Sparkle’s eventful journey so far + Our next steps + Less than 42 hours left to invest!
Like most start-ups, Sparkle’s journey has been very eventful.
It all started when Chirag took a gap year after completing his grad program at UC Berkeley and decided to put his engineering and business skills to good use while volunteering at different NGOs in Kenya, Tanzania, Vietnam, South Africa, India and Costa Rica.
As he participated in different outreach programs which included medical camps, HIV counselling, teaching and feeding programs, he learned about the immense physiological and socio-economic issues young girls and women faced during their periods, especially when they do not have access to sanitary pads.
With one co-founder being an engineer and an MBA who was looking for sustainable ways to dispose banana stem agro-waste from his banana plantation and another co-founder being a chartered accountant and a lawyer who was looking for natural, plastic-free and affordable alternatives that do not cause skin irritation and allergies, we started developing Sparkle biodegradable sanitary pads.
We made our first sanitary napkin in the basement of our home using a rectangular homemade die and a paper lamination machine. With a limited budget, we manually chopped banana fibers with scissors before developing automatic fiber chopping machines in-house. Without access to sophisticated lab equipment to maintain temperature and pressure, we used pressure cookers to transform the fiber structure of hard banana fiber into soft and absorbent pulp.
Our next challenge was to extract banana fiber economically and efficiently. We purchased banana fiber extraction machines that were available in the market. However, we soon realized that they had very low production capacity with high wastage-ratio due to inefficient design. The operation was labor intensive with high breakage of fiber. To overcome this challenge, we developed patent pending auto-feed machines with speed controllers, conveyor belts, brushing unit and drying unit with four times the production capacity and twice the fiber yield compared to existing machines.
Since most fully automatic sanitary pads making machines available in the market were way too expensive for any early stage star-up to afford, we developed small-scale and economically viable machines with electric heaters, temperature sensors and basic sealing and cutting functions to make our first functional prototype.
After spending over two years to develop a scalable business model, we launched Sparkle pads in the market in December 2019.
Along the way, we were selected as one of the top five start-ups from across the globe in the Health Tech category at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2019 and won the first round after being selected as one of the top 27 start-ups to be a part of a ground breaking TV show in Silicon Valley, Meet the Drapers, where the legendary Draper family meets the world's hottest new entrepreneurs, on the hunt for the next billion dollar idea.
Our next steps
We founded Sparkle to promote gender equality, improve menstrual health, reduce plastic pollution and support circular economy by providing plastic-free, chemical-free and affordable feminine hygiene products to women across the globe.
We aim to introduce a new more affordable version of plastic-free Sparkle pads later this year with different combinations of bio-based ingredients and affordable packaging materials with an aim to offer sustainable Sparkle pads at the same price as conventional plastic pads, at only around US$ 0.10 per pad.
In the US, conventional plastic pads typically cost around $0.15- $0.35 per piece on average and the eco-friendly pads range from around $0.35 - $0.75 per pad on average.
In India, good quality conventional plastic pads typically cost around INR 7 – INR 15 (US$ 0.10 - $0.21) per piece on average and the eco-friendly pads range from around INR 20 – INR 40 ($0.28 - $0.57) per pad on average. We are currently selling sustainable, plastic-free and chemical-free Sparkle pads made from banana fiber at around INR 21 (US$ 0.30) in India.
Our goal for this year is to focus on manufacturing, mainly on how we can optimize our production efficiency and take advantage of economy of scale to decrease our overall product cost. Simultaneously, we are also focusing on establishing effective sales and distribution channel. We aim to clear all the regulatory compliance requirements and introduce Sparkle pads in the US later this year.
Less than 42 hours left to invest!
We have raised over $160,000 from over 670 investors
With your tremendous support, we have already raised over 640% of our goal. With less than 42 hours left in our campaign, we believe we can reach 800% of our goal.
By investing in Sparkle, you are not only supporting the growth of our business, but also making the world a better place by helping us reduce plastic pollution, support circular economy and provide sustainable and affordable period products to women across the globe.
Best,
Hetal & Chirag