A young entrepreneur who wants to break 'silence' around feminine hygiene

Gauri Singhal, the 25-year-old founder of personal care startup Visionaari is empowering women with 'FLOH' and many other sanitary products

Gauri Singhal, the young founder of Delhi-based personal care startup Visionaari LLP has set out a vision, and that is to launch a one-stop-solutions brand for feminine hygiene and wellness in the country.

Singhal, an alumnus of Lady Shri Ram College and London Business School, started this journey in 2017 when she launched Visionaari with the aim to take personal need solutions to every woman. The company has already launched FLOH, a home-grown tampon brand, and it recently added Crampfree period pain relief patches to the product portfolio. Over the next few months, the company is looking at building the category itself while at the same time adding many more products, the 25-year-old  says.

“As existing brands have been ‘whispering’ about periods and convenient feminine hygiene solutions, there exists a huge opportunity for a brand like FLOH that is bold in its communication. We can create a good buzz around the topic by using a language that works well with millennials, now a major part of our target audience,” said Singhal, who started her professional journey with Sharp Foods, a consumer brand and a family venture in the staples category in early 2016.

All of the business emerged when she stumbled upon research about the dismal level of penetration of sanitary products, especially tampons, in the Indian market when compared with developed countries. At present, barely 20 per cent women in the country use commercially available menstrual products; the rest turn to potentially unsafe cloth solutions. This gave rise to extensive market research and eventually a business plan for Singhal.

The young entrepreneur started Visionaari with her own savings and some additional support from her family. She has not tried to tap any external funding yet. “We look at investment not just as a financial deal but a strategic partnership with the right people who share our vision. We have not raised any funding per se, but we have received a lot of interest from several leading investors for strategic partnerships,” she said. Investors do seem extremely bullish about the growth in the feminine hygiene space in general because of increased buying capacity, higher disposable income, an increase in number of dual-income households and an uptick in working women in the country.

As for competition from bigger established FMCG brands, Singhal, like her counterparts from companies like Nua Woman, Carmesi and Heyday among others, sees a huge opportunity in the online platform because the traditional players are busy growing their rural presence. This has opened up a huge market for niche products in urban areas.

While her extensive background in commerce and business studies has helped her navigate any hurdles around manufacturing and logistics of the product, she has set sights on overcoming the bigger challenge around feminine hygiene which is ‘silence’.

Singhal has mobilised communication across social media platforms to not only promote the product but to also stoke more open conversations around gynaecological issues and their socio-cultural impact. No more “whispering” is the mantra here.