Ayurveda-backed Women's Healthcare Startup Gynoveda Raises $10 Mn in Series A Funding Led by India Alternatives Fund

Ayurveda-enabled curative solutions from puberty to menopause for 1 Million women of India

Round also saw participation from Wipro Enterprises, RPG Ventures, Dharampal Satyapal Ltd, and Alteria Capital amongst others. Existing investor Fireside Ventures, who had earlier invested $1 million as seed capital in Oct 2019, also participated in this round.

Gynoveda, an Ayurveda-backed women’s healthcare startup, has raised $10M in Series A funding led by India Alternatives Fund. The round also saw participation from reputed family offices and institutions including Wipro Enterprises, RPG Ventures, Dharampal Satyapal Ltd, and Alteria Capital. Existing investor Fireside Ventures, India’s leading early-stage venture capital fund, which had earlier invested $1 million as seed capital in Oct 2019, also participated in this round showcasing its continued belief in Gynoveda’s vision.

Gynoveda, founded in 2019 by the husband-wife duo - Rachana & Vishal Gupta and Dr. Aarati Patil aims to democratise Ayurveda-enabled, curative self-care solutions for gynaecological and lifestyle-related disorders women face from puberty to menopause.

With the help of this funding, the company aims to raise awareness about the importance of menstrual health on a grassroot level, making Ayurveda the first choice for women’s healthcare. Hence, the funds will be deployed to double down on strengthening R&D, formulating new ayurvedic offerings, onboarding talent, expanding distribution channels and increasing brand awareness. Currently, empowering women via D2C channels like the website, and e-commerce marketplaces, Gynoveda plans to step into the offline domain in the near future to reach women across the breadth and depth of India.

In a statement, the company Founder & CEO, Vishal Gupta, said that “Gynoveda has so far improved the health of 3 lakh women residing in 20,000 pincodes of India. This led to the company tripling its revenue year-on-year between FY20 and FY23 to reach ₹100 crores annual revenue run rate within 3 years of its inception. Gynoveda is on a mission to change the lives of 1 million women, which is still a fraction of the billion women worldwide that need this unique ayurvedic solution."

Shivani Bhasin Sachdeva, Founder, Managing Director, and CEO of the India Alternatives Private Equity Fund, said, “This investment fits perfectly with our investment themes of Women & Health. Today, over 40% of online shoppers are women, up from 10% a few years ago. Women’s health globally is an underserved market. We are proud to back a company that uses an age-old science like Ayurveda in a new format to provide solutions for this large addressable market."

Vinay Singh, Partner, Fireside Ventures, said, “Gynoveda’s disruptive vision combined with research-backed solutions is enabling it to bring tangible change in the lives of women. We are very impressed with how Vishal, Rachana & Dr. Aarati are building a robust healthcare stack for menstrual & reproductive health. We are glad to be a partner in their journey to completely transform women's healthcare ecosystem, ground up”

The Offering and Success

Gynoveda aims to revolutionise the $9.6 billion global women's healthcare industry by being the first player to introduce Ayurveda as a solution to solve complex gynaecological disorders. Gynoveda’s ayurvedic proprietary medicines certified by FDA & NABL, help treat the root cause of more than 20+ period disorders including PCOS, Infertility, irregular periods, vaginal health and much more. Where modern medicines offer only temporary relief, Ayurveda promises safe solutions to experience hassle-free periods lifelong.

The company has tripled its gross revenue year-on-year between FY20 and FY23 to reach INR 100 crores annual revenue run rate within 3 years of its inception. The google rating of 4.8 further reflects the growing customer love and trust by over 3 lakh women spread across 20,000 pincodes in India.

Past Funding & Team

In their Seed round, Gynoveda had raised a $1 million amount led by Fireside Ventures. In 2022, Bollywood actor Tapsee Pannu joined the brand’s mission as a brand ambassador.

Founded by Vishal & Rachana Gupta in 2019, who were later joined by Dr. Aarati Patil {M.D Obstetrics & Gynecology (Ayu)} the brand aims to transform the way gynaecological disorders are treated. Currently a team of 50+ members strong, it combines ayurveda, technology, content, and community for women’s healthcare.

About Gynoveda

Gynoveda is the World’s first Ayurveda FemTech brand. It combines Ayurveda, Technology, Content & Community for women's healthcare, primarily for menstrual & reproductive health.

