How do you talk about men’s sexual health in India, a country where about 90 million men face some sort of sexual health issues but rarely address them in public or private? For Bold Care, India’s first dedicated brand for men’s sexual health products, the answer was to unite two faces Indians could never have imagined together. A little more than three months after Bold Care’s out-of-the-box campaign released, fronted by Bollywood superstar Ranveer Singh and adult entertainer Johnny Sins (real name Steven Wolfe), it has garnered more than 300 million impressions across digital channels. “Our idea was to say that anyone can have sexual health-related problems, which is precisely what is the case in India today,” shares Rajat Jadhav, 27, the co-founder and CEO of Bold Care (whose other co-founders include Ranveer Singh, Rahul Krishnan and Mohit Yadav), who conceived of the company in December 2019 and launched it in July 2020.
Jadhav has been working closely with Singh since 2022, and calls the leading man of Bajirao Mastani and Ram-Leela “a force of nature who wants to have an impact on the sexual health space by shedding light on important ideas”. While Singh’s on-screen persona, which alternates effortlessly between macho and goofy, was a natural fit for a satirical but earnest take on issues like erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation, the gamechanger for Bold Care was the introduction of Sins. “He (Sins) loved the message we were trying to get across. He knew that if viewers understand that Sins can have the same issues as so many other men, then there’s nothing abnormal or embarrassing about them,” says Jadhav.
Campaigns like the Singh-Sins one is just a catalyst for Bold Care in its larger aim to be the number one sexual health brand in India (with the necessary approval from certified medical professionals), while gradually expanding to include sexual wellness, too. At the time of writing, Bold Care’s most popular product is Extend, a delay spray. “The challenge for us isn’t just about category creation but also about educating the consumer. If you place a bottle of shampoo on the table, then everyone knows what it does and how to use it. A few years ago, we couldn’t say the same about something like a delay spray. But things are starting to change, as more and more men are embracing our products,” explains Jadhav, who cites condoms and lubes as the next best-selling items from Bold Care.
‘Men in their mid to late 20s are struggling to perform in bed, which is naturally affecting their self-esteem’
According to Jadhav, men’s sexual health is in the midst of a strange dichotomy in India. Even though most Gen Z men (born in 1997 and later) are having less sex than their millennial counterparts, many of them are running into sexual health problems far earlier than their predecessors. “Men in their mid to late 20s are struggling to perform in bed, which is naturally affecting their self-esteem,” says Jadhav, proceeding to share the story of a young man who after an incident of erectile dysfunction went on to grow a beard and join a gym in an attempt to change his image, mostly for himself. While conversations around sex have become far more common in India, especially around women’s sexual health and wellness, Jadhav feels that men still struggle to articulate their sexual shortcomings: “I think a lot of men take it personally. It’s also to do with men taking longer to understand their bodies, as opposed to women, who do it faster and are able to build more empathy with each other.”
When Bold Care began its journey, Jadhav had a hard time convincing stakeholders to get on board. “There was this perception that a sexual health brand can’t be genuine. For the first few months, we sold our products solely through cash-on-delivery, as no third-party payment apps were willing to partner on suspicion of fraudulent activity,” recalls Jadhav, whose prior record of being an entrepreneur came to his aid. Questions were asked of Jadhav as to why Bold Care is narrowing down on a niche instead of dabbling across categories in health and wellness. His answer was simple: “We want to do one thing really well and earn the right (from the market and the consumers) to solve other problems.”
With Ranveer Singh fronting Bold Care’s campaigns and Jadhav leading the company’s strategy, Bold Care aims to become the number one sexual health brand in India
‘When you’re done using a condom, one nagging concern is how to dispose of it’
As Bold Care began to make inroads, new challenges cropped up. “Brand loyalty is very hard to achieve in India, especially in a niche where customers want the right combination of trust and privacy,” says Jadhav, who dealt with the problem of advertising reluctance about sexual health on TV by insisting on a no-nudity and no-seduction policy for Bold Care ads. “We don’t want to show skin to sell. Our USP is that we offer a legitimate solution to problems faced by millions of men,” adds Jadhav, who has built a team of more than 50 people, most of whom work remotely. “We do everything in-house and have a flexible, hybrid approach to work. I’m proud to say that in four years of Bold Care, only two people have left the team, and one of them did so to pursue higher education.”
The past couple of years has seen Bold Care earn a spree of engagement on online marketplaces. One factor that has helped the brand grow is its modest pricing, with most of the stock — from delay sprays to condoms, from supplements to perfumes, from lubes to foams — available at a price range between Rs 300 and Rs 1,000. The second is attention to detail, as Jadhav elaborates: “When you’re done using a condom, one nagging concern is how to dispose of it. You can’t flush it down the toilet, you can’t put it in the dustbin — what if the domestic help sees it — and you obviously can’t chuck it out of the window. To solve this, we provide our condoms with easy-to-use disposable bags. Manufacturing these bags has been a pain point for us because of how supply chains and packaging work in India, but we’ve prioritised details like these since they add to the user experience.”
While Bold Care’s current target audience mostly revolves around tier 1 and tier 2 cities, Jadhav plans to scale quickly in the time to come and become a pan-India brand. “It’s so much easier to speak about sex in India today. So why should men’s sexual healthcare remain taboo?” asks Jadhav, intent on expanding Bold Care’s footprint through bolder ambitions, bolder products and bolder campaigns. After all, Jadhav and his team are well aware that staying bold is the secret to lasting long.
