Deep Bajaj FOUNDER AND MENTOR

The co-founder of Sirona Hygiene talks about his ₹450-crore exit from the company, building the femtech category in India, and his plans for the future

- Mahalakshmi Prabhakaran

Deep Bajaj, 42, co-founder of femtech brand Sirona Hygiene, doesn't make new year resolutions. "You prepare yourself at the beginning of the year and then life throws something unexpected at you," says Bajaj, laughing. If 2022 saw content-to-commerce company Good Glamm Group invest ₹100 crore in Sirona through primary and secondary investments, in November last year, the company acquired Sirona in an all-cash deal of ₹450 crore—one of the largest cash deals by an Indian femtech company. But what probably raised eyebrows was Bajaj and his brother and co-founder, Mohit, choosing to step down from the company.

"It was time for me to step back and let Sirona soar," says Bajaj over a video call from Gurugram, where he is based. "When we did the deal with Good Glamm two years ago, it was a path-to-acquisition sort of a deal, but the reason I decided to let them run the company is simple: we had done what we could in the last decade in terms of innovations for the brand. We'd introduced a series of new products that weren't being made for Indian women at the time—whether you talk about a stand-and-pee device, natural anti-chafing cream, organic period pain-relief patches or sanitary disposable bags. I felt I had played my part and now it was time for better people to take it offline (into stores)."

Three months after the acquisition, Bajaj sounds relaxed and raring to go. For a serial entrepreneur who's always run his own businesses since 2006, Bajaj has taken a shine to a new informal role: of being an angel investor and mentor to up-and-coming startups in the country.