Health-tech firm Attune raises $10M from Qualcomm, Norwest

Attune Technologies Pvt Ltd, a cloud-based healthcare technology solutions provider, has raised Rs 64 crore (about $10 million) in a funding round led by Qualcomm Ventures India.

The Singapore- and India-based company's existing investor Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) also participated in this round.

Attune, which that manages patient data and work flow, will use the money to expand its operations within India and even overseas. Besides Singapore, it has units in Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Kenya, Vietnam, Cambodia and Dubai.

The development was first reported by The Economic Times. The report said, citing Attune CEO Arvind Kumar, that the funding will help the company extend its services to 25,000 labs and hospitals in the next three years.

Kumar did not respond to a Techcircle.in query till the time of filing this report.

This is Qualcomm's first investment from its $150-million strategic fund meant for Indian startups. The fund was announced after a meeting between Qualcomm's executive chairman Paul E Jacobs and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the latter's visit to the US last month.

Attune was founded IIM Calcutta alumnus Kumar along with Ramakrishnan and Mohanaraj P. in 2009. Kumar had earlier worked with iSOFT, Philips Innovation Campus and DSQ Software.

Attune provides HealthKernel, a web-based platform for hospitals that integrates all departments and branches which are geographically separated. Its cloud-based healthcare information and electronic health record systems run on this platform.

The company's services are used by hospitals, labs, imaging centres, daycare centres, dialysis centres and clinics. Attune has presence in 200 hospitals and has connected 10,000 diagnostic devices. It holds data for 10 million patient records.

In 2012, it had raised $6 million (Rs 32.6 crore) from multi-stage investment firm NVP.

Qualcomm Ventures said it will back more companies like Attune. "Given the opportunity in India, we will do more. We will lead more rounds, write more cheques," said Karthee Madasamy, vice president at Qualcomm Ventures India.

Madasamy also said that the new fund would invest in sectors such as robotics, drones, healthcare, education, retail, payments and mobile platforms over the next five years.

Qualcomm has been investing in Indian startups since 2007 and more than 20 Indian companies including Housing.com, Portea, AppsDaily and Capillary Technologies are part of its global portfolio. It has backed ventures across the mobile ecosystem; these include firms engaged in hardware, software platforms, e-commerce, healthcare, location-based services and retail technology. It also runs a global seed investment competition Qprize as part of engagement with early-stage entrepreneurs.

Globally, Qualcomm Ventures has $500 million in assets under management and chases investments in the wireless technology sector. It seeks to invest between $500,000 and $10 million in its portfolio companies.