The direct-to-consumer brand has served more than 40,000 customers in the first 12 months of its existence
Bengaluru: With Perfora, Jatan Bawa and Tushar Khurana have built a consumer-first brand that aims to elevate people’s oral care experiences. The brand has already introduced India’s sleekest and most lightweight smart electric toothbrush, the country’s first probiotic mouthwash, and SLS-free and n-Hap (Nano-hydroxyapatite) fortified toothpaste. It is also the only brand in India that offers name personalisation on its products.
The start
Before Perfora came into existence, oral care had grown into a large category, however, there had not been much innovation in it. “Oral care is an important everyday product but there was massive brand fatigue among consumers. As a consumer, I was not satisfied with the existing set of products and felt the brands lacked a strong narrative— they were all communicating in a very similar way—which did not make me excited about oral care,” says Jatan Bawa. Now, as the co-founder of Perfora, Bawa believes that the category has exciting times ahead of it. “As a product category, electric toothbrushes are growing by about ~9.5% CAGR [compounded annual growth rate], and a lot of new brands have emerged. Overall, the oral care category is growing at ~8.5% CAGR, however, over the next five years, a massive increase is expected,” shares Bawa.
Early years
Prior to starting Perfora, Bawa and Khurana spent several years working with different consumer brands and learning about the ecosystem and the brand-building process. “After Perfora began, in the early days, we were doing a lot of things ourselves, such as responding to customer emails and phone calls, packing orders, and designing the creatives,” says Tushar Khurana, co-founder, Perfora. Their vision, he continues, is to build an iconic brand such as Nike, but in the oral care category. “We are big admirers of Phil Knight’s journey [he is co-founder and chairman emeritus of Nike]. Consumers’ love and acceptance of our brand have helped us grow and scale the business,” shares Khurana.
Perfora is just a one-year-old brand and despite its young age, it has understood that its products should add value to the lives of consumers by delivering results. “For instance, we had realised that consumers were resisting the idea of buying an electric toothbrush due to its heavier and bulkier design. So, we went out to create something that would make brushing teeth easier and more fun,” conveys Bawa. Perfora’s electric toothbrush is ergonomically designed with manually tufted, has super-soft charcoal bristles, a two minute inbuilt timer and an IPX7 waterproof rating, and comes with 90-day long battery life. The brand’s other products too are science-backed, user-friendly and mindfully created. “Innovation is something that is embedded in our brand’s DNA. Our USP is that we put the consumer first and are able to come up with products that improve the oral hygiene of the consumer better,” adds Bawa.
Satisfying customers
The brand engages with customers religiously. “We respond to their queries over emails or WhatsApp within an hour during office hours. We also call select few customers every month to collect their feedback about the products they have purchased from us. These apart, we create a fortnightly newsletter to tell customers more about our brand i.e. behind-the-scenes stories and also share content that is not promotional,” explains Khurana.
Overall, he says, the brand wants to make oral care an aspiration for consumers and in the process, create awareness among them about oral hygiene. “For now, we are focussing a lot on digital channels like Instagram and YouTube. Our communication is personal and out of the box, which helps us create a stronger recall in consumers’ minds,” adds Khurana. Perfora is also working aggressively to automate customer journeys so that first and repeat purchases become easier for customers. The brand has integrated with WebEngage and Pragma which enables it to deliver exceptional customer experience right from placing the order to the delivery.
In the next three years, Perfora plans to become the go-to oral care brand for at least 50 million consumers in India. In the pipeline is a range of products that will be affordable, effective, innovative and user-friendly. There is also a plan to invest in distribution to grow the brand’s presence and in R&D to create unique and powerful products.
Brownie Points
- Perfora has raised two rounds of capital (i.e. pre-seed and seed) led by Sauce.vc and other strategic investors.
- The brand has served more than 40,000 customers in the first 12 months of its existence.
- Currently, Perfora sells its products via its own website and e-marketplaces such as Amazon, Nykaa, Flipkart, Swiggy Instamart, Blinkit, etc.
- Its products are rated more than 4.2 across channels such as e-commerce platforms, etc.
First appeared in The India D2C Yearbook 2022
