3 rising startups in India – Mar 31

Photo credit: Pixabay.

Score three for India’s healthtech and research startups! The home health and mental healthcare areas both scored their second fundings this month, while a stem cell research firm becomes the 11th funded startup from the Indian Angel Network this year. Get healthy by reading about the startups that received funding in India today and yesterday.

Portea

Dr. Meena Ganesh, Portea’s CEO, and, Ashish Bhutada, co-founder, CEO, and managing director of Heath Mantra

It seems that funding in India makes house calls, with home healthcare services startup Portea acquiring home medical equipment provider Health Mantra India for an undisclosed amount of cash and stock.

Founded in 2009 by Ashish Bhutada and Anoop Kodoli, Health Mantra’s founding team and employees will join Portea, which is operated by Health Vista India, as part of the plan. Health Mantra is based in Bangalore. It’s health equipment includes apparatuses for sleep apnea, respiratory disorders, and other respiratory hospital equipment.

The company evolved from a sales-only model, allowing the equipment to be rented, it said in a statement. Its team includes biomedical engineers and physiotherapists. Its service network extends across Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Maharashtra.

Founded by medical doctor Meena Ganesh and entrepreneur Ganesh Krishnan in July 2013, Bangalore-based Portea will use the acquisition to expand into larger home healthcare areas like sleep medicine, respiratory care, geriatric care, and orthopedics.

“Medical equipment is often an integral element of effective home healthcare, especially in areas such as diabetes, oncology, orthopedics, geriatric care, sleep and respiratory disorders,” Meena said in a statement.

Portea acquired specialty pharmaceutical distributor MedybizPharma in November 2015 and picked up a majority stake in healthtech startup PSTakeCare in January this year. It received US$37.5 million in series B funding from Accel, IFC, Qualcomm Ventures, and Ventureast in September 2015.

Just two weeks ago, Pramati Care raised US$200,000 in pre-series A funding to provide home healthcare providers in the Delhi NCR.

See: He walked away from a job at Cisco to create a portal for India’s senior citizens

Transcell Biologics

Hyderabad-based stem cell research firm Transcell Biologics has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from the Indian Angel Network.

Sanjay Jesrani led the round, and he will join Transcell’s board.
Founded in 2009 by Subhadra Dravida, Transcell will put the funds toward developing stem cell-based platforms in areas both therapeutic and non-therapeutic.

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