[Funding alert] RIL arm invests in oncology-focused startup Karkinos Healthcare

Oncology-focused managed healthcare platform Karkinos Healthcare has received an undisclosed amount of investment from Reliance Digital Health, a statement said on Sunday.

The startup, personally backed by Ratan Tata and the Tata Group, has other major angel investors that include Venu Srinivasan, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Ronnie Screwvala, Vijay Shekar Sharma, and Bhavish Agarwal.

The San Diego, California-based Rakuten Medical, the global clinical-stage biotechnology firm, also holds a minority stake in it.

The Tata Group had recently invested Rs 110 crore into this technology-driven oncology-focused managed healthcare platform that helps in the early detection and diagnosis of common cancers. Using a distributed cancer care network, it works with multiple healthcare institutions and professionals to get cancer care closer to the patient's home by decoupling the delivery from the knowledge systems of care.

The statement said Reliance Industries has invested an undisclosed sum in Karkinos through Reliance Digital Health for a minority stake.

Commenting on the investment, Venkataramanan R, chief executive of Karkinos Healthcare, said this investment yet again validates our pioneering model of distributed cancer care and the potential impact it can have in the country.

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Though headquartered in Mumbai, it has operations only in Kerala now with services available in four locations in the state — Kothamangalam and Chottanikkara in Ernakulma district of Kerala, and Thodupuzha and Munnar of Idukki district, and is planning to ramp up its operations across the country.

The company launched in July 2020 is also setting up a cancer control centre at the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences premises in Imphal, Manipur.

Karkinos means the elimination of cancer as 'kark' in Hindi means cancer as 'nos' means elimination.

Its co-founders and key management team are mostly ex-Tata group personnel such as R Venkataramanan, who was the former managing trustee of Tata Trusts, co-founder Ravi Kant a former vice-chairman and managing director of Tata Motors.

Other co-founders include Dr Shahvir Nooryezdan, who is a dentist and founder of Equinox Medical Technologies; Sundar Raman who is the group medical director and the CEO of Karkinos Kerala; Moni Abraham Kuriakose surgical oncologist, Manish Thakkar who is the COO is from Avanti Finance, a fintech company founded by Ratan Tata and Mr. Nandan Nilekani; Sripriya Rao is another COO, Raja Sekhar Kommu is the CTO; Venkataramani Suresh is CBO and Manish Sharma who is also co-founder and the CPO of the company.