Air purifier start-up Atlanta Healthcare is seeking investments from bigger players, as it plans to raise $1.5 million as part of Series A funding.
“There is interest from international players who want to enter India and piggyback their offerings, and might even invest in us. We seek new investors that include existing air purifier companies as well as traditional funds, as part of Series A,” said Vibhor Jain, CEO of Atlanta Healthcare.
In 2015, Atlanta Healthcare had raised funds from angel investors such as Snapdeal’s Senior Vice-President Amit Choudhary, and Chief Strategy Officer Govind Rajan at a valuation at $3.9 million.
Today, we have a valuation at $8 million ( Rs. 54 crore) and funds raised will be used to enter new categories like air masks. “We expect masks to contribute 20 per cent of our top line, since it can be sold to our customers along with the air purifiers,” added Jain.
Making a beginning by selling air purifiers through e-commerce players like Snapdeal and Amazon about a year back, the six-year-old start-up is now enhancing presence in modern trade outlets like eZone, Croma and Reliance Digital, along with general trade outlets.
Swiss company Blueair, which has entered India, is planning to use the resources of Atlanta Healthcare as a dealer to sell its high-end air purifiers.
Vijay Kannan, Head of Blueair India, said, “We are in discussions to enter into a dealership with Atlanta Healthcare as it can help in selling our premium air purifiers to corporates.”
In the past, Blueair had evinced interest in acquiring the start-up for which it had carried out due diligence.
Atlanta Healthcare is seeking revenues by supplying air purifiers to bigger brands like Philips as part of a backward integration strategy, since it imports air purifiers from places like Taiwan and China.
However, despite a host of big companies entering the segment, consumer acceptance is still low, with negligible growth as compared to other consumer durable categories.
“Air purifiers are a Rs. 100-crore category and there has been some amount of traction in the past few months. We expect it to reach Rs. 2,500 crore by 2020,” added Jain.
Source: Business Line