Husband-wife duo Rachana & Vishal Gupta as founders of Gynoveda are on a mission to make Ayurveda as world’s first choice for women’s health from puberty to menopause. Gynoveda’s ayurvedic proprietary medicines with FDA approval have helped over 3 lakh women treat the root cause of disorders related to PCOS, irregular periods, infertility, vaginal health & overall welnness. The company has delivered over 4 lakh orders across 20,000 pincodes in more than 50 major cities.

The company raised $1 million in November 2019 from early-stage investment firm, Fireside Ventures. Since then its e-commerce platform Gynoveda.com is growing rapidly at 25% month-on-month and it's on track to cross ₹100 crores ARR in the current financial year.

Gynoveda founders along with a team of doctors & scientists invented the world’s first Period Test, a gynaecology bot that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to enable women self-diagnose her reproductive health by answering a few questions on her mobile in just 2 minutes and getting results instantly.

Healthcare AI Firm Qritive Raises $7.5M to Expand into New Markets

 Qritive, a leading healthcare AI startup based in Singapore, USA, and India

Funding from MassMutual Ventures, SEEDS Capital, Exfinity Venture Partners

Qritive, a leading healthcare AI startup has announced that they have raised $7.5M in a funding round led by MassMutual Ventures, supported by SEEDS Capital and Exfinty Venture Partners. Qritive will use this new capital to drive geographical expansion, expand its product portfolio and support regulatory clearances.

Founded in 2017 by Dr Aneesh Sathe and Dr Kaveh Taghipour, Qritive today has a presence in Singapore, USA, and India. Using artificial intelligence, Qritive solutions provide fast and accurate interpretations of pathology whole slide image scans within seconds, reducing time to treatment, and increasing accuracy for cancer care.

In an environment where 70% of the pathologists are concentrated in just 10 countries, leaving 47% of the world population without basic access to diagnostics, the transition to digital pathology is becoming increasingly critical in the agenda of healthcare systems. In this context, Qritive brings clinical-grade AI-powered solutions to enable histopathology diagnosis of cancer at scale. These clinical-decision support tools help improve efficiency and quality in diagnosis, which will ultimately result in better patient outcomes.

As Aneesh Sathe, CEO of Qritive, put it: “Complexity of diagnostics has increased considerably and having tools that increase accuracy and throughput really fast has become instrumental for clinicians worldwide.”

Qritive’s solutions are CE certified and also approved by Singapore Health Sciences Authority (HSA) for clinical use. Qritive’s technology helps accelerate cancer diagnosis across multiple cancer types including colon, prostate, lymph node, and breast and includes a robust set of tools for immunohistochemistry.

Qritive’s Pantheon digital pathology platform is a one-of-a-kind platform that brings together tools for case management, reporting, slide viewing and analysis, telepathology, synoptic reporting, and LIS integration. Qritive aims to create an open-pathology environment and Pantheon is agnostic to microscopes and IT enabling easy integration of 3rd party AI solutions.

"The prevalence of cancer is rising globally, and by 2030, Asia will account for nearly half of all cancer cases worldwide. Speed and accuracy are of utmost importance, especially in the backdrop of a severe pathologist shortage. The clinical-grade AI-powered technology from Qritive transforms diagnosis to NextGen by being disruptive, accurate, removing the existing bottlenecks, and supporting pathologists at every stage.", Chinnu Senthilkumar, Managing Partner at Exfinity Venture Partners.

“Qritive's platform digitizes and streamlines the pathology workflow from end-to-end, supporting clinicians with a wide range of tools – including image analysis, case management, and reporting modules. With an international network of pathologists, Qritive is uniquely positioned to accelerate the adoption of digital pathology across the globe. We look forward to supporting Qritive’s growth and the meaningful work that it is doing to improve patient outcomes.” – Ryan Collins, Managing Director at MassMutual Ventures.”

About Qritive

Headquartered in Singapore, with U.S. operations in San Diego and India operations in Pune, Qritive is a breakthrough Artificial Intelligence (AI) solution developer that is advancing digital pathology for cancer diagnosis, enhancing imaging accuracy and improving health outcomes with the assistance of AI-based solutions. Qritive expands on deep learning technology to provide automated interpretation of pathology tests for time and resource-strapped medical imaging professionals-enabling faster diagnosis and speed to treatment. Qritive is helping make cancer diagnosis fast, accurate, and affordable.
www.qritive.com.

