Cyclops Medtech raises seed funding to manufacture hi-tech spectacles

Cyclops Medtech today has raised an undisclosed seed round of funding from CP Bothra, Chairman and Managing Director of Medreich Pharma, a generic drug manufacturing major which was recently acquired by Japan's Meiji Seika. The team had earlier raised a pre-seed round of funding for basic prototype development from a leading surgeon in Benglauru.

A 2015 Tech30 company, Cyclops Medtech was started by a team of doctors and a serial entrepreneur -- DR Srinivas, Ravi Nayar, and Niranjan Subbarao. The startup focuses on building and manufacturing diagnostic solutions for episodic neurological events like vertigo with the use of eye-tracking technology.

The team had built a prototype of a form of spectacles with eye tracking cameras and a few other sensors, which can capture the required data when the attack occurs, in one’s natural setting.

With this current round of funding, the team is now set to build and manufacture the product. The team has already tied up with a manufacturing facility Vinayas, based out of Mysore. “We are all set to start the manufacturing of the devices in the coming weeks, albeit after the arrival of a few components that we have ordered for,” says Nirajan Subbarao, Founder of Cyclops Medtech.

He adds that the funding apart from helping them manufacture the first batch of the product, has also helped the team fast-track the overall development process. This includes the final industrial design of the device.

“It was easy to take on the cost of the bill of materials with this funding and we are also able to expand our team from us three co-founders to two engineers. We are now in the process of hiring a sales resource,” says Nirajan.

The team currently has a pre-order pipeline that they intend to close once the manufacturing picks up. Cyclops Medtech is also in conversations with close to eight to 10 channel partners across different regions of South India. Nirajan adds that they are looking to set up a strong channel partner network for sales.

Apart from sales and product manufacture, the team is also looking at deeper technology integrations so that they can capture more data and drive cleaner diagnosis for all episodic neurological events.

Over the past year, there have been a number of healthtech platforms, however, most of these are focussed towards -- search-and-discovery platforms, home healthcare platforms, diagnostic test aggregators, consultations and wellness marketplaces. Most of these are heavily funded like Practo, Lybrate, and Portea. There are also several online pharmacies in the space.

Manufacture of medical devices and hardcore medtech startups are far and few. One of the most famous ones is Forus Healthcare. Apart from this, there are a few startups like Sattva Medtech and Innaccel.

Speaking at a healthtech event in Bengaluru, Viren Shetty, Director of Strategy, Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals, said,

There are many times when startups come in and pitch an idea. They believe that they have the perfect solution and aren’t open to listening. For the one hour we meet, almost 80 per cent of the time they will talk and they don’t listen. It’s important to have an open mind.

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