Hyderabad-based healthcare startup eKincare, funded by Bitchemy Ventures and Adroitent
Hyderabad-based eKincare is platform that helps you encrypt (256 bits) all your health records and keep it on the cloud -- where you can access the dashboard from anywhere, anytime using a PC, or a mobile device. Founder Kiran Kalakuntla says, “eKincare is an online and offline solution for an individual to assess, track and stay informed about their health. We have recently launched our beta platform and Android app where users can upload their medical records, and we would digitize it in a user-friendly, structured data format which is very detailed and easy to understand compared to what users are used to today. We then analyze that data to build recommendations to keep the user on a healthy path.”
Funding
eKincare is a product of Aayuv Technologies Pvt Ltd which raised Rs. 2 crore funding from Hyderabad-based tech incubator-cum-seed fund Bitchemy Ventures and Adroitent Pvt Ltd. eKincare will be using the round of funding for building team and product development. Aayuv Technologies is founded by Kiran Kalakuntla, ex-AT&T product manager in mid 2014.
Regarding the funding, Sunil Motaparti, Founder & Director of BitChemy said, "At BitChemy, we are always looking for tech companies that can change how an industry works. As the Indian healthcare story evolves, there are tremendous opportunities for this to happen. We believe eKincare's approach of combining digitization with deep analytics and home healthcare could offer tremendous value to end consumers and change the rules of the game. ”
“We see great value in eKincare’s consolidation of medical history like in the West, and building a layer of analytics on top of it to drive healthy behavior,” said Srinath DeviReddy, President of Adroitent Pvt. Ltd.
What does eKincare do?
They plan to gather more reports and grow their partners list in the coming months. At present, they have a tie-up with healthcare players like Vasan, Apollo Dental, thyrocare, Vijaya Diagnostics, and Maxi vision etc. “We believe comprehensive health is body, dental and vision. Often, diabetics ignore dental and vision care though there are chances of losing sight and reclining gum lines etc. Hence, we are tied up with the largest service providers like Vasan eye, Maxi vision, Apollo White Dental, Partha Dental, and Thyrocare etc. which add up to more than 1500+ locations. We have the largest body, dental and vision network,” Kiran adds.
According to their site, the reason eKincare exists is because digitization doesn’t mean having a PDF version of the lab report online. They mean structured data that can be mined and analyzed to define your healthier future. They use your lifestyle, your family impact, and your lab results to assess risks like the probability of you getting diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease in the coming years.
Where is eKincare’s primary market?
It’s primary target is anyone who is currently holding on to their medical records and uses any cloud solution like Gmail for email, Picasa/Facebook for pictures, Dropbox/Drive for files. Anyone who can click a selfie can use this. Once you click a picture of your medical record on you smartphone and uploaded it to your eKincare profile, the data visualaiztion and every color coding will be done for you to present with a visually appealing clickable report.
Kiran says, “In our primary research we found 87% of individuals were interested in digitizing their medical records either for themselves or for their aging parents (who may be living in a different location).
We saw two barriers for users to digitize their medical records
- Lack of enthusiasm to updates 100s of fields of medical information with existing platforms
- Got used to free cloud hosting platforms
Based on this research, we made the platform for free for all the users and also launched a mobile app, where users just have to take a picture of their medical record and eKicnare does the heavy lifting of digitizing it.”
eKincare gathers medical results from various healthcare providers, updates profiles, and provides a single repository for users to store all their medical records. It then identifies potential health risks from the data and informs and motivates them to take necessary steps towards improving their health.
Monetization strategy?
Kiran says, “Our monetization strategy is to intelligently recommend follow-ups that would help an individual to stay healthy. For example, if a person is diabetic, we provide personal concierge service, we send timely reminders (also call) to schedule follow-ups and checkups, send an associate to pick up the sample at the comfort of their home, and update the results back on eKincare platform. The advantage for the user is they have all their blood glucose reports, recommendations in one place. And could go for a second opinion or share it with anyone who they seem relevant.”
Finally, how did it come to be, what inspired eKincare?
eKincare started out of Kiran’s personal frustrating experience of not having enough visibility into how his parents were doing back in India, while he was in Seattle. Merely asking parents daily about how they were doing over the phone didn’t cut it. As his parents couldn't communicate the medical jargon, and he became even more frustrated when his dad had to undergo a surgery and he couldn't make a meaningful contribution in the overall decision. That's when he started to embark on this journey where he wanted to build Google analytics kind of a platform for NRIs. But on further research he found such a platform would be valid even for local audiences and domestic migrants. Hence, eKincare platform was born.
Website here