Volume 9, Special Issue, March 2019, 6th National Conference On Technology & Innovation: Disrupting

Businesses, Transforming Market; G.H. Raisoni Institute Of Business Management, Jalgaon, India.

PeeSafe: An innovative Creation from

Distinguished Health Start-up of India
Dr. R. R. Chavan1 and Dr. Abhishek Shukla2
1
(Faculty, School of Management of Studies, KBC North Maharashtra University)
2
(Senior Manager – FYCE, Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC)
Abstract: India has experienced a phenomenal growth in the startup landscape in the past half-a-
decade, in the process emerging as the third largest startup destination globally. The credit for India
reaching such unprecedented heights, largely goes to the initial success stories created by firms such
as MakeMyTrip.com, Info Edge, including health start-up Redcliffe Hygiene Pvt. Ltd , which
encouraged the creation of an immensely promising entrepreneurial culture in the country. The paper
discourses the success story of the brand Peesafe which has become wildly successful brand due to
irreplaceable and uniqueness characteristics for maintaining personal hygiene. The paper is
constructed on the secondary data which is mainly collected from company’s website, online
newspapers, magazines, research paper and various articles.
Keywords: Personal Hygiene, Start-up, Entrepreneurial culture

I. INTRODUCTION
The objectives of a startup are to be one’s own boss and to create employment to others which warrants lot of
endurance and sacrifice. Large population with high percentage of middle income group, educated youth with
technical background, IT domination, high internet and mobile penetration are some of the drivers that have
thrown up opportunities for spreading startup revolution in India.
It has been reported that in India, a staggering 355 million women and girls have no access to a toilet.
According to a report by WaterAid, if they were to stand in a queue, it would stretch around the earth more
than four times. While basic sanitation is an alarming concern, Redcliffe Hygiene, a Gurgaon-based company
strongly believes ‘acche din’ are around the corner for another segment of the market. VikasBagaria, the co-
founder of the company, is trying to change perspectives in what he calls the ‘daily hygiene’ category with an
interesting product line-up. Redcliffe claims his firm’s toilet seat sanitizer spray, PeeSafe, has created a market
and currently holds approximately 92% share.

2.0 Objective of the study:

The broad objective of this paper is to understand the success story of PeeSafe; the primary objective is to
recognise the success journey of this personal hygiene brand.

3.0 Methodology of the study:

The paper is based on the secondary data which is mainly collected from the company’s website, online
newspapers, magazines, research paper andarticles. The data is also gathered from online editorials that
reflect the opinions and insights of business writers and editors, investors and analysts on the current situation
of PeeSafe.

International Journal of Research in Engineering, IT and Social Sciences, ISSN 2250-0588 Page 1

http://indusedu.org
Volume 9, Special Issue, March 2019, 6th National Conference On Technology & Innovation: Disrupting
Businesses, Transforming Market; G.H. Raisoni Institute Of Business Management, Jalgaon, India.

4.0 Discussion:
Story of initiator: Mr.VikasBagaria
VikasBagaria, Founder, PeeSafe is an Economics graduate from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. He has
completed his MCA in Electronics from Jadavpur University and started first venture soon after college. He
launched his first venture in material handling equipment and then from Eduspace to Defence, Safety and now
Personal Hygiene, there is no looking back. He is also an angel investor in over 15 startups.When he is not
working, Vikas likes adventure sports, off-roading, long distance cycling and wild life photography. He
believes in chasing valuation and not profits. According to the Motiverge the success mantra ofMr.Bagariais
to celebrate exit and not funding. He said that he has got inspiration from his father who is also an
entrepreneur and still works 8 hours a day being 79 years of age.

