PregBuddy announces undisclosed seed funding from Indian Angel Network

Bengaluru-based healthcare startup PregBuddy raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round from IAN (Indian Angel Network). 

The funding round also saw the participation of Rajan Anandan, an IAN Member and MD at Google India; Madhusudhan Kannan, Chief Business Officer of Uber India and Emerging Markets; Jayant Kadambi, Co-Founder and Chairman of YuMe and Puneet Gupt, COO (News Business) of Times Internet Limited.

PregBuddy started out with a WhatsApp group and was a peer-to-peer instant reassurance platform for expecting mothers. Today, the platform claims to have seen a traction of over 60,000 users, and has been growing organically at 20 percent, month-over-month.

The startup aims to provide personalised care through health experts and doctors, from pre-conception to the early years of motherhood. Its objective is to give urban women, who are trying to conceive, or are pregnant, or new recent mothers, personal care and knowledge to help them take informed decisions for them and their child.

Sivareena Sarika, Co-founder, PregBuddyA lead investor at IAN, Pradeep K Jaisingh, in a press statement, said that technology is playing a defining role in today’s healthcare system, both to enhance quality, and improve access to healthcare in India. He says,

"PregBuddy has emerged as an exciting new platform for both caregivers and patients alike, leading to great improvements in patient satisfaction, reduced costs and improved health outcomes. The company has had phenomenal success so far in this domain and we believe they will continue to excel in the industry to be a market leader."

SL Sivareena, the COO and Co-founder of PregBuddy said in a release,

"Over the past 1.5 years, we’ve seen the impact of our product on expecting mothers’ lives. Every day we have at least 100 mothers who are delivering their babies who have used PregBuddy. This provides us immense satisfaction and boost to our team to do more. We plan to utilise this investment to expand our team and scale up the platform. We’re actively looking to hire passionate people in fields of technology, marketing and business development who will join our core-team and work closely with the cofounders and grow along with them."

SL Sivareena and Subhadeep founded PregBuddy in October 2016 when one of Sivareena’s cousins had a miscarriage in the fourth month of her pregnancy. The domain caught their attention and together, the couple decided to work in the healthcare space and bring about a positive change in people’s lives.

The startup, focused on creating prominence in care for expecting mothers, was selected by Google for its first cohort of Solve for India and its Launchpad Build programme. It has recently been awarded by actor Akshay Kumar, Asian Business Angel Forum, and DST - Government of India for its contribution to the healthcare sector.