Dectrocel Bags ₹4 Crore from BioAngels, PadUp Ventures to Accelerate AI-Powered Healthcare Tools

Dectrocel, a pioneering health-tech company developing AI-powered diagnostic solutions, has raised ₹4 crore in recent funding. The round was led by IAN Group-powered BioAngels, with participation from PadUp Ventures and Vinners.

Key investors from IAN in this round include Nitin Zamre, Samir Kalia, and Mitesh Shah. The fresh infusion of capital will be used to scale Dectrocel’s commercial operations across India, enhance its self-learning foundational multimodal AI technology, expand into international markets, and accelerate the launch of its upcoming AI Tools in CT /MRI/PET-CT and HPB diagnostic modules.

Headquartered in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, Dectrocel has launched its flagship product, DecXpert, which is one of only three AI-based diagnostic tools approved by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) for clinical use in India. The platform delivers chest X-ray and CT-scan interpretations that are 10 times faster and 98% accurate, addressing India’s acute radiologist shortage - currently at a staggering 1:125,000 doctor-to-patient ratio. This shortage results in diagnosis delays of 7 to 10 days and error rates of up to 40%, particularly in tier-2 and smaller cities where timely intervention can be life-saving.

Dectrocel was founded by Ankit Shukla, an AI-in-medicine expert from the University of Queensland; MS in Infectious Diseases from Duke Medical School, NUS, Singapore. Saumya Shukla, a Doctorate in Public Health from SGPGIMS with an MBA from NUS and MS in Data Science from Harvard; and Nikhil Mishra, an IIT Kanpur Researcher specializing in AI and machine learning applications in medicine.

The company’s mission stems from a deeply personal experience where a patient with a persistent cough went undiagnosed for months due to delayed X-ray interpretations and ultimately succumbed to late-stage lung cancer. This tragedy transformed the founders’ vision into a life-saving mission to democratize access to expert-level diagnostic capabilities for every patient, regardless of geography or income.

Ambulance Tech Platform, Dial4242, Raises ₹9 Crore in Pre-Series A Round Led by IAN Group and Strategic Partners

Dial4242, India’s leading tech-enabled ambulance service platform, has raised ₹9 crore in a Pre-Series A funding round led by IAN Group, with additional participation from BioAngels, IIM Bangalore’s NSRCEL, and other prominent angel investors.

The funds will be used to strengthen Dial4242’s mission of ensuring ambulance availability across India by reducing its current turnaround time (TAT) from 12 minutes to under 8 minutes. The company will also invest in technology upgrades, marketing, expansion of medical centers in underserved areas, and key leadership hires.

Founded in 2016 by Jeetendra Lalwani, along with co-founders Nilesh Mahambre and Atin Verma, Dial4242 operates the country’s largest on-demand ambulance network, covering 850+ cities. The platform provides real-time ambulance tracking, automated dispatch, and a 24x7 call center—addressing India’s long-standing issues of emergency response time and accessibility.

With its asset-light and tech-first model, Dial4242 has built strategic partnerships with major players such as Amazon, Zomato, and Swiggy, offering medical support to gig workers nationwide. Its average turnaround time of under 12 minutes makes it the fastest in the country.

“The loss of my father, my greatest inspiration, was the most painful moment of my life—but it sparked a mission to turn grief into impact. This became a mission to ensure that no life is lost due to the unavailability of an ambulance,” said Jeetendra Lalwani, Co-founder of Dial4242.

Padmaja Ruparel, Co-founder, IAN Group, said, “Dial4242 is truly solving a real problem and surely a need that can arise any time. This team led by Jeetendra has already established the operations on a strong footing with a robust business model with a direct focus on saving lives. Dial4242 brings excellent execution with empathy!”

Dial4242 will use the funds to strengthen its tech platform, boost trip volumes through marketing, launch free ambulance services through a low-cost membership, set up medical centers in key areas, and expand its product, business, and operations teams.

Over the next 12 months, the company aims to deepen hospital partnerships, grow its retail user base, and maintain the fastest emergency response standard in India. Dial4242 has been recognized for its innovation and impact in healthcare by ET Now and has received the prestigious Maharashtra Startup Innovation Award.

About Dial4242

Dial4242 is India’s fastest-growing platform for tech-enabled, on-demand ambulance services. Operating in over 850 cities, it provides swift, affordable, and reliable emergency medical transportation supported by robust technology, a dedicated call center, and India’s largest aggregated ambulance network.