The idea for PeeSafe was conceived by VikasBagaria when his wife suffered from a Urinary Tract Infection
(UTI) in 2013 during a road trip. After this personal experience, the couple came upon the idea of a
sanitization spray, which was then created and used within their social groups, family and friends.PeeSafe
which is India’s leading personal hygiene brand helping India to fight health issues brought on by unhygienic
conditions in washrooms. With PeeSafe, people feel more comfortable in using public washrooms as it
provides them a germ-free and insta-hygiene experience. Company has decided to expand the distribution of
PeeSafe in the Indian Market. They pledged to build Pee Safe aiming at personal hygiene of women by
making them available products which help them keep safe, clean and healthy. With this company wanted to
empower women with good health and easy hygiene solutions from Pee Safe. PeeSafe is a clinically approved,
isopropyl, alcohol-based, quick-drying toilet seat sanitizer. PeeSafe is now run by Redcliffe Hygiene Pvt. Ltd,
which has also introduced products like GymSafe, MoskitoSafe, and PalmSafe. Over 50% of the women in
India, suffer UTI (urinary tract infection) at least once in their lifetime; the major cause being poor toilet
hygiene. Urban girls are ignoring this and rural girls are mostly unaware. The brand has been awarded both as
‘Emerging health brand of the year’ and the ‘Best Health Start-up of the year’ by ‘India Health and Wellness
Awards 2017’.

According to KiranKhalap, co-founder and managing director, Chlorophyll, said that India is a pseudo mature
market and he agree with this fact that PeeSafe is a good example. The market size will be limited since it’s
pitched at the segment of women who travel and are conscious of the hazards of public toilets. With a total of
2500 (including general trade and modern trade) offline retail touch points pan India, PeeSafe is also available
in 16 online marketplaces. The other multi-level marketing that PeeSafe is working on is with city
ambassadors. It is a direct selling model, where women can buy PeeSafe at discounted rates, and sell them via
WhatsApp and Facebook. In return, they receive PeeSafe merchandises and social mentions. Jain calls it a
maturing model. While PeeSafe is Redcliffe’s flagship, the company has also entered other sub-personal
hygiene segments through products like GymSafe, PalmSafe and MoskitoSafe. Under the daily hygiene
segment, it recently launched intimate wash, panty liners, and wipes. Menstrual cramp relief is another
product that will hit the shelves. According to Khalap, PeeSafe’s biggest challenge would be to expand the
market since organic growth may not sustain the business.

International Journal of Research in Engineering, IT and Social Sciences, ISSN 2250-0588 Page 2

http://indusedu.org
Volume 9, Special Issue, March 2019, 6th National Conference On Technology & Innovation: Disrupting
Businesses, Transforming Market; G.H. Raisoni Institute Of Business Management, Jalgaon, India.

Rahul Mathew the national creative director of DDB Mudra Group who has worked with Johnson &
Johnson’s sanitary napkin brand Stayfree thinks PeeSafe’s price stands as a challenge as it talks to a certain
audience and strata. He said that hygiene isn’t the easiest sell in this country, especially if you want mass
adoption. It’s one of the reasons why the sanitary protection market remains so abysmally under-penetrated.

4.1 Social Campaign leads to success of Peesafe

Hygiene brand PeeSafe partnered with WaterAid India, an NGO which works to transform the lives of
marginalised by improving access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. The aim of this
association was to empower women in rural areas and improve overall hygiene and sanitation issues. The
brand focuses towards hygiene awareness, education and supporting social causes in this direction.It was
observed that once in their lifetime, more than 50% of women suffer from Urinary Tract Infection (UTI), main
cause being lack of access to good hygiene services. Now onwards, PeeSafe purchase enables hygienically
safe experience anywhere and funds towards the cause of providing access to decent toilets and good
hygiene.With this collaboration, every PeeSafe product purchased on its website on automatically adds 10
rupees towards a fund for providing access to clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene for the most
marginalised people in the country by WaterAid India.

PeeSafe aspires to provide monetary support to the NGO basis product purchase per consumer and work
towards betterment of hygiene and sanitation in rural India.The core thought of this campaign was to spread
education and awareness about toilet borne disease.This movement will also help them understand the
importance of clean and safe toilets and its use among Indian population; especially among women population
in rural areas. This dual effort will lead to positive changes supporting the marginalised section of the society
helping them with basic sanitation facilities and access to toilets.”

