Primerry Raises ₹7.1 Crore Pre-Seed to Build a Child-First Healthcare Brand for Indian Families

Primerry, a pediatric healthcare brand focused on children aged 2 to 14, has raised ₹7.1 crore in a pre-seed round from investors including Ashish Kacholia, Lashit Sanghvi and a group of angel investors. The funding, announced on 29 September 2026, will help the startup build its founding team, expand research and development, and bring its first range of products to market.

Co-founded by Rushabh Nandu and Dr Nihar Parekh, Primerry aims to offer what it describes as modern, clinically credible and easy-to-use healthcare products for children. The company plans an initial range of eight products priced between ₹499 and ₹1,499, which it will sell through its own website, quick-commerce platforms, pharmacies and specialty stores.

It is a modest round by the standards of India's startup funding headlines. But it points to a larger opportunity that entrepreneurs and investors increasingly want to address: a market for children's everyday health products that has long been served by generic adult formulations, fragmented brands and little attention to the experience of the child using them.

The gap Primerry wants to fill

Parents of young children in India face a familiar set of challenges. Common complaints such as coughs, colds, minor injuries, digestive troubles and skin irritations are frequent, yet many over-the-counter products are either designed for adults or come in formats children resist. Dosage instructions can be confusing, taste and texture often lead to refusal, and trusted, child-specific brands are relatively few outside infant care.

The infant and baby care segment has seen considerable innovation, with brands such as FirstCry, Mamaearth, The Moms Co and others targeting new parents. But once children grow beyond the toddler years, dedicated product development tends to thin out. Primerry is targeting that gap, focusing on the long stretch between early childhood and adolescence, when children are active, frequently unwell, and increasingly able to express preferences about what they will and will not accept.

Having a practising doctor as a co-founder gives the company a potential advantage in credibility. Parents are cautious about what they give their children, and healthcare brands that can demonstrate medical grounding tend to earn trust faster than those relying on marketing alone.

Making health engaging for children

One of Primerry's more distinctive ideas is PocDoc, a customisable carrying case designed to make healthcare more engaging for children. The concept reflects a broader trend in consumer health: products that treat children as users in their own right rather than as passive recipients of medicine chosen by adults.

Behavioural research has long shown that children who feel some sense of control and familiarity are more likely to cooperate with health routines. A product that turns a first-aid kit or daily supplement routine into something personal and playful could reduce friction for parents and encourage good habits early.

Investors with a public-markets lens

The investor list is notable. Ashish Kacholia is one of India's best-known individual stock market investors, known for backing small and mid-sized listed companies with strong growth prospects. His participation in a pre-seed round signals that experienced public-market investors see consumer health as a category capable of producing large, listed businesses over time.

Lashit Sanghvi, an investor with experience across India's healthcare and consumer ecosystem, adds another experienced voice to the cap table at a stage when founders need guidance on regulation, manufacturing and distribution. The presence of several angel investors further broadens the support network available to the founders.

Distribution: an omnichannel bet from day one

Primerry's distribution strategy reflects how consumer brands now launch in India. Rather than relying solely on its own website, the company will sell simultaneously through quick-commerce platforms, pharmacies and specialty stores.

Quick commerce has become particularly important for health and personal care. Platforms such as Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart deliver within minutes in large cities, and parents dealing with a sick child at night value that speed. For young brands, these platforms also offer visibility to high-intent shoppers without the cost of building a large retail network.

Pharmacies, meanwhile, remain the primary channel for health products for most Indian families, especially outside the largest cities. Securing shelf space and pharmacist recommendations will be critical to building credibility, since many parents still ask their local chemist for advice before buying anything for their children.

Regulation and responsibility

Children's health products are subject to close scrutiny, and rightly so. Depending on their composition and claims, products may fall under different regulatory frameworks, from cosmetics and food supplements to over-the-counter medicines. Companies must ensure that formulations are safe for the intended age groups, that labelling is clear, and that marketing claims are backed by evidence.

India has faced serious public health concerns in recent years over contaminated cough syrups exported to other countries and sold domestically, which led to deaths of children and triggered stricter oversight of pharmaceutical manufacturing. Any new entrant in children's health will be judged against that backdrop. Primerry's emphasis on clinical credibility suggests it recognises that trust must be earned through rigorous quality standards rather than branding alone.
## The founders' challenge

For Rushabh Nandu and Dr Nihar Parekh, the immediate priorities are clear from the use of funds: build a founding team capable of running product development, supply chain and marketing, invest in research and development, and get the first eight products onto shelves and screens. Each of those tasks carries its own risks. Contract manufacturing must meet strict quality standards, product claims must be defensible, and early marketing must build awareness without the heavy discounting that has hurt many consumer startups.

The pre-seed stage is also where founders establish the culture and principles that shape a company for years. In a category built on parental trust, decisions about ingredient transparency, testing and customer service will matter as much as growth targets.

A growing market

The market opportunity is substantial. India has one of the world's largest populations of children, and rising household incomes are increasing spending on health and wellness. Parents in urban and semi-urban India are increasingly willing to pay a premium for products they perceive as safer, better designed and more effective, particularly when it comes to their children.

At the same time, the category rewards patience. Building trust among parents takes time, product development in health requires careful testing, and distribution through pharmacies involves long-term relationships. Primerry's pre-seed round is the first step in a journey that will require further capital and consistent execution.

If the company can combine medical credibility with products children actually like to use, it could carve out a lasting position in a segment that has been overlooked for too long. For India's consumer health ecosystem, it shows that some of the most promising opportunities lie not in new technologies, but in serving familiar needs better.