Genetic profiler MapMyGenome raises $1.1M from Google India MD, other angels

MapMyGenome, a Hyderabad-based startup that screens your DNA for disease markers, has raised US$1.1 million in a pre-series A round of funding from Google India MD Rajan Anandan and other angel investors. The others include CMS Computers MD Aarti Grover, Hive Technologies MD Arihant Patni, and Singapore Angel Network CEO Satveer Singh Thakral.

MapMyGenome is scaling up in the increasingly popular personal genomics space, which has global players like the US-based 23andMe, as well as Indian competitors like Xcode.

A user gives a DNA swab from saliva or blood while signing up on MapMyGenome for a Genomepatri (which translates to ‘genome-sheet’). This contains markers for various diseases as well as drug responses. An individual’s Genomepatri is periodically updated with new data.

The MapMyGenome site points out that it only makes predictions based on DNA, and that there are many lifestyle and other factors that lead to disease. Scientists critical of the personal genomics boom say that it feeds a morbid curiosity more than anything else and can lead people into unnecessary medical testing. In the US, the FDA warned 23andMe not to market personal genome testing kits without its approval.

MapMyGenome claims, however, that its “inferences are robust and closely relate to your current medical condition. This will be further refined when we gather more data that may reveal newer markers.”

MapMyGenome CEO and founder Anu Acharya is an IIT Kharagpur alumnus with post-graduate degrees in physics and MIS (management information systems) from the University of Illinios. She is a governing board member of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), a premier government-supported institution in India.