[Funding alert] SigTuple raises $16M in Series C round led by Trusted Insights; Binny Bansal joins the board

Bengaluru-based AI healthcare startup SigTuple has raised Series C funding of $16 million. The round was led by Trusted Insights, existing investors Accel Partners, Chiratae Ventures, Pi Ventures. Flipkart Co-founder Binny Bansal and Trifecta Capital also participated in this round. 

Last June, SigTuple had raised Series B funding of $19 million. The previous fund raise helped SigTuple launch two subsidiary companies - Mirable Health and Truelyser Biosystems. The current funding is focused on further growing the two subsidiaries. 

Speaking of joining the board, Binny Bansal, said:

“SigTuple transcends the space of tech-enabled healthcare. It is actually creating the technology - ground up - for making healthcare affordable and accessible, and I am very excited to be partnering with them on this journey.”

The idea of applying artificial intelligence (AI) to medical data and starting SigTuple was conceptualised in April 2015 by Rohit Kumar Pandey, Tathagato Rai Dastidar, and Apurv Anand.

The focus of the business is towards building a diagnostic fabric comprising of medical devices, software used in diagnostics/diagnostic setups, and provide infrastructure for services. 

“We realised that inaccessibility, unaffordability, and inaccuracy in the healthcare delivery is because of the outdated diagnostic fabric. Therefore, we are working on a much-needed upgrade,” Rohit said. 

With the company's new focus, Mirable and Truelyser Biosystems came into existence. 

Also read: SigTuple raises $19 M Series B funding led by Accel Partners and IDG Venture

Rohit explains the focus will now be on: 

Medical Devices - More than half a million slides are analysed in India annually. This results in poor quality of reporting because the doctor-to-patient ratio is abysmal in India. Because of unavailability of scalable medical solutions, it makes the reporting for common routine tests a big problem.

Software - The software used to manage the operations of the lab is outdated. More than 50 percent of pre-analytical error/analytical error is attributed because of a faulty software.

Infrastructure - Outdated physical and digital infrastructure of diagnostic setups, which is not focussed on experience, trust, and transparency. The decades old hub-n-spoke model is being followed, which impacts the quality of reporting and turn-around-time of tests.

Speaking about the funding, Apurva, Co-founder and COO, SigTuple said: “The next decade will see diagnostics being transformed in all aspects - from how efficiently and accurately tests are performed in labs to what quality of service is provided to end customers. We firmly believe that such a transformation necessitates a full stack approach, and we are re-structuring ourselves to be better equipped to add value at every level of the healthcare pyramid.”

The team also announced that it has acqui-hired Bengaluru-based home healthcare startup Medyog. The Medyog team will now be part of SigTuple, and will be working under Mirable Health. 

It will allow SigTuple customers to order a test through their mobile phones and get the tests done by giving blood or urine samples from the comfort of their home, through Medyog. Medyog is currently operational in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai, and will be expanding to 12 more cities by the end of this year.

Also read: These startups are using AI to make healthcare convenient and low-cost

“The parent company SigTuple will continue focussing only on R&D for developing next generation lab technology. Mirable will focus on physical infrastructure development through Humain Diagnostics. These are a chain of diagnostic labs that have automated systems, and have next generation technology,” Rohit added. 

Mirable currently has 10 labs in Bengaluru, and will soon be launching a few labs in Hyderabad, Chennai, and Delhi. Rohit adds, Truelyser, on the other hand, will focus on manufacturing, assembly, and distribution of medical devices. 

Speaking about the latest funding, Alex Bangash from Trusted Insights, said, “Healthcare requires a new infrastructure, powered by technology, to make it accessible to everyone.”

“The commercialisation of SigTuple devices, named AI100, was started in late 2018, and we have deployed over 30 devices with blood analysis enabled on it. We are planning to enable urine and semen analysis on these devices by the end of the quarter," he added.

Rohit said, SigTuple has filed more than two dozen patents, and has started getting grants. He said two patents have been granted already and more are in the pipeline. Rohit also said some of the granted patents may impact portfolios of players having collaborative digital pathology initiatives - both startups and incumbent players.

Also read: 12 Hyderabad startups that are powering the future of healthcare in India