Data-driven Healthcare Startup Answer Genomics Raises $500K from Inflection Point Ventures

(L-R) Rahul Ranganathan – CEO, Dr Balamurli AR – CTO

• Answer Genomics is a healthcare company that uses genome-based data to help individuals maintain better physical and mental health
• The funds will be utilized for growth, Sales & Marketing expenses along with talent hiring
• Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) has so far invested over INR 600 Cr across 190+ deals

Hyper-personalized & data driven wellness platform, Answer Genomics has raised $500K in a pre-series A Round from Inflection Point Ventures. The funds will be utilized for supporting Sales & Marketing efforts and expanding the talent pool through strategic hiring initiatives. Additionally, these investments will enable Answer Genomics to continue pioneering advances in genomics and ultimately enhance the well-being of individuals through personalized health insights by sequencing 10K genomes in the next 12 months.

Answer Genomics is a data driven precision health company dedicated to harnessing the power of multi-ominc data to assist individuals in making informed decisions about their health. Their approach involves delving directly into the genetic blueprint, microbiome and physiological parameters decoding both physical and mental health factors. Founded in 2019, Answer Genomics is led by Rahul Ranganathan as CEO, a Molecular Biologist from Delhi University, and an MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur with experience across organizations like PepsiCo and Flipkart. Dr. Balamurali AR serves as the CTO and is a Ph.D. in AI/ML from IITB and Monash University, along with a Post Doc in AI/ML from CNRS France. He has worked for over 20 years in reputed companies like IBM and Samsung, with additional contributions as a Visiting Faculty at IIM Vizag.

Vikram Ramasubramanian, Partner, Inflection Point Ventures, says, “Research and development in healthcare has always been of critical importance, with Genomics being at the cutting edge. Data science lends itself very well to Genomics, allowing healthcare companies to provide deep insights, and bio hacks to improve one’s lifestyle quality. As an early mover, Answer Genomics not only addresses an individual’s need for better health, but also provides data for large organizations to create better products.”

India, with one of the largest and diverse populations in the world, is not represented well globally when it comes to genetic information. Most of the data used for reference comes from Western countries. This can lead to incorrect results in the tests, which would prove harmful. Answer Genomics plans to unlock the power of genetics to provide potential know-how for dealing with several health and lifestyle ailments.

The company is collecting samples from people with their consent to create a database of genetic information. They take a small amount of blood and analyze more than 5 million data points from it. This helps them give personalized advice for staying healthy. They look at various parameters including genes, medical history, microbiome, and lifestyle to give you advice on how to be healthy now and in the future. Based on the data collected, they give advice suggesting food habits, lifestyle choices, supplements, and medications. Answer Genomics is already working with large companies to help their employees understand health issues with the help of Genomics.

The company has also filed for 2 patents and holds publications papers in important peer reviewed journals.

Rahul Ranganathan, CEO, Answer Genomics, says, “The advent of AI is changing the landscape of healthcare. We now possess the technology capable of understanding the human body for the masterpiece that it is. Multi-omnic data collected over a course of time forms a picture of current and future health allowing accurate prognosis, early diagnosis, and precision treatment. We believe precision health would reduce the burden on our healthcare infrastructure by allowing for accurate predictions, remote interventions, and faster recoveries.”

Answer Genomics is the only company in genomics that is covered under insurance. The company has a pan India presence. The Indian healthcare market in 2022 was estimated to be valued at $372 billion, according to Niti Ayog. The Indian preventive healthcare market is poised for substantial growth, projected to expand at an impressive compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22%. By 2025, this sector is expected to reach a substantial market size of $197 billion, as indicated by a collaborative report from Redseer, Chirate, and AWS. This anticipated growth underscores the increasing emphasis on preventive healthcare and its significance in the Indian healthcare landscape. The genetic testing market in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.65% to $15.33 billion by 2027. Geographically, the Indian genetic testing market is the fastest growing in the APAC region.

About Answer Genomics

Solving the healthcare data problem for the Indian population, Answer Genomics is a data driven precision health organization providing prognosis, diagnosis, and rehabilitation for a range of lifestyle disorders through its consumer brand NuGenomics.

Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) is an angel investing platform with over 8600 CXOs, HNIs, and Professionals to together invest in startups. The firm supports new-age entrepreneurs by providing them with monetary & experiential capital and connecting them with a diverse group of investors. IPV has announced the launch of a $50 million CAT 2 AIF Physis Capital to invest in pre-Series A to Series B growth-stage start-ups.

 

India Accelerator and Lyxel&Flamingo Invest in Innovative Genomic Health & Wellness Startup Answer Genomics

Machine Learning & Genomics startup – Answer Genomics raises an undisclosed amount of funding from India Accelerator – one of the fastest growing Accelerators in Asia, and Lyxel&Flamingo – one of the largest independent digital media companies in India.

Incepted in Dec 2018, the startup was a part of IA!s seed-stage accelerator program – the only GAN partnered, a mentorship-driven program in India.

While medical science, diagnostics, wellness and preventive healthcare industries have evolved significantly – they still don’t have answers to many problems that humankind faces and the answer probably lies in our genetic make-up. Answer Genomics, combines genomic, physiological and physical parameters to provide the most comprehensive picture of present and future health. Answer Genomics predicts the occurrence, spread and treatment of lifestyle and clinical disorders by assaying genetic makers using their proprietary genomic and machine-learning systems.

Commenting on the development, Anjan Bose- Lead Mentor, Health-Tech vertical at IA said, "Genomics Research is crucial in providing precise and personalized form of treatment for chronic lifestyle condition. We believe that our decision to mentor Answer Genomics has the potential to offer a revolutionary product to the market. The immense potential of such a startup to leverage new cutting-edge technologies should result in more accurate prediction of outcomes from health interventions to further ensure better treatment.”

Answer Genomics conducts several genomic studies at scale while building on a larger base of pre existing Genomic Research and provides a revolutionary product to disrupt the $23 Billion Industry, growing at 12% CAGR in India.

“It is well understood that our lifestyle choices make a huge difference to our health and are responsible for most of our ailments. But, there’s one other very vital aspect of this narrative that’s still not very well understood - Genetic Makeup. While the world has started making steady progress in unraveling the genetic code, it is still not at a stage where individuals would know & understand their genetic makeup to the degree that enables them to make informed choices about their eating and living habits. We believe Answer Genomics is a promising start-up that hopes to bring the science of genomics for retail consumption so that every Indian can get to know more about their body’s natural predispositions and accordingly make the right choices vis-à-vis their diet and lifestyle. We found Rahul, Bala & team extremely passionate & committed in chasing a vision that blends the decoding of genetic data with machine learning to deliver customized diet and lifestyle advise to everyone who seeks to attain their true potential”, said Dev Batra, Founder, Lyxel&Flamingo.

The startup will be operational in four different phases to realize the potential of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. The startup is already through phase 1 and recently launched its first product #NGH-768’ under the brand name "NuGenomics” ( www.nugenomics.in ). It presents its patented Nutrition Recommendation System on a Machine Learning platform to make nutrition recommendations tailored to an individual!s DNA to help alleviate several lifestyle disorders.The company is currently tying up with organizations to offer its services to employees as well as to individuals who can register on the platform and get personalized nutrition and superfoods recommendations after a detailed genetic diagnostics.