About MMV

MassMutual Ventures (MMV) is a multistage global venture capital firm with teams based in Boston, Singapore, and London, managing over $1 billion in investment capital. We help accelerate the growth of the companies we partner with by providing capital, connections and advice. With our deep expertise and extensive Fortune 500 network, MMV helps entrepreneurs build compelling and scalable companies of value. For more information, visit www.massmutualventures.com.

About Exfinity Venture Partners-

Exfinity is a B2B-focused early-stage technology fund based in Bengaluru, India. The fund has a unique practitioner-driven approach drawing on the industry experience of its partners in the technology sector. It also specialises in cross-border investments. Exfinity invests predominantly in Deeptech, Enterprise, Saas, Fintech and Healthtech. Some of its earlier investments include Pixis, Log9, Kinara, Moengage and Ati Motors.

https://exfinityventures.com/

Soothe Healthcare Raises ₹175 Cr from US DFC and Existing Investors

(L-R) - DFC CEO, Scott Nathan and Soothe Healthcare CEO & Founder, Sahil Dharia signing the letter of agreement

Funds to be used for marketing, deepening distribution channels & working capital

Soothe Healthcare, India’s fastest growing personal hygiene company and makers of Paree Sanitary Pads, today announced a fresh round of funding of ₹ 120 crores from its existing investors and another ₹ 55 crores from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). The existing partners include A91, Symphony, Sixth Sense, and GII.

The brand will utilize the raised capital to further grow its distribution channels and deepen its reach to women across tier II & III markets. The funds will also be used to amplify marketing outreach and spread a wider social message on women's menstrual hygiene. This is in line with DFC’s Global Health and Prosperity Initiative and 2X Women’s Initiative, through which DFC seeks to empower women and help them achieve the economic tools to prioritise their health and hygiene needs.

The association between DFC and Soothe Healthcare was facilitated by Intellecap, the exclusive transaction advisor.

Commenting on the funding, Sahil Dharia, Founder & CEO, Soothe Healthcare, said, " Raising a meaningful amount from existing partners and US Govt. DFC validates our brand's commitment to prioritise menstrual hygiene access, product, people, and communities. Our endeavour is to provide women with high quality products at a great value. Our value proposition and social impact-driven business model has helped establish Paree Sanitary Pads as a trusted personal hygiene brand across India. This fresh inflow of funds will help us reach women across wider geographies.”

Abhay Panday, General Partner, A91 Partners commented, “We continue to be believers in the business opportunity in women’s hygiene and Soothe’s relentless focus on building a high-quality Indian brand in the space.”

Paree Sanitary Pads was launched in 2016 through offline FMCG distribution channels. The young brand has since then raised several rounds of investments from multiple companies. Further to the 230 Cr. funding raised by the brand last year, the brand had been breaking new grounds in terms of product innovations, expanding the business in the international markets, adding new product verticals, and doubling its manufacturing capabilities.

About Soothe Healthcare

Soothe Healthcare, a Spirit of Manufacturing Award-winning company, is engaged in manufacturing, distributing, and marketing personal hygiene products under its flagship brand Paree sanitary pads. It has now expanded into the baby diapers segment with the launch of its brand Super Cute's.

Soothe is a research-focused company with customer-centricity at its core is committed to product innovation that addresses the real needs of our consumers and makes a difference in their lives. The vision is to positively impact the health, hygiene, and wellness of the community that we are a part of.

About DFC

U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) partners with the private sector to finance solutions to the most critical challenges facing the developing world today. It invests across sectors including energy, healthcare, critical infrastructure, and technology. DFC also provides financing for small businesses and women entrepreneurs in order to create jobs in emerging markets. DFC investments adhere to high standards and respect the environment, human rights, and worker rights.

HobNob - Integrating Healthcare Ecosystem in Asia

MUMBAI, India , Jan. 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BIMA GARAGE is born to address the claims servicing issues in the Health Insurance sector by establishing the first-ever business model & an organization which is just into the servicing of claims & focuses on integration of healthcare ecosystem. It all started in December 2017 , when Sandesh Mishra and Devang Parmar first started working on the 'Idea'; they used to complete their daily routine at office and then meet at municipal garden(Ganjawala lane , Borivali west) to pen down idea on a paper (a 20-Rupees pad & a 2-Rupees pen ) on how to execute, make operating process, how to start, business structure, revenue stream, funding, human resource and all other vital information required to start.

