India generates over 12 billion discarded sanitary napkins every year, 90% of which end up buried in landfills or burnt in crude incinerators that emit lethal carcinogenic dioxins and furans.
Witnessing the dehumanizing conditions endured by municipal sanitation workers who sort menstrual waste with bare hands, Dr. Neeraj Kumar dedicated his engineering thesis to inventing an automated solution. PadCare developed a 5D recycling process that disinfects, deodorizes, and separates pads into sterilized cellulose pulp and high-grade plastic pellets without incineration.
On Shark Tank India Season 2, Dr. Kumar received unanimous acclaim from all Sharks, closing a deal with Peyush Bansal, Namita Thapar, Vineeta Singh, and Anupam Mittal for ₹1 Crore at a ₹25 Crore valuation. PadCare now partners with corporate campuses across Tata, Microsoft, and Johnson & Johnson.