Biotechnology start-up Clensta, that focuses on waterless personal hygiene solutions, is considering Hyderabad for setting up a production facility to cater to the south Indian market.
“This is under planning,” CEO and founder Puneet Gupta said, estimating the facility to entail an investment of $ 3 million to $ 5 million. The plan is for a plant that can produce two lakh 100 ml bottles per day, he said in a media interaction here on Wednesday.
With IIT-Delhi as the research partner, the company started in 2016 and began commercial launch of a waterless body bath and shampoo about a year ago, manufacturing the products in Maharashtra. The Hyderabad plant, which he said would require 12-15 months to take shape, would be crucial from a perspective of addressing the demand for the products in the southern region. The market for Clensta’s products is huge, around ₹11,000 crore and the target customer segments for the company are defence forces deployed in border areas, sailors, in-patients of hospitals and long-distance travellers. While the company is into research and development as well as production, it markets the products through third parties and on e-commerce portals.
“We plan to penetrate deeper into tier II and III cities, making our products available through e-commerce portals and OTC,” Mr. Gupta said, adding the company planned to add more products.
To a query, he said Clensta is private equity funded company. It is in the process of raising an additional $5 to $10 million by this fiscal. Citing non-disclosure agreements that barred him from sharing financials, Mr.Gupta, however, said the target this year is to clock $10 million revenue.