About IAN Group

IAN Group is the country’s single largest platform for seed and early-stage investment, with IAN Angel Network, BioAngels, IAN Fund I, and IAN Alpha Fund enabling entrepreneurs to raise from ₹50 lakhs to ₹50 crores. The platform brings money, mentoring from successful entrepreneurs, and global market access. It is sector-agnostic and has funded innovative startups across 19 sectors in India and 7 other countries, thereby growing the global footprint of companies. IAN has been listed by Forbes as one of the iconic business and economic events of Independent India over the last 75 years, alongside LIC, NASSCOM, RBI, and Naukri.com.

IAN-Led Round Injects ₹6.5 Cr into Lamark Biotech to Tackle Cold-Chain Gaps in BioPharma

• Lamark Biotech Raises ₹6.5 Crore in Pre-Series A Round Led by IAN Group, Powered by BioAngels

Lamark Biotech, an innovation-led biopharma startup, raised ₹6.5 crore in a Pre-Series A round led by IAN Group, including IAN Alpha Fund, powered by BioAngels, Dr. Vinayender Tulla, Dr. Nita Roy, and Mr. Venkataraman KNK, domain experts of IAN’s angel investors led the round.

Founded in 2018 by Dr. Vaibhav Bhatia, a entrepreneur and Biochemist by training, Lamark Biotech is reimagining drug delivery for chronic and life-altering diseases. Its proprietary ProteoStrong™ platform enables the stabilization of fragile protein-based drugs, such as insulin, monoclonal antibodies, and enzymes, without altering their molecular structure. Lamark addresses a critical gap in the biologics ecosystem: reducing the cold-chain dependency.

Vaibhav Bhatia, Founder and CEO of Lamark Biotech, said, “This funding round with IAN marks a turning point for Lamark, but also for the patients across the planet. We’re accelerating our thermostable insulin program and expanding ProteoStrong™ to more critical therapeutics using this resource. Our priority is clear- make safe and high-efficacy biologics for all. We believe, ‘if it is not accessible, it not a medicine”

Padmaja Ruparel, Co-founder, IAN Group, said, “Investment in Lamark represents IAN’s investment strategy to invest and grow innovations that solve real problems. The solution is critical in low-resource environments, with Lamark's thermostable biologics which can make critical treatments accessible at a low cost for millions of people, both in India and globally.”

The Ahmedabad-headquartered startup, leveraging R&D base of Venture Center, NCL-innovation park in Pune, is advancing a new class of temperature-resilient biologics that retain potency across extreme conditions, ideal for underserved regions where cold storage infrastructure is limited.

With its lead program, InsulinStrong, Lamark is targeting the ₹4,000 crore Indian insulin market and intends to expand across Southeast Asia and the UAE. expanding its platform into diabetic eye disease and cancer immunotherapy. In the next 24 months, it plans to file new international patents, begin early clinical trials, and build partnerships with pharma companies, CDMOs, and global health agencies.

Amid growing global efforts to enhance healthcare access and strengthen drug delivery infrastructure, Lamark Biotech is strategically positioned to lead the next generation of biopharmaceutical innovation through its robust, cold-chain-independent solutions.

About Lamark Biotech:

Lamark Biotech is an innovation-driven biopharmaceutical startup focused on developing proprietary formulations of biologics for chronic and life-altering diseases. The company’s core expertise lies in stabilizing complex therapeutic proteins and peptides to improve their shelf-life, efficacy, and patient convenience. With a strong emphasis on global healthcare, it addresses critical gaps in formulation technology, including ultra-stable, temperature-resilient drug delivery systems for indications such as diabetes, ophthalmic disorders, and cancer immunotherapy.

About IAN Group:

IAN Group is the country’s single largest platform for seed and early stage investment platform with IAN Angel Network, BioAngels and IAN Fund I and IAN Alpha Fund enabling entrepreneurs to raise from Rs. 50 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores. The platform brings money, mentoring from successful entrepreneurs and global market access. The platform is sector-agnostic and has funded innovative start-ups across 19 sectors in India and 7 other countries, thereby growing the global footprint of companies. IAN has been listed by Forbes as one of iconic business and economic events of Independent India, over 75 years along with LIC, NASSCOM, RBI, Naukri.com amongst others.

CSIR-NCL's Biotech Spinoff Serigen Working on Tissue Regeneration Raises INR 5.8 Cr from BioAngels, Colossa Ventures and other

Serigen Mediproducts is an innovative medical products company developing nextgen tissue repair solutions. The startup will utilize the funding for development of its product portfolio, team expansion and for strengthening its intellectual property portfolio.

