Predictive healthcare startup Touchkin raises $400K in seed funding

Bangalore-based Touchkin eServices that operates predictive healthcare startup Touchkin has raised Rs 2.65 crore ($400,000) in seed funding from a clutch of investors.

The investors participated in the current round of funding include Alok Mittal (former India head, Canaan Partners), Amit Gupta (co-founder, InMobi), Anuj Srivastava (CEO and co-founder, Livspace), Himanshu Aggarwal (CEO, Aspiring Minds), Raghunandan G (co-founder TaxiForSure) and Puneet Agarwal (co-founder Money View).

Jo Aggarwal, co-founder of Touchkin told Techcircle.in that the funds will be used to expand the team, grow user base and run healthcare pilots in India and internationally for different use cases such as depression and diabetes.

"Touchkin is applying machine learning to healthcare in a potentially disruptive manner," said Anuj Srivastava, CEO and co-founder of Livspace who participated in the seed round.

Started in 2015 by Jo Aggarwal and Ramakant Vempati, Touchkin uses smartphone sensors to identify when a person may be in need of care. Its machine learning platform identifies potential health issues through changes in activity, communication and sleep patterns as tracked from a person's phone.

For example, when a person is depressed, his/her phone is likely to show more time spent at home, unusually low activity and changes in communication and sleep patterns.

Its mobile app StayClose helps people keep track of the health of their dear ones. The app creates 'How Cards' for everyone in a family which show how far each one is from home, when he/she was last on the road and last spoke with someone.

The mobile app, which is available in both Android and iOS platforms, has about 5,000 users and will remain free.

The Touchkin platform collects usage data from mobile phones and sensors that cover many aspects of daily life, and uses this data to identify important lifestyle or behavioural changes that could have a health implication. For instance, reduced activity combined with changes in calling patterns or missed calls may imply social isolation which is a symptom of depression.

The startup plans to monetise the data gathered on its platform as a commercial offering to doctors and healthcare providers where it can be used as a remote patient monitoring system or a prevention-based healthcare system.

"Soon, your phone will sense if you are depressed or ill, and proactively get you help. The sensor technology needed for this is already available in 2 billion smartphones globally. This is powerful because unlike most mobile health apps, it doesn't require any changes in user behaviour," said Aggarwal.

Prior to starting Touchkin, Aggarwal has worked at Pearson Learning Solutions and Tata Interactive. Co-founder Ramakant Vempati has earlier worked at Goldman Sachs, Barclays Capital and Booz & Co.

In the broader healthcare space, several startups received funding in this month alone.

A day earlier, online mental healthcare startup HealthEminds Pvt Ltd raised an angel round from cricketer Robin Uthappa's Caffeine Ventures while AddoDoc Technologies Pvt Ltd, which runs the Babygogo mobile app that connects parents with child healthcare experts, raised Rs 2 crore ($300,000) in a seed funding round led by angel investor Rajul Garg

Over the last two weeks, Corner Store Technologies Pvt Ltd, a full-service pharmacy targeting patients with chronic illnesses that operates under the brand LifCare, raised Rs 6.6 crore (around $1 million) in angel funding led by investor Rajul Garg.

In the same period, home healthcare startup Pramati