HobNob Founding Team

Post ideation, they conducted survey on viability of business on ground to do the real check if the customer would like to pay for availing such services. They got their 3rd founding member Mr. Hemant, who started meeting and developing customers (Hospital owners & CEO's) . They met Dr. Shiv Narayan Kalia , in Surat at Tristar Hospital. He was so Impressed by the idea that he welcomed it as one of the must-have services at hospital to improve their customer experience & cash flow with reconciliation of payments and BANG! They got their first paying customer.

On 19th June 2018 , they started their own company and had decided to solve this pain area and make a difference in the life of their customers. It was very tough for all of them to leave well-paying jobs and venture into business, there were many months wherein they used their savings to survive & take personal loans to keep the business running.

They had setup 2 offices - one in Mumbai & one in Surat and had around 34 hospitals as their customers. They actively started looking for funding & were able to get it from one of their colleague and friend Jaya who loved their idea and intent, got associated with them as their first investor partner & also as Training Head and expanded their operations further to Pune , Surat, Ahmedabad & 50+ hospitals.

Within one year they also got rewarded with two awards: -

1. "Most promising health care startup" from times group.
2. "Best Health Care Startup" Global health care leadership Awards. 

They started expanding and growing, one of their colleagues Pradyuman intended to join the team with a minimal investment, he came on board with hands-on experience of Hospital networking for cashless empanelment.

Also, they participated for incubation program and got selected in top 20 startups at AIC – NMIMS, Mumbai . To know more: https://aic.nmims.edu/

Post this, they expanded to few more new cities & started getting approached by various fund houses and PE investors & got the first round of investment from PE and very reputed group of investors.

By then, they were present in 8 cities and 3 states with 87 employees.

Then, before they could celebrate their second anniversary on 19th June 2020 , came the havoc "COVID-19", suddenly the whole world turned around and things got bad to worse for every business. They were also affected, and business was on standstill and there were daily challenges faced on work front and employee retention, customers (Hospitals) were confused with frequent changes in guidelines on treatment protocols, cash flow crunch, low flow of patients. This was the time when they thought of a new product which can be a B2C and fast moving, they again got on ideation stage for this and spent sleepless nights juggling between their existing desk business retention, expansion and coming up with unique product direct for customer claim servicing and existing policy benefits with a larger and long-term idea of creating a community of Insurance & health fraternity + Customers. This is how most ambitious product "HobNob" was born. They launched the product on our second anniversary (19th June 2020 ) Within the first month of launch they got 1000 customers registered on our portal for claims services.

And in such tough and challenging time of COVID-19 their investor showed great trust in them by accepting their proposal for second round of funding for HobNob, so they were among the fortunate organizations' who got funding during this challenging period.

With the fresh funding, they have further expanded operations with right set of people, dedicated call center and efficient tech platform.

Today, with all odds of market, BIMA GARAGE is standing firm & strong on their commitment and vision of becoming the most trusted Insurance servicing company across ASIA.

They have their presence in 67 cities for "HobNob" customers and very soon you would see them PAN India. To know more: https://hobnob.bimagarage.com/

Values: - EASE – Enthusiastic, Accountable, Simple and Expert

Do watch their 1st TVC & Infographic which will be released soon. Keeping watching social media space for more details.

https://www.facebook.com/Bima-Garage-Ab-Asaan-Hai--2645212972186477/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bimagarage
https://www.instagram.com/bima.garage/
https://twitter.com/BimaGarage

Healthcare Startup of Ex UrbanClap, Mobikwik Head 'Pristyn Care' Raises $4 Mn from Sequoia India

Gurgaon-headquartered Healthcare startup Pristyn Care, that aims to disrupt surgical industry in India, has raised US$4 million (about Rs 27.7 crore) in Series A round of funding from Sequoia Capital India.

Founded in 2018, by Harsimarbir (Harsh) Singh, a former UrbanClap Business Head and Mobikwik Head Of Strategy (Fintech Products), along with two Gold Medallist doctors (former Medanta, Max, CK Birla Hospital), Pristyn Careis building an Asset Light Surgical Ecosystem by leveraging technology and a set of simple yet powerful processes and operations. The startup wish to build an platform which can organize the world of day care procedures using some of the most advanced tech developments in the field of healthcare.

Pristyn Care, which offers patients elective surgeries across proctology, urology, gynaecology and ENT, will use the funds to expand its footprint, invest in technology and strengthen its medical capabilities and team of professionals, a statement said.

"There is a significant need to improve day-care procedures in India. We believe there is a huge opportunity in the healthcare sector," Pristyn Care co-founder Harsimarbir Singh said.

