Nobel Hygiene Pvt Ltd, a Mumbai-based hygiene products manufacturer, on Wednesday announced that it has raised Rs 132 crore from existing investor Sixth Sense Ventures, a domestic consumer-centric venture fund.
Nobel Hygiene will use the funds to power its dreams of becoming an absorption hygiene products giant
With the current investment, Nobel Hygiene now, cumulatively, becomes Sixth Sense’s largest investment in the FMCG segment, according to a statement.
“Now that our factory expansion in Gujarat is complete, we are poised to manufacture more, better, and faster to meet increasing demands across the country. This, alongside the investment, will help us progress towards our goals in the coming years; making up for the COVID slump the industry experienced in the last few years. I trust this association will be highly beneficial for all the stakeholders of Nobel Hygiene,” Kamal Johari, MD and CEO, Nobel Hygiene, says.
In June 2021, Nobel Hygiene secured Rs 450-500 crore in an investment round led by Quadria Capital, Asia’s leading healthcare-focused private equity firm. During this round, Sixth Sense Ventures also bought shares in an independent parallel transaction from other angel investors while PE investors CLSA Capital Partners, Access India fund and co-investors exited the investment.
Established by Founder Kamal Johari in 2000, Nobel Hygiene created the adult diaper category in India with its brand ‘Friends’.
Nobel Hygiene also has been at the forefront of introducing absorbency products in the baby diaper category via its brands Teddyy, and Snuggy (a brand it acquired from Godrej in 2018), and in the sanitary pads category via RIO Pads.
Nobel said it has leveraged its distribution network of Friends and product know-how to become the fourth largest player in the Indian baby diaper segment.
With diapers requiring a fairly complex manufacturing process, Nobel claims to have built a robust back-end. The company has two manufacturing units in Nashik, Maharashtra and Halol, Gujarat. As per the company, technical understanding and focus on continuous innovation has enabled Nobel to grow at a 23 percent CAGR in the last three years. The firm is on track to hit Rs 1000 crore in revenue at the close of this financial year.
Nobel Hygiene and Sixth Sense Ventures were represented, in the closing of this infusion, by legal partners Khaitan & Co and ICUL, respectively.
