Women Wellness Brand Nua Raises $7.1 Mn From Lightbox, Deepika Padukone

Women wellness D2C brand Nua has raised $7.1 Mn in a Pre-Series B funding round. The funding was led by existing investor, Lightbox Ventures.

Vindi Singh Banga and Kamini Banga of the Banga family office as well as Kae Capital also participated in the funding round. The brand also added actor Deepika Padukone as an investor who will work closely with Nua to ideate and create new wellness solutions.

Prior to this, the company had raised $4 Mn in 2019 from Lightbox Ventures and Kae Capital.

Founded by Ravi Ramachandran in 2017, Nua provides recurring doorstep deliveries of sanitary pads and other healthcare products at the customer’s chosen frequency. The company also focuses on challenging taboos around menstruation by leveraging its vibrant online community and customers of over 4 lakh women.

The company also claims to have seen an 87x growth in subscriber base since June 2020.

Prashant Mehta, Partner at Lightbox said, “Since inception, Nua has displayed a deep understanding of women’s evolving needs for wellness. They’ve pioneered the subscription model for menstrual products in India that lends itself perfectly to this category. This was possible due to the strong community they’ve built on trust, giving consumers a deeper connection with the brand. We are confident of the team’s approach and capabilities to change this category for the better.”

As the Indian sanitary napkin market has been dominated by international brands such as Procter & Gamble’s Whisper and Johnson & Johnson’s Stayfree for many years, the Mumbai-based startup is not looking to compete with the big brands which have an exponentially stronger retail presence.

With growing importance being given to women’s wellness there’s a huge scope for brands to capture the market for womencare products. For instance, Zealthy connects users to reliable healthcare providers for specialties like maternity, infertility, cosmetic interventions etc. It is currently backed by First Cheque, KYT Ventures and AngelList among other eminent investors and industry veterans. Other examples of companies functioning in the women wellness sector are Mumbai-based Chicnutrix, Healofy, BabyChakra, among others.

According to IMARC Group, the Indian sanitary napkin market reached a value of $511.5 Mn in 2018. Further, the market is predicted to reach a value of $ 992.8 Mn by 2024, growing at a CAGR of more than 12% between 2019-2024.