Pristyn Care follows an asset light model, leveraging the medical infrastructure of existing partner hospitals and equipping them with medical equipment.

Currently operational in 20 clinics across Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, Prustyn plans to expand its clinic network to 50 by December 2019.

Last month, an another healthcare startup, CapBuild Clinical Skills, which too is based out of Gurgaon, had raised undisclosed funding from HealthStart India, an early stage investment micro VC and health sector accelerator. CapBuild offers state of the art hospital analytical skills.

Sequoia India, which is a India and Southeast Asia focussed VC fund from US-based Sequoia Capital, has made four investments last month and three were from India. Its recent investments since 1 May include Awfis Space Solution, Singapore-based Biofourmis, Healthkart and logistics startup blackbuck.

In April, Sequoia India participated in $17 million Series B funding round of Mad Street Den, the maker of Vue.ai, a platform for intelligent retail automation. At the same time, Mobile Premier League (MPL), a mobile eSports Platform raised US$35.5 Million in a funding round led by Sequoia India, Times Internet, and GoVentures.

Tendulkar, Gopichand and PV Sindhu Invest In Hyderabad-based Healthcare Startup

A Hyderabad-based healthcare startup has managed to capture the attention of three of India's most celebrated sports personalities. According to an article in VCC Circle, cricket's Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar and badminton's favourite coach Pullela Gopichand and India's numero uno badminton player PV Sindhu have all, in their individual capacity, invested their hard money in CallHealth, a technology-powered healthcare company that brings healthcare services to the doorstep of the customer.

According to documents filed with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the God of Cricket has invested a total of Rs 12 crore into the startup, while PV Sindhu and her coach have invested Rs 4 crore each. The documents also revealed that the healthcare services aggregator raised a total of Rs 40 crore ($6.2 million) in the funding round, which was led by Tendulkar.

In today’s fast-paced life, we often find it hard to go and physically see a doctor when we need to. Busy schedules, traffic snarls, appointment queues at clinics are just some of the roadblocks that stand between us and our doctor. CallHealth aims to knock down these roadblocks and ensure that nothing comes in between you and your health. Whether it's Doctor Consultations, Medicines Delivery, Diagnostic Tests, Nursing Care or even Physiotherapy, with the help of CalHealth’s dedicated team of specialists and trained medical health officers everything can now be done right at a patient's home. The startup has a strong presence in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi.

While Tendulkar and Gopichand have invested in the startup scene before, this is Sindhu's first venture into the big world of startup investment. In fact, Gopichand is an existing investor in CalHealth, while Tendulkar, on the other hand, made his first investment in a technology start-up called Smartron last year. Smartron is an Internet of Things company, which builds a host of internet connected devices for consumers and enterprises.

CallHealth was founded in 2013 by Sandhya Raju, daughter of Ramco Systems managing director and CEO PR Venketrama Raja. According to the filling with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Quark Enterprises Pvt. Ltd is the holding company of the four year old startup. It also has subsidiaries, namely CallHealth Online Services Pvt. Ltd and CallHealth Insurance Broking Services Pvt. Ltd.

Paytm Invests in Healthcare Startup QorQl

Paytm has announced today it has invested an undisclosed amount in QorQI, an online healthcare startup. QorQl plans to use AI and big data to improve Productivity & Care Quality of doctors and help patients manage their health and existing ailments better. Its Qcare solution offers doctors access to patient health and clinical data at the touch of a button.

Speaking on the announcement, Sudhanshu Gupta, Vice President - Paytm said, “There is a need in the country for quality care at affordable costs and the sector largely works on an acute shortage of information both on the consumer side and on the side of healthcare professionals. There is hence a need of Real time data collection and of improving the overall care process with advanced analytics and AI. We are impressed by QorQl’s vision and the team’s ability to solve complex use cases and are happy to be a part of their journey.”

Commenting on the occasion, Sanjay Singh, Founder and CEO, QorQl said, “QorQL is pursuing the vision to democratize healthcare access. Our connected health applications are leveraging AI and Big Data to collect, integrate and interpret data for all users. This not only helps us solve tough problems but also helps our users stay healthy. Paytm’s investment in QorQl is a huge endorsement of our Product Vision, Technology & Markets. We look forward to leveraging Paytm’s massive reach and bring to market our solutions quicker and at scale.”

Incorporated in 2015, QorQI has been praised by 100+ doctors offering services to over 60,000 consumers. The service is currently available in Delhi NCR, Aligarh and expanding to several Tier II markets across India.