Venture Catalysts Invests Pre-Series A Funding in Medical Devices Technology Company, iNICU

Taking its promise of supporting the growth of high-impact and high-potential Indian ventures further, the country’s first and largest integrated incubator, Venture Catalysts, has announced an investment in medical devices technology company, iNICU (integrated Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit). The key investors on the VCats’ panel who have participated in the funding round for iNICU include Vishal Jhunjhunwala¸ Vikas Khandelwal, Dipan Dalal and Vikas Kapoor amongst others.
iNICU is an integrated solution (hardware + software platform) which automatically captures real-time clinical data from connected devices, laboratory results, and bedside clinical observations. Further, it analyses this rich data in medically comprehensive and user-definable formats to provide rapid, real-time clinical decision support to the medical practitioners treating pre-term infants. The iNICU data is extended into the integrated Child Health Record (ICHR Cloud) application to record and monitor the immunisation schedule, health, growth, and comprehensive developmental profile of the child from birth to the age of 20 years.
The platform caters to all the stakeholders related to neo-natal care including Nurses, Resident Doctors, Senior Doctors, Paediatricians and Administrators. The solution brings live data monitoring from anytime and anywhere, and also offers auto discharge summary and prediction of onset of infections and other perinatal health problems. Post discharge, all the information of the child gets transferred and maintained in the iCHR Cloud which further automates growth monitoring, prescription & laboratory investigations, vaccination record & schedules for the child.
iNICU had a highly rewarding growth trajectory so far. Besides tie-ups with leading Hospitals such as Kalawati Hospital, Apollo Cradle, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and Fortis Hospital, they have also received intent for 200 more beds across India
The adaptability of the iNICU solution allows it to be implemented across hospitals and clinics with minimal infrastructure investment. The existing investors in iNICU include B.V.R Mohan Reddy (Padma Shri Awardee 2017; Chairman of Cyient Group) and Samir Shah (Sattva Investment Advisors).
The co-founder and CTO, Harpreet Singh, has 17 years of rich industry experience in markets across USA, Europe and India. His past experience includes management and engineering roles at Intuit, BT Exact, Philips Medical, HCL and McKinsey. Harpreet’s last entrepreneurial venture, Net Scope, was sold to EGI (Subsidiary of Philips), after which he  worked with Sun Pharma in building iADSS a big data platform to identify drug candidates faster. Dr. Gautam Yadav, the co-founder and Neo-natalogist, at iNICU is a renowned specialist in neonatal intensive care and hospital management.
Speaking on the investment, Dr Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder and President of Venture Catalysts said, “We see a huge potential and a ripe market opportunity for the kind of work that iNICU is doing in the field of neo-natal care, in India as well as in international markets. Infant mortality is a global problem and is exceptionally high in India. Preterm babies are highly susceptible to infection and their vital physiological functions need to be closely monitored. The data thus generated is difficult to maintain, error-prone and isn’t very easily interpretable for healthcare practitioners. The iNICU solution integrates medical devices, allows remote monitoring and optimizes various manual interventions. Its overarching goal is to virtually eliminate human error in neonatal health monitoring and it is doing so with great success through the help of technology.”
He further added, “We are pleased to associate with this venture that is not just poised for exceptional business growth but is also going to make a huge social impact with the solution that it has created.”
iNICU spokesperson Dr. Harpreet Singh said, “With the current investment round, we will be entering into international healthcare market to address the global need with our iNICU solution.”
Venture Catalysts invests $250K – $1 million in early stage startups that has potential to create enduring value for over a long period of time. Its recent investments include in startups like crowdfunding platform ImpactGuru, Kolkata-based Ideal Insurance Brokers, and lingerie brand InnerSense.