Investors like, BioAngelsa unique partnership between IAN and BIRAC, And Colossa Ventures LLP bring domain expertise and to help the power of India’s women economy

Serigen Mediproducts, an innovative medical products company with a pioneering portfolio of silk protein-based products, has successfully raised INR 5.8 crore funding in a seed funding round from BioAngels (powered by IAN and BIRAC) and Colossa Ventures. The lead investors from BioAngels powered by IAN include Uday Chatterjee, Sri Prakash, Rishabh Mehta, Umakant Panwar and Anirudh Agarwal. The round also witnessed participation from other prominent angel investors and experienced entrepreneurs including Aadesh Harale, Anand Deshpande, Sanjay Dalmia, Shantanu Deshpande and Priti Rao.

The company will utilize the investment for business growth and rapid scaling of its manufacturing and sales verticals. Serigen Mediproducts further intends to use the investment for team expansion and strengthening its intellectual property portfolio.

Serigen Mediproducts uses a natural biomaterial, silk, to develop path-breaking tissue regeneration products. This platform technology is protected via patents and the startup leverages it to develop products for orthopedics, breast cancer and advanced wound care.

Founded by a team of seasoned biomedical technology developers and experienced scientists, Serigen Mediproducts is the world’s first company to do a clinical trial using silk for bone repair. It is ISO 13485 certified and has also secured all regulatory (CDSCO) approvals for manufacturing and sales of its advanced wound care product – Seriderm, which has demonstrated excellent clinical outcomes in diabetic foot ulcers.

Speaking on the same, Dr. Manish Diwan, BIRAC, said, “The sole mission of BioAngels is to connect angels, early-stage VCs and HNIs with biotech and healthcare companies for funding and value-added business mentoring. With its patented innovation, great team and exceptional products, the company is on the path of rapid growth and development. We extend our best wishes to the team and are looking forward to supporting them in all ways possible.”

The lead investors, BioAngels powered by IAN further added, “We are delighted to work with Serigen, an innovative biotech startup doing path breaking work, in the area of tissue regeneration using natural silk proteins. Serigen being a woman led company is a matter of both joy and pride to us. We believe Serigen represents a new trend in biotech innovation in India, and we are happy to be a part of their journey.”

Ms. Ashu Suyash, Founder and CEO, Colossa Ventures and ex-MD of CRISIL said, “The astute team of Serigen Mediproducts has created an outstanding nextgen tissue regeneration platform technology powered by silk. This platform is versatile and has the potential to be deployed across several medical fields. We are confident the company will deliver excellent clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction in the coming times. We look forward to supporting their development and being a part of their growth journey.”

Dr. Anuya Nisal, Founder and CEO, Serigen Mediproducts, said, “At Serigen Mediproducts, we envision growing into a global medical products company in the times to come. We are grateful to BioAngels, Colossa Ventures and other key angel investors, who trusted us and partnered with us. With the investment received in this round, we look forward to scaling our business, expanding our team, strengthening our intellectual property portfolio and focusing on product development.”

The Indian medtech industry is projected to grow at a CAGR of 37% from 2020 to 2025 to touch $50 billion within the forecast period. The sector is still in its nascent stages but is expected to grow significantly in the future because of the rising aging population, government’s support, increasing health insurance penetration and growing medical tourism. Serigen Mediproducts intends to bridge the gaps existing in the market and reduce the market’s dependence on foreign companies. The company envisions becoming a global player in the coming times.

About Serigen

Serigen was established in 2015 with a mission to develop innovative, high-quality tissue repair products. It is a spin-off company of CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, India’s premier materials and chemicals research institute.

Serigen is led by a stellar team of founders (Anuya Nisal, Premnath Venugopalan and Swati Shukla) with academic backgrounds from premier materials research institutes like Indian Institute of Technology - Powai, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA and University of Delaware, USA. The team has a proven track record of development of biomaterials for medical devices, that have been commercial successes and have been implanted in more than ten million patients globally.

Serigen was incubated at Venture Center, Pune, India’s largest science and technology business incubator. Serigen technology has been veted by national experts and Serigen is the recipient of prestigious and competitive government grants from BIRAC. Serigen and the founders have been recognized by several national/international awards including National award in “Polymers in Public Healthcare Category” from Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, GoI, National Winner Empower TiE Women Global competition 2021, Indian National Academy of Engineering – Young Entrepreneur Award 2020 and Leaders in Innovation Fellowship from Royal Academy of Engineering, UK.

