Microbiome-based life sciences company, with a customer facing solution to improve gut health. ₹4CR pre-seed round. Founders: CEO Bipin was co-founder at Gaia Smart Cities (IOT devices for trains and airports); the Chief of Science and Technology has been a Senior Research Scientist at The Systems Biology Institute in Japan for 17 years; and the CEO of SBX Technologies (Japan) for a decade; Hiroaki Kitano, the Chief of Research and Collaboration, is the Head of the The Systems Biology Institute.

Preventive healthcare startup focused on wellness and longevity. The company provides personalised health services through in-house clinics, combining molecular diagnostics, high-resolution imaging and non-invasive testing. The first clinic opened in Bengaluru this March. It caters to two types of customers : those improving their overall health and performance; and those managing chronic or complex problems. "“We’re at a rare moment in time - where advances in molecular science, AI, and diagnostic precision now make it possible to understand the body like never before and take highly customised, timely actions to maximise your healthspan". $3.5M seed round led by Accel's Prashanth Prakash. Founders: CEO Rishi was the CEO of United Breweries for 3 years, was a VP at Avery Dennison (manufacturer of adhesive labels and other branding solutions for apparel retailers) for 9 years and was with Unilever for over 13 years. CTO Shiva has been the Chairman of Connect Ventures for 20 years, which "operates as a collaborative network of companies dedicated to advancing Health, Performance and Sustainability Initiatives".

Medical devices company. It's first product, NoWound, is a negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) device designed for controlled healing of complex wounds. NPWT is a treatment method that uses a device to create suction on a wound, promoting healing. ₹8.4CR pre-seed round towards expanding its product range and building distribution across hospitals, clinics and for home-care. Angels in the round: founders of Tata 1mg, NephroPlus, SafeExpress, Eye Q Hospital, Hexa Health, AstroTalk. Founders: The CEO comes from Tata 1mg, Pristyn Care and most recently, as CBO of Antara Senior Care; the COO is from Pristyn, Apollo Hospitals and E&Y.

Platform focused on personalized lifestyle coaching to improve cancer-care outcomes for patients in the US. Dedicated coaches provide personalized daily guidance for lifestyle modification - focusing on physical activity, nutrition and mind-body practices. $16M seed round. Founders: CEO Karan Bajaj was the Founder & CEO of WhiteHat Jr. (acquired by Byju's); Co-Founder Trupti Mukker also served as CEO of WhiteHat Jr. after Karan stepped down.

This is Policybazaar's healthcare venture, led by it's founder Yashish Dahiya. The company was incorporated on the 1st of January this year and aims to set up a 1,000 bed hospital network in Delhi NCR. The company will operate hospitals itself, with 4-5 locations (600-800 beds) to be set up over the next year. The idea is to integrate insurance and healthcare seamlessly - removing pre-authorizations, simplifying claims, reducing avoidable surgeries with preventative healthcare. This is a $218M seed round at a $243M valuation. It appears to be tranched. So far PB Fintech (Policybazaar's parent) has invested $62M for a 26% stake; General Catalyst has invested $50M for 20.57%; while Dahiya, co-founder Alok Bansal and other execs have invested ~$15M. PB Fintech itself made ₹1,292CR in Q3 FY25 with a ₹72CR profit. In a similar move coming from the opposite direction, Narayana Hrudalaya launched its insurance arm last year. Private hospital chains in India will add over 10K beds over the next three years - 3500 by Apollo, 3700 by Max, 2200 by Fortis and 1700 by Aster. Hospital chains are growing revenues 12-14% a year with ~22% operating margins, according to ICRA. 40M Indians buy health insurance annually - while premium's have been going up 15% a year, incomes haven't been keeping pace. As noted in the Financial Express, "a study by the Insurance Brokers Association of India (IBAI) study found that in FY23, insurers settled 86% of claims by count, but paid only 51% of the total claim value. While insurers blame over-treatment and inflated bills, hospitals argue that rising equipment costs are to blame."

Gut-health D2C brand, as the name suggests. It offers at-home testing kits (a saliva-based pH test for acidity) along with clinically validated Ayurveda-inspired nutraceutical supplements. $360K raised in this extended seed round. It has previously raised $500K at seed. Founders: Mukul, ex-NestAway, was the Founder & COO of YoloBus. Mansi is ex-Honeywell and managed Customer Experience at YoloBus.

Brain health - assessments, neuro-science backed games and clinician advised cognitive health recommendations. $1M round, including Stanford Angels, Dr. Sanjay Arora, Adarsh Narahari (Primus), Juhi Bhatnagar (Forj Capital). Founders: Issac is from marketing (Discovery, Puma); Rahul, an Antler India Resident, co-founded YAYSHOP (conversational commerce for MSMEs, acquired by Infra.Market).

Solving prior authorization delays in cancer care using AI agents. "At a leading US cancer center, BOSS (RISA's platform) has reduced prior authorization times from 30 minutes to under five. In just a few months, it processed over $1 million in medications, freed up 80 percent of staff time, and cut administrative costs by 66 percent." $3.5M seed round. Other investors in the round: z21 Ventures, ODD BIRD VC, Ashish Gupta. Founders Kshitij, Rishabh and Kumar were at IIT Kanpur together and co-founded urbanhealth.ai - a self care AI coach funded by 3one4 and Venture Highway, amongst others.

AI-integrated medical device for early disease detection - scans a person's health in 60 seconds without the need for a doctor. 700 biomarkers are monitored with patents in India (US pending). ₹6.6CR (~$770K) seed round. Other investors in the round: Sanchi Connect. Both founders are engineers: Saniya started almost straight out of the Symbiosis University of Applied Sciences; Lokant out of IIM-Lucknow. (BTech at IET DAVV Indore). Comps: Prantae Solutions (IAN); Neuranics (IPV) - much more specific use cases.

Musculoskeletal (MSK) care - in centre and online. First centre in HSR - 12K sessions in 8 months. Six more centres coming up in Bangalore this year, followed by another city next year. $1M pre-seed round, including angels: Sriharsha Majety + Nandan Reddy (Swiggy), Kulin Shah (Onsurity). Founders: Rohit is from Dukaan, Bounce; Ninad from Portea, Swiggy, Pine Labs. Comps: OSSO (Blume Founders Fund, funded last week); FlexifyMe (GSF/IvyCap/Flipkart Ventures); Nivaan Care (Endiya).