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.

T-Hub Partners with SucSEED Indovation to Accelerate Investment Opportunities for DeepTech Startups in India

The partnership aims to provide innovation and venture investment opportunities to DeepTech startups in India with access to capital, mentorship, and guidance.

T-Hub startups will get an opportunity to be part of SucSEED’s portfolio to increase networking opportunities with venture capitalists (VCs) and family offices.

T-Hub, which leads India’s innovation ecosystem, today announced its partnership with SucSEED Indovation, the SEBI-registered Alternative Investment Fund (AIF-1) Venture Capital Angel Fund. Through this collaboration, T-Hub and SucSEED Indovation intend to encourage innovation, increase funding, and assess investment options for DeepTech startups in India. Both organisations formalised their alliance by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

Utilising their combined knowledge of the startup ecosystem, T-Hub and SucSEED will work together to mentor, promote, incubate, and aid in DeepTech startups’ growth by holding masterclasses and other workshops for knowledge exchange. This will make it possible for T-Hub startups to receive mentoring in venture capital investment, Transaction Management and Risk Management. SucSEED Indovation will also have a presence in T-Hub’s new facility, the world’s largest innovation campus, as part of its one-year engagement, creating significant synergies between SucSEED Indovation and T-Hub stakeholders.

(L-R) Vikrant Varshney & MSR

MSR (Mahankali Srinivas Rao), CEO of T-Hub, said, “The Indian deep-tech ecosystem has matured significantly in recent years. Through innovation, these startups have transformed various industries from manufacturing to healthcare. However, to keep up the momentum, these startups require funds and strong mentorship, and together with SucSEED, we will unlock scaling opportunities for them. T-Hub, through these partnerships, envisions making the connection and fundraising easy for startups and investors.”

Vikrant Varshney, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of SucSEED Indovation Fund, said, “SucSEED has been quoted in Top20 Most Active Investors for Indian Startups In H1 2022 across VC & PE Landscape. We are very active to support & fund early-stage Deeptech startups, and most of them get discovered through our partnerships with Tech incubators across India. SucSEED has been committed to collaborating with strong partners like T-Hub, who provide an ecosystem for startups and help passionate entrepreneurs build innovative solutions. We’ve worked regularly with the Telangana ecosystem and T-Hub in the last 5+ years, and we are happy to formalise our engagement through this MOU and scale our efforts further by investing in emerging startups that have the potential to become legendary enterprises of tomorrow.”

Depending on company performance, T-Hub startups will stand a chance to raise funds from the SucSEED Indovation Fund and join its illustrious portfolio list. In addition, these portfolio startups will be given access to scale with the help of credible VCs and family offices, increasing their investment opportunities.

T-Hub’s programs have successfully scaled startups in partnership with a robust ecosystem of partners. T-Hub has impacted more than 2000 companies to date through a variety of programmes and initiatives. In addition, it has over 600 international and domestic business partners and 2000 mentor connections to support the scaling of startups. T-Hub will continue to drive collaboration between startups and leading innovation ecosystems worldwide.

T-Hub (Technology Hub) is an innovation hub and ecosystem enabler. Based out of Hyderabad, India, T-Hub leads India’s pioneering innovation ecosystem and is the world’s largest innovation campus. Over the six years, T-Hub has pivoted around the 6Ms (Mentorship, Money, Market Access, Motivation, Mindset, Manpower) and 2Ps (Partnerships & Policy advisory) framework with a mission of driving results and collaboration for entrepreneurs’ success. It has delivered 100+ innovation programs so far, creating an impact for startups, corporations, and other innovation ecosystem stakeholders. Since inception, it has provided over 2000 national and international startups with access to better technology, talent, mentors, customers, corporates, investors, and government agencies.

For more information about T-Hub, visit www.t-hub.co.

Ex-Cisco Execs Founded Video Conference Platform Ving Raises Funds from SucSEED Indovation

Co-founders - Aditya & Amitabh

SucSEED backs Ving Hybrid, a Digital Economy & Emerging Tech platform

Ving Hybrid Technologies India Pvt Ltd, has raised Funds from Hyderabad headquartered SucSEED Indovation Fund.

