An SXSW winner is building a 911 service app for India, promising help in under 10 mins

Photo credit: Anthony Kelly.

Picture this: on a typical weekday night, a young teenager texts her friends from her bedroom when she hears a loud crash inside her house. Hesitantly, she calls out, but no one answers, so she investigates – and finds her dad passed out on the floor.

What does she do? Maybe she calls for help on her phone, shouting to other members of the house to come help. “Call an ambulance!” Depending on where she lives, though, a phone number for a reliable emergency response team might not exist, especially if she lives in a developing country, which does not have a 911 type helpline.

That’s where Indian app MUrgency steps in. Pronounced em-urgency, the app can be used to alert a nearby trained first responder – a doctor, nurse, paramedic, or emergency medical technician – who can arrive with equipment and help figure out what’s happened and how best to proceed.

If necessary, the first responder can advise the caller on what to do until he or she arrives, stabilize her family member, help transport the patient to the hospital, and use the app to alert family and friends as to what has happened. The average wait time for a first responder is 9.20 minutes, the founders say, including the time it takes to call and make sure that the emergency is genuine.

The idea for MUrgency surfaced over a decade ago as an idea for an ambulance service. 12 years back, MUrgency co-founder Shaffi Mather’s mother woke up unable to breathe and had to be rushed to the hospital. Thankfully, she survived, but it left Shaffi with a question – why are there no emergency services in India like the 911 system he’d seen in the US and in the movies?

MUrgency can also help with situations less dire, such as ambulance transfers, or booking home health services from a nurse or physical therapist.

Much like Practo, patients can book appointments with physicians over the app. Users can set up alerts to find out when a family member needs help and locate nearby places of assistance like hospitals, police stations, and gas stations. They can also chat with doctors for medical advice, like apps including JustDoc and Healthenablr.

Based in San Francisco with offices in Dubai and Mumbai, MUrgency is currently available for Android and iOS for users in India’s northern Punjab state.

It’s won Startup Grind’s Golden Gavel Award, Startup of the Year 2016, as well as the SXSW Accelerator contest in health and wearable technologies, among others. It recently raised funding from Axilor Ventures, an early stage entrepreneur fund.

UPDATE: On May 17, Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount in MUrgency.

Ambulance origins

Shaffi Mather, co-founder of MUrgency

“In India, people are not culturally inclined to call an ambulance in an emergency,” Shaffi tells Tech in Asia. “They would take a taxi, wake up their neighbors, or call their relatives.”