BioAngels is India’s first sector focused Angel Investor group and perhaps the world’s first angel group in partnership with a government body. It is a unique partnership between BIRAC, an enterprise of the Department of Biotechnology, and IAN, India’s single largest horizontal platform for seed / early-stage investing, focused on Biotech, Medtech, Healthtech, Pharma, Agritech, Cleantech startups. BioAngels brings the first external cheque from Industry leaders and domain experts with cheque sizes of up to INR 10 Cr. BioAngels brings Money, Mentoring, and Global Market Access. It provides Angel Investors, Family Offices, Micro VCs, Corporates and Early-Stage VC Funds, an opportunity to invest in high quality fast growth companies for Alpha returns. 

Colossa Ventures LLP is an investments ecosystem aimed at unleashing the power of India’s women economy one venture at a time. Using the power of 3 Cs – capital, capability and confidence, Colossa will look to invest in ‘women-first’ businesses that are disrupting the status quo and shaping the future. Colossa’s vision is to create a 10x difference by investing in the growth stage of purpose led, high quality, fast growing, innovative, women-centric businesses, while creating long term value for investors and building an equally powered sustainable world.

Conversational AI for Hospitals Voiceoc Raises INR 3 Cr Funding from IAN & BIRAC -Powered BioAngels Along with Sucseed Indovation

• BioAngels is a unique partnership between IAN and BIRAC that supports startups in Biotech, Medtech, Healthtech, Pharma, Agritech and Cleantech sectors
• The SaaS platform will utilize the investment for expanding its team and hiring talent across tech, sales and marketing verticals
• VoiceOc will also develop its product, scale its marketing strategies and strengthen its presence in the Middle-Eastern market

Voiceoc, a conversational AI solution for hospitals, has raised INR 3 Cr funding from BioAngels, powered by IAN, bringing DeepTech to India’s hospital ecosystem. The round also saw participation from SucSEED Indovation.

With this investment, the company will expand its team and is keen to onboard talent in tech, sales and marketing divisions. Voiceoc also intends to utilize the capital to boost product development initiatives, scale its marketing strategies, and strengthen global footprints in the Middle-Eastern market.

Voiceoc helps healthcare companies provide quick and personalized patient support by leveraging the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Integrating Text AI on communication apps like WhatsApp, Messenger, etc., and Voice AI on the call center, the company automates the entire patient journey, right from discovery, appointment booking and availing support to easy access to medical documents, and much more in real-time.

The platform’s healthcare-focused AI engine helps hospitals, diagnostics labs and clinics address consumers' pain points by enabling increased appointment bookings and providing quick and personalized support to patients. Voiceoc also plays an integral role in reducing calls at customer care departments and increasing the conversion rate on offers and campaigns. Currently, it is handling 1 million+ patient conversations in a month from 10 countries.

Speaking on the same, Dr. Manish Diwan, Head - Strategy Partnership & Entrepreneurship Development, BIRAC, said, “The BioAngels platform has been created by BIRAC in partnership with the Indian Angel Network to support the healthcare delivery businesses like Voiceoc, the new-age knowledge-based startups in the ecosystem, with private funds. The company is attempting to enhance the efficiency of conventional healthcare experiences for patients and healthcare providers by integrating Artificial Intelligence. We extend our best wishes to team Voiceoc.”

The lead investors, Mr. Jaideep Mehta, Mr. Vikas Kuthiala and Mr. Anupam Saronwal, further added, “Voiceoc is enabling efficient access to quality healthcare through front office transformation of healthcare providers leveraging messaging, Machine Learning and AI technologies. With a great team in place, the company is poised to become an important player in the healthtech space in the future. This investment builds on the IAN and Bio-Angels’ legacy of supporting entrepreneurs who are building great companies using cutting-edge technologies.”

Mr. Kush Aggarwal, Co-Founder, Voiceoc, said, “At Voiceoc, our mission is to provide solutions for the major challenges healthcare providers face, ensuring patients have access to high-quality, quick and personalized support. Simultaneously, we wish to end patients’ dependency on inconvenient channels for booking appointments, accessing reports and availing consultation services. We are currently in a prime growth phase and are keen to not only onboard new talent but also associate with digital marketing agencies and expand our footprints in the UAE market with the opening of our new office. Partnering with IAN and SucSEED Indovation in the current round is one of the best strategic decisions taken by us that will help us achieve our goal of scaling globally.”

