Normally avenue trips give up with souvenirs, snap shots and 1,000,000 cherished recollections for trippers. But for Deep Bajaj, who was efficiently going for walks a carpet design enterprise together with his spouse, a road experience from Delhi to Jaipur together with his pals and their respective spouses in 2014 resulted in an concept – an concept to in the end convey gender equality to at least one ultimate male bastion-the capacity to stand and pee! Whilst stopping intermittently on the highway to find smooth bogs for the girls, Deep and his pals cracked jokes on the fact that men could stand and pee everywhere. But lower back domestic, once the jokes had been over and so changed into the ride, Deep turned into intrigued to analyze on the category of female urination gadgets in India.
To his surprise, this was a class which lay unexplored and now not tons talked about given the sensitivity of Indian culture approximately troubles concerning women. What he determined out that whilst such gadgets had been a accessible accomplice of touring women inside the West, in India their presence or even facts approximately them turned into restrained. And that during a country, wherein the ratio of men to ladies public bathrooms is already skewed. Consider this, within the capital metropolis Delhi alone, whilst guys have get admission to to round three,000 public bathrooms, for ladies this wide variety is a pithy 300! And on top of that, they're barely smooth and minefield of contracting UTIs. The state of affairs will become worse for girls when they're traveling, or pregnant or are aged and suffering from arthritis.
That’s when he in conjunction with brother Mohit Bajaj and buddy Rahul Anand got here up with the concept of Pee-Buddy – India’s first lady urination tool the use of which girls may want to stand and pee even inside the grimy and common toilets, prevent the hazard of contracting infections, and travel freely and without worries. Pee-Buddy, hence, now not best proposes a realistic and hygienic way to counter unclean public bathrooms for women, but additionally ambitions to exchange the manner women journey.
How It Works
After discovering on the category of female urination devices and locating that none existed within the Indian marketplace, the Pee-Buddy crew started out ideating on the layout. And ultimately hit on the only which became the maximum ergonomically sound. In its modern avatar, PeeBuddy is an smooth to hold, disposable tunnel-shaped paper urination tool that suits between the legs to allow ladies to face and pee. The layout resembles that of a funnel.
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Made from water-proof lined paper that is disposable and environmentally pleasant, each device is for a single use best. The startup filed a design patent for the product which got here through in February 2015.
Monetization, Traction, And Funding
The Pee-Buddy merchandise come in packs of five, 10 and 20 priced at INR a hundred and twenty, INR two hundred and INR 375. While to start with the startup confronted many popularity problems with nevertheless called contemporary pharmacies and stores reluctant to stock it, now however, it's far slowly gaining traction. Besides being offered through its personal internet site and ecommerce portals consisting of Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal, it's far now being retailed at Modern Bazaar, Mom&Me, NewU and Religare.
Store Display
The product has visible fundamental raise in income with organisers of occasions inclusive of Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, TCS Bangalore Marathon, and Airtel Delhi Marathon giving it loose to all lady contributors. Consequently, it has offered a few 20,000 packs final 12 months, and expects to promote 60,000 gadgets by means of March 2016. The product is now additionally to be had at leading Events like NH7 and SunBurn.
Until now, the startup has been bootstrapped with Deep investing about $120k (INR eight Mn) within the product, along with investments from buddies and circle of relatives. Deep has confronted a lot of resistance in raising VC cash for Pee-Buddy, in spite of it being an surroundings friendly and one of the first urination gadgets in India. Interestingly, Pee-Buddy additionally received the live crowd pitch at the occasion Catapoolt last month. However, what he is looking for is guide and mentorship from those who recognize contemporary trade and sanitation troubles in addition to CSR funds that could be keener to spend money on this category.
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Mentions Deep, “I am looking for extra aid in phrases of people talking about the product and its usefulness to women. That’s the motive we approached the nice of gynaecologists, urologists and orthopaedics who've endorsed its usefulness in countering urinary infections and encouraged it for pregnant and arthritic ladies as well. Just one tweet with the aid of actress Kalki Koechlin approximately its efficacy sent orders stoning up to a hundred packs that day from the ordinary 2-3 we have been getting- that’s the form of endorsement we need for this product.”
Competition
There are some worldwide products to be had on this class consisting of SheWee and GoGirl, however they are especially fabricated from plastic and are reusable. In India, but, Pee-Buddy has no inventive competitor as of now, although new entrants are predicted once the category starts offevolved gaining traction. More so with the lack of public bathrooms for ladies, there's great capacity of such products focused on wishes of girls during touring. Additionally, it also has immense implications for ladies in rural India where the lack of smooth bathrooms is even an awful lot greater than city regions
Currently, Pee-Buddy’s cognizance is gaining traction in Delhi-NCR and by means of March, it ambitions to enlarge to Mumbai and Bangalore. After being the primary mover in its category in India, Pee-Buddy plans to release extra such journey and women centric products. On the schedule, next is intimate wipes for ladies and a new line of infant care merchandise.
Editor’s Note
Pee-Buddy has entered a space that is hitherto unexplored in India. It is breaking fresh floor into addressing issues confronted by using women at the same time as travelling and has entered a territory not spoken approximately overtly in India. While the product itself won't offer the nice safety from splashing as compared to different international merchandise, but it's far short, disposable, convenient to hold, low-priced and surroundings friendly. That said, it is a realistic and lots needed way to address the dearth of hygienic public loos for ladies and come up with the money for them the privilege to pee with entire peace of mind!
