Perfora, a digital-first and design-led oral care brand, has raised a $260,000 Pre-Seed round led by Sauce.vc, a venture capital fund that backs early-stage consumer brands. Huddle, India’s leading accelerator and early-stage fund for disruptive start-ups founded by Sanil Sachar and Ishaan Khosla also took part in the round. Other investors who backed the company in this round include entrepreneurs Bala Sarda (Founder & CEO, Vahdam Teas), Sameer Mehta (Co-founder, Boat Lifestyle) and Shashank Mehta (Founder, The Whole Truth Foods).
The capital raised will be utilised by Perfora to expand into new product categories, test out different channels, build our team and establish product-market fit. Perfora is a digital-first brand that plans to disrupt the oral care category with its well-designed, functional, and innovative products. The company has introduced India’s best-designed Electric Toothbrush, a.k.a ‘Truthbrush’ in four colours, India’s first Probiotic Mouthwash in two variants and a Smart Flosser in black gold colour. Perfora aims to elevate the everyday oral care experience for consumers.
The Gurugram-based company was founded by entrepreneurs Jatan Bawa (erstwhile Head of Product Strategy at Vahdam India) and Tushar Khurana (formerly part of the Business Expansion team at Cult.fit), who have known each other for about half a decade. “We are extremely fortunate to have Sauce.vc and Huddle Team supporting and mentoring us as we go about building a different kind of oral care brand. It is relatively easier to find investors who can provide you only capital, however very difficult to find people who are willing to put their time, money, and faith in helping build a brand. We’re glad to have unparalleled support from our investors who believe in our vision and execution capabilities”, said Jatan Bawa, Co-Founder, Perfora.
“Perfora is looking at the oral care category with a different lens with extremely well designed products, lifestyle-led communication and a very strong focus on delivering functionality. Oral care is a $2 billion category in India that is ready to be disrupted with a digital-first brand. We are thrilled and excited to be an early partner in the journey of building a new-age oral care brand,” said Manu Chandra, Managing Partner, Sauce.vc.
Speaking on their investment in the company, Ishaan Khosla, Founding Partner at Huddle, said, “We have been interacting with Jatan and Tushar since their conceptualisation phase of building a global D2C-first oral care brand from India. Since day one, we have appreciated their attention to detail to deliver a high-quality customer experience while ensuring a laser-sharp focus on performance. Oral care in India is a segment waiting to be disrupted and given Perfora’s approach to the market, we are excited for the next phase of building alongside the team.”
Perfora is the only brand in the country that offers an option to personalise electric toothbrushes (with name printed on it). The company is working to introduce a holistic portfolio of oral care products, including morning and night toothpaste, alcohol-free mouthwash, besides other offerings. By 2023, Perfora aims to achieve an annual revenue rate of $1 million.
Unlike other consumer brands, the company launched a pre-order campaign earlier this year, where a limited number of units of electric toothbrushes were available to buy directly from their website perforacare.com. Perfora’s products are also available on platforms like Amazon India, Flipkart, CRED and soon on Nykaa and Big Basket as well.