Anatomech is building healthcare wearable tech to assist with cancer-related Lymphedema

For those managing chronic physical discomfort or are on the path to recovery from long-term injuries, access to home-based physical rehabilitation remains a challenge.

Pune-based Anatomech aims to bridge this gap with its smart wearable devices that carry out daily therapy sessions at the convenience of your home.

The startup was founded by Divyakshi Kaushik, who brings over seven years of expertise as a design engineer in healthcare wearable devices. A BIRAC Social Innovation Fellow by DBT, GoI, she identified a gap with respect to solutions for rehabilitation and long-term recovery post-injury, surgery, or strenuous physical activities, and founded Anatomech in March 2020.

The startup currently offers a range of static (non-tech) graduated compression products, including socks, arm, and calf sleeves, under its brand KUE. It will soon be launching joint support for knee and elbow, says Divyakshi. The wearable device, which is in its pilot phase, is currently undergoing preliminary testing.

Anatomech’s pilot technology product, yet to be launched, is designed for breast cancer-related lymphedema, which is an outcome of mastectomy.

The startup was part of Tech30 2023–India’s 30 most-promising startups selected by YourStory.

“TechSparks provided a grand platform to pitch to a large and diverse audience, which led to exciting interactions with allied individuals. The investor conversations could potentially be advantageous for our ongoing fundraising efforts,” says Divyakshi.

What it offers?

Anatomech’s brand KUE, launched in August 2021, offers five compression products with 30 SKUs, which include three variants of graduated compression socks, arm, and calf sleeves.

According to Divyakshi, the KUE compression line of products are engineered to provide graded compression that regulates blood flow and relieves fatigue and stress to the limbs caused during daily routines, endurance sports, and for overall well-being.  

“Our technology has extended capabilities in healthcare, wellness, assisted lifestyle and ageing, and sports recovery,” says Divyakshi.

The startup, with a five-member team, will soon be launching joint support for knee and elbow to enhance blood circulation and reduce limb discomfort for athletes and others with joint pain issues.

The KUE compression line of products are priced in the range of Rs 350 to Rs 1,299, and are available on its website, kues.in, as well as on popular ecommerce platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, etc. Anatomech also plans to launch its products on e-pharmacies in order to ensure convenient access to rehabilitative wearables.

“In order to ensure convenient access to rehabilitative wearables, we primarily distribute through epharmacies, ecommerce platforms, and D2C platforms,” says the founder.

Without disclosing the revenue numbers, Divyakshi says the company has served over 10,000 customers since launching KUE.

Helping lymphedema patients

Lymphedema is a painful swelling that restricts limb mobility. It also affects patients who have undergone treatment for breast, pelvic, and stomach cancers. More than 40% of survivors who have undergone surgery and radiation are affected by this condition.

“There are only 35 certified Lymphedema therapists pan India. With such low resources, the entire ecosystem is burdened. This strongly emphasised the urgent requirement to share the physical load and implement a management solution that allows for progress tracking and refinement of therapy plans, ultimately leading to the best possible outcomes,” Divyakshi explains.

Anatomech’s bionic wearable for Lymphedema is a smart, daily wearable, integrated with patented actuators to apply sequential and intermittent radial compressive pressures to enhance circulation and reduce chronic swelling in limbs and associated discomfort.

“Our pilot product is designed for cancer-related Lymphedema as cancer survivors have already gone through a tedious recovery journey and do not deserve to experience challenges with rehabilitation,” adds Divyakshi.

“Beyond enhancing the capabilities of wearables through hardware, we are also working to add digital capabilities that can enable remote patient monitoring and optimised therapy recommendation among other features,” she adds.

The minimum viable product is ready and is currently undergoing preliminary testing. The base price of the product is around Rs 45,000, and can be used for two to three hours daily at the convenience of one’s home.

Funding and way ahead

The startup has secured approximately Rs 1 crore in funding through government grants from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), GoI; and BIRAC, supported by Venture Center, a technology business incubator for science and technology startups with whom Anatomech has been incubated since 2018.

Anatomech has also received significant mentoring and networking opportunities with global field experts in business and entrepreneurship through cohorts like Cornell Maha60, Qualcomm India’s QWEIN, Velocity by NSRCel, IIMB; and Women Entrepreneurship Programme by InFED, IIM Nagpur.

The startup considers Koya Medical and Tactile Medical from USA as competition. Divyakshi says, what makes Anatomech stand out from competition is that it offers Made in India, lab certified products, and also offers a competitive price range.

Speaking of future plans, Divyakshi says, “We aim to create tech products for a $350 billion market in home healthcare management, aiming to alleviate the strain on healthcare resources. By integrating remote monitoring features to improve therapy recommendations, we seek to adapt to the evolving healthcare landscape, which increasingly values convenience, personalised care, and remote monitoring.”