- Healthtech startup
PadCare has made a joint deal from four sharks Shark Tank India at ₹1 crore for 4% equity. - A sanitary
napkin takes 500 to 800 years to decompose and 98% of sanitary pads end up in landfills and water bodies, claims the founder. - PadCare, which works to create an ecosystem for menstrual hygiene management, offers three products:
PadCare bin PadCare X and PadCare Vend. - Clients of startup PadCare bins include Facebook, Capgemini, and Goldman Sachs.
“One sanitary napkin takes 500 to 800 years to decompose and 98% of sanitary napkins end up in landfills and water bodies. They are also burned at 800 degrees with a process called incineration, which produces hazardous waste, toxic odors and smoke,” said the 26-year-old
Earlier, while working for ISRO as an R&D engineer, Dhariya visited a landfill site in Pune and saw rag pickers pick up sanitary waste and diapers with their bare hands. This is how health tech startup PadCare was born.
“A woman spends a menstrual cycle 5 days a month and about five to six years of her life. She uses more than 7,500 sanitary napkins in her lifetime. Our rag pickers pick it up with bare hands. But in embarrassment these are either buried or burned in villages. 1,200 crore sanitary napkins are used in India every year,” said Dhariya, who is also the CEO of PadCare.
To solve this, Padcare offers three products: PadCare bin (stores hazardous waste for 30 days without bacterial growth or odor), PadCare X (recycles 15,000 sanitary napkins into wood pulp and high-quality plastics), and PadCare Vend (a sanitary towel dispenser). The Padcare bin is also India’s first 5D technology based patented sanitary napkin disposal and recycling system, said its founder.
“The wood pulp and plastic is sold on the market to the paper and packaging industry. These can also be converted into a PadCare bin,” he added.
Expand Padcare across India
With the help of previous clients State Bank of India and Praj Industries, PadCare initially installed 3 PadCare bins. Today, the company has 150 clients, including Facebook, Capgemini and Goldman Sachs, and has more than 5,500 PadCare bins installed.
PadCare is currently present in 6 cities in more than 100 organizations and its products are used by 1 lakh women, saving 15 tons of carbon emissions, according to Dhariya. The US, Canada, Singapore and African countries have shown interest in using PadCare products, he said.
The startup was also supported by Tata Trust, Infosys Foundation and additionally received a government grant of ₹2.25 crore to develop the PadCare X machine. In FY22, the startup had a revenue of ₹1.05 crore.
Dhariya was part of the Forbes Asia 30 under 30 list under healthcare and science category in 2021.
However, the journey to create a sanitary waste system, especially by a man, is not a common occurrence and Dhariya was met with much ridicule. But his family became his support system.
“For research, sanitary napkins were needed every day. I thought I should seek help from my friends. He’s my brother, so I gave him my pad. Ajinkya is a brother to all the women out there,” said Aishwarya Mapara, Dhariya’s sister.
Moved by the social cause Dhariya was tackling, Lenskart’s Bansal presented a blank check to Dhariya.
“He is the Padman of 2022,” said shark Aman Gupta, referring to the Bollywood movie toadman and the main character played by Akshay Kumar, who decides to tackle the social stigma associated with menstrual hygiene. Kumar’s character is based on the real life hero Arunachalam Muruganantham, a social entrepreneur and the inventor of a low cost sanitary napkin making machine.
While Dhariya’s demand was ₹50 lakh for 2% equity at a valuation of ₹25 crore, in the end he got ₹1 crore for 4% equity, for the same valuation.
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