Healthcare Startup EKincare Raises $1.5 Mn Funding From Ventureast, Others

Hyderabad-based healthcare startup eKincare has secured $1.5 Mn in Series A funding from a clutch of investors, including Ventureast, Endiya Partners, Eight Roads, Touchstone Equities and former NASSCOM Chairman B.V.R. Mohan Reddy.

eKincare’s AI-driven personal health assistant reads medical data from health records, predicts health risks and provides timely personalised recommendations to overcome those risks.

As stated by eKincare founder and CEO Kiran Kalakuntla, the fresh funding from Ventureast, Endiya Partners, Eight Roads and others will be utilised to grow and expand the startup’s core technology platform as well as its sales team. A portion of the financing will also go into onboarding more doctors.

Commenting on the development, Srikanth Sundararajan, General Partner, Ventureast said, “We constantly invest in disruptive startups that aim at addressing a larger market or consumer related challenges. eKincare is leading the predictive digitisation of healthcare that can help us take control of health outcomes while minimising recurring costs. We are confident that the team will cement strategic partnerships, and continue to lead the ‘predictive diagnosis’ space through technology innovations.”

Founded in 1997, Ventureast is a VC firm that manages close to $400+ Mn fund with a diverse portfolio of more than 100 investments in technology, healthcare, life sciences and clean environment. Its investments include startups such as Gland Pharma, Moschip, Sresta’s 24 Mantra, Little Eye Labs, Atyati, Loylty Rewardz, and DiabetOmics.

On the latest Series A funding round in eKincare, Ramesh Byrapaneni, Managing Director of Endiya Partners stated, “We have always been a strong advocate for technologies that will help build a better tomorrow. As the healthcare sector continues to evolve, we believe, eKincare is on the right path to addressing the current challenges in the sector through technology and innovations.”

Established in 2015, Endiya Partners is an early-stage investment firm that backs businesses in technology, consumer and healthcare sectors. Within these segments, the VC firm focusses on Software as a Service (SaaS), mobile, security, IoT, fintech, digital health and medical devices, among others.

Its portfolio companies include bot mitigation and management startup ShieldSquare, fintech platform Kissht and healthtech firm Celes Care, to name a few.

About eKincare: Journey From Inception To Present

Founded in 2014 by Duke University graduate Kiran Kalakuntla, eKincare is an online platform that enables users to monitor their critical medical information and all health records by keeping them on the cloud. This enables the users to access the dashboard from anywhere and anytime by using a PC or a mobile device.

As per the official statement, the company has developed a product that aims to disrupt the way “employee health spends” are perceived in enterprises across the country. By offering technology, data science and curated services, the startup currently assists organisations to save on healthcare costs.

The company is also working to add value to insurance through quicker and efficient decision making, data-driven underwriting of risk, reduced costs, minimised fraud and errors through automation.

Speaking about eKincare’s offerings, Kiran said, “We are committed to providing effective and intelligent solution to healthcare system in India and contribute in developing a healthy ecosystem overal. We have seen a lot of interest from corporates to leverage our platform for their employees, keep track of the overall organisation’s wellness metrics and maximise the ROI out of their wellness budgets.”

eKincare claims to have strategic partners in more than 2,000 locations across India. Among its clients are Optum, Unilever, Barclays and Disney.

Prior to the latest funding round, the healthcare startup had raised $329K (INR 2.2 Cr) in Pre-Series A round from Bitkemy Ventures, Maheshwari Investment. Pvt. Ltd, and other HNIs including Anshoo Gaur, Ramakrishna Reddy and Sandeep Seerapu.

Earlier in 2015, it secured $314.5K (INR 2 Cr) in Seed funding from Bitkemy Ventures and Adroitent Pvt. Ltd.

In July 2016, eKincare became one of the six Indian startups selected by Swiss Re for the first batch of its global accelerator programme. As part of the programme, the healthcare startup received a no-obligation grant of $15,000 to further develop its product.

eKincare Cashing In On India’s $100 Bn Healthcare Opportunity

According to an IBEF report, the overall Indian healthcare market is estimated at $100 Bn. It is expected to touch $280 Bn by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 22.9%. As per Inc42 Data Labs, healthtech startups in India cumulatively raised about $338 Mn across 107 deals till November 2017.

Some of the biggest fundings in this space were received by online pharmacy startups such as Netmeds, which secured $14 Mn funding in a round led by Cambodian investment holding company Tanncam and Sistema Asia Fund in October 2017.

According to the latest edition of the NASSCOM-Zinnov report, healthtech is currently one of the most promising sectors in the Indian startup ecosystem along with fintech and ecommerce/aggregators. Witnessing a 28% YoY growth in 2017, the number of healthtech startups grew to an estimated total base of 320.

By leveraging technology and data, eKincare is striving to make healthcare decisions more personalised, predictive and preventive. Armed with the latest Series A funding from Ventureast, Endiya Partners, Eight Roads and others, how the startup fares amidst competition remains to be seen.