The global conversational AI market was valued at $8.24 billion in 2022 and is projected to touch $32.51 billion by 2028, registering a 21.6% CAGR growth. India, in the APAC region, is one of the fastest-growing markets. Companies, especially in the healthcare sector, are gradually adopting chatbots to cater to the surging demand for AI-enabled customer support services. Voiceoc seeks to explore growth opportunities and envisions becoming the go-to destination for chatbot services in the healthcare domain.

About BioAngels

BioAngels is India’s first sector focused Angel Investor group and perhaps the world’s first angel group in partnership with a government body. It is a unique partnership between BIRAC, an enterprise of the Department of Biotechnology, and IAN, India’s single largest horizontal platform for seed / early-stage investing, focused on Biotech, Medtech, Healthtech, Pharma, Agritech, Cleantech startups. BioAngels brings the first external cheque from Industry leaders and domain experts with cheque sizes of up to INR 10 Cr.

Last December, Padmaja Ruparel, Founder of BioAngels, said in an interaction with an industry magazine, that BioAngels has plan to invest in 100 startups, with ticket sizes ranging from Rs 25 Lakh to Rs 10 Crore. 

BioAngels brings Money, Mentoring, and Global Market Access. It provides Angel Investors, Family Offices, Micro VCs, Corporates and Early-Stage VC Funds, an opportunity to invest in high quality fast growth companies for Alpha returns.

About Voiceoc

Voiceoc is a healthcare focused Conversational AI company that was started with an aim to strengthen engagement between healthcare companies and patients thereby helping healthcare companies, including hospitals, diagnostic labs & clinics, to increase appointment bookings, provide quick & personalized support to patients, increase conversion rate on campaigns and reduce calls in the customer care department.

Today, Voiceoc is handling more than 1 million patient conversations on a monthly basis and have been helping leading healthcare companies of India and Middle East achieve above mentioned objectives.

The above mentioned objectives are achieved by leveraging ‘Voiceoc conversational AI system’ that is deployed over multiple messaging platforms, such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger etc., and call center system.

We are now looking to invest significantly in building our team and are looking to hire talent across multiple domains including Client Success and Inside Sales.

BioAngels Plan to Invest in 100 Startups, with Ticket Size of ₹ 25 L to ₹ 10 Cr

BioAngels, which is India’s first sector-focused angel investor group to fuel the growth of startups from sectors such as Biotech, Medtech, Healthtech, Pharma and Cleantech, has set up a plan to invest in 100 startups, with ticket sizes ranging from Rs 25 Lakh to Rs 10 Crore, said Padmaja Ruparel, Founder of BioAngels in an interaction with BioSpectrum India, a magazine for Healthcare & Biopharma industry.

Padmaja Ruparel is also the Co-founder of Indian Angel Network (IAN), and the Indian Angel Network came into partnership with BIRAC, Department of Biotechnology, to launch BioAngels Network (BiAN) at the Global Bio India 2019.

BioAngels is focussed on seed to early-stage investments in healthcare, biotech, pharma, medtech, cleantech and agritech sectors.

 

Padmaja Ruparel

Speaking about the plans, Padmaja further said to the website, "BioAngels aims to create a pool of domain experts who will provide their technical expertise to entrepreneurs and investors."

Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), the not-for-profit Public Sector Enterprise of Department of Biotechnology, Govt of India, is providing BioAngels an access to high-quality technology expertise embedded in the Department of Biotechnology ecosystem. This is extremely critical because it is key for investors to understand the technology and its functionality, before taking an investment decision.

Answering a question about specific areas that BioAngels would be focusing on, while working with startups, Padmaja said,"We would be looking at all preventive and curative health issues that can be solved innovatively."

Speaking on reports of cash-crunch startups shutting down their operations and how BioAngels' investment will help in such scenario, Padmaja said , "once both the science and the commercial aspects, legal (IP) are vetted, and investors find trust in the entrepreneurs to lead the journey."

According to Padmaja, biotech/healthcare sector will grow exponentially (13.25%).

Notably, India’s healthcare ecosystem is among the fastest growing sectors having benefited from government policies and liberalized FDI regime in various sub-sectors like hospitals, medical devices, health insurance, etc.

The size of BioTech market alone was valued at around USD 497 billion in 2020 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of over 9.4% between 2021 and 2027.