 320.82 Bn in 2028 at a CAGR of 4.5%.

“Keeping in mind the Indian Home Care market size of USD 6.2 billion, we have adopted an omni-channel strategy to ensure Clensta’s presence in offline as well as online markets. We aim to use technology to scale the personal care segment and provide a personalised shopping experience to our customers,” said Puneet Gupta, founder and CEO of Clensta.

The Indian cleaning chemicals market stood at $2.38 Bn in 2016 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 15% to reach $9.66 Bn by the end of 2026. Rising disposable income and the launch of new and innovative cleaning chemicals are propelling the market for cleaning chemicals in India.

Earlier this year, Thrasio-styled rollup ecommerce startup GlobalBees had acquired sustainable D2C home care products company The Better Home. 

D2C brands, business models and platforms are arguably the biggest game-changer in retail since ecommerce with an expected market size of $100 Mn by 2026. Indian D2C startups raised $783.7 Mn in 2021—251% higher than all of 2020. This influx of capital has resulted in the launch of many new brands as well as disruptive models like ecommerce rollups, houses of brands etc.