Ving Hybrid had set out to solve an industry problem which had always existed for the users of Video Conferencing Room users. Adoption of Video technology has grown multi fold during the pandemic there by expanding the market and use cases in an exponential manner. Segments who were non users / slow adopters like Education and Govt have also got added to the market thereby increasing the prospects of success.

With the Vision of “Simplifying Collaboration”, Ving Hybrid aims to democratize the Video Conference Rooms by offering a “One Stop VC Room Solution”. Ving provides a seamless and a magical user experience across any VC room using any VC camera hardware and for meetings on any platform viz. GoogleMeet, Zoom, Webex and MS Teams.

Unlike other Video conferencing companies, Ving Hybrid allows users to enhance experience with its proprietary scan QR code to join workflow, making it extremely simple for users to join any meeting from any room using any VC camera. Major competitors in this segment allow controlling of devices through desktops/ laptops and need an HDMI cable for screen sharing etc. But Ving Hybrid solution allows users to control the room device and the meeting from their laptops or even from mobile phones also with an in-built wireless screen sharing system without any hardware cables.

Founded by two ex-Cisco Executives, Ving Hybrid Technologies has its presence in Singapore and India.

Aditya Pisupati, CoFounder & CEO of Ving Hybrid Technologies said,“ Our aim is to provide the best in class Hybrid collaboration experience by converging multiple conferencing and VC hardware workflows into one application. We enable users to join into any meeting, in any Ving enabled VC room through our proprietary ‘Scan to Join’ feature while making it really simple for IT teams to centrally manage their infrastructure.”

Amitabh Patney, Cofounder & CBO of Ving Hybrid Technologies said,"Built out of India, we plan to take the solution global, across Enterprises, SMBs and Coworking Spaces where the demand for easy to use VC rooms is growing exponentially”.

They further added that “The pre-seed investment from SucSEED Indovation Fund will help us fast-track the build of a scalable, secure next generation collaboration platform for the emerging Hybrid work scenarios.”

Speaking on why they have invested Vikrant Varshney Co-Founder & Managing Partner of SucSEED Indovation Fund, said, “According to Mordor Intelligence Report, The global video conferencing market was valued at $9.2 Bn in 2021 and expected to become $22.5 Bn by 2026 with 20% CAGR. There are a total 9 Mn VC rooms in 2020 and with the boom in the hybrid work model, it will lead to 30 Mn video conferencing rooms by 2026 at a CAGR of 38%. With COVID-19, the entire workforce has experienced a transition toward remote working, paving a way for video conferencing solutions and hardware products.

Ving is set out to disrupt the market opportunity of hybrid work environments through its deep tech business expertise and is targeting to onboard 200,000 rooms on the platform in the next 5 years.”

Market Potential

Covid has paved the way for organizations to adopt Hybrid work- allowing employees to either work from home, their offices and co-working spaces close to them. This has increased the need for VC rooms that can seamlessly connect into meetings scheduled across platforms. Ving solution enables this seamless interoperability and manageability of collaboration across a mix of devices and meeting platforms.

As per Frost & Sullivan, The VC Devices market is slated to grow 6 times by 2025 to sales of 12.5Mn devices/ year. (Frost & Sullivan)

https://www.frost.com/news/press-releases/video-conferencing-devices-to-grow-six-times-by-2025-finds frost-sullivan/

About SucSEED Indovation Fund - SucSEED Indovation Fund (SIF) is an AIF Cat-1 Venture Capital Angel Fund with ₹100 crore corpus and has grown out of SucSEED Angel Network (SAN) and IIITH Tech Ventures, an early-stage tech seed initiative with IIIT Hyderabad Foundation. General Partners of the Indovation Fund have 100+ years of cumulative experience within technology, fund management, and start-up ecosystem and have already invested in 60+ startups. SIF attempts to support Indian Innovation for mass needs in the following Six (6) sectors - EdTech, FinTech, Health-tech, Security & RegTech, Enterprise & MSME SaAS and Digital Economy & Emerging Tech.