Looking at the scope of digital media, PeeSafe launches a campaign ‘HerPwr’ to add more support to women
and empower them by providing improved sanitation facilities. This campaign is to generate maximum
traction by women present in social media. Women across the country and abroad can join this movement by
posting their picture on social media with the same hash tag on which Pee Safe adds Rs.2 on each upload.This
is the brand’s initiative towards bringing a positive change in the society by improving unhygienic living
conditions in villages and remote areas in India.O2O global brand for toilet hygiene PeeSafe has raised $1 Mn
(INR 6.3 Cr) in a fresh round of funding by issuing compulsorily convertible debentures (CCD) to its existing
and new investors. The funds will be used to accelerate its growth by expanding into international markets of
the US and South Afric.

II. CONCLUSION
There is no doubt that startups are important for economic growth of a nation.Startups can implement
innovations and technologies to improve the living of people. Bringing new competitive dynamics in the
economic system the Startup companies are the most dynamic economic organizations on the market, since they
provide additional dynamics and competitiveness to any economic system.There are many innovative products

International Journal of Research in Engineering, IT and Social Sciences, ISSN 2250-0588 Page 3

http://indusedu.org
Volume 9, Special Issue, March 2019, 6th National Conference On Technology & Innovation: Disrupting
Businesses, Transforming Market; G.H. Raisoni Institute Of Business Management, Jalgaon, India.

and services are implementing by young entrepreneurs like VikasBagaria and cotribitung the development of the
wealth of the nation.
Redcliffe Hygiene, the company behind PeeSafe, a Toilet Seat Sanitizer Spray which makes it 99.9% germs
free, made it to the list for selling over 5 lakh bottles of PeeSafe, for finding customers in India, Canada and
Doha, and for identifying a major gap in the market. The company aims to become a Rs. 1000 crore brand and is
putting strategies in place for the same. It has signed a 5 years contract with a company based out of DOHA for
US$20 million for the supply of PeeSafe to GCC countries and has recently launched a 300ml bottle and aims
to reach every household in the country and the world.It is clear that the company has created greatly social
campaign to sensitize the target audience to fit the promotion of the peesafe brand as it applies to the unique
concept it was built on. This fact is enough to realize that there can be much to learn from what this company
has achieved to the benefit of many small businesses.

III. REFERENCES
[1] India CSR Network. (2018, July) CSR :PeeSafe to empower women and improve access to sanitation. Retrieved
fromhttp://indiacsr.in/csr-peesafe-to-empower-women-and-improve-access-to-sanitation
[2] Jain, Surbhi. (2018). Growth of Startup Ecosystems in India.International Journal of Applied Researchand Studies.
Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322735206_Growth_of_Startup_Ecosystems_in_India
[3] Khatri,Bhumika (2018, June). Toilet Hygiene Brand PeeSafe Raises $1 Mn In Funding Via Convertible Debentures.
Retrieved fromhttps://inc42.com/buzz/peesafe-hygiene-funding
[4] Nair, Priyanka(2018, August), Pee of marketing, Can a toilet seat sanitizer grow a business in a country where toilets
themselves are at a premium? Retrieved from https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/business-of-
brands/pee-of-marketing/65221243
[5] Nalintippayawong, Srinual&Waiyawatpattarakul, Nattakit&Chotipant, Supannada. (2018). Examining the Critical
Success Factors of Startup in Thailand Using Structural Equation Model. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328992349_Examining_the_Critical_Success_Factors_of_Startup_in_Thaila
nd_Using_Structural_Equation_Model
[6] About Peesafe (2009).Retrieved from https://www.peesafe.com/pages/about-us
[7] The Motiverge (2008).Retrieved from https://themotiverge.com/interview-vikas-bagaria-founder-peesafe-a-daily-
hygiene-brand/

International Journal of Research in Engineering, IT and Social Sciences, ISSN 2250-0588 Page 4

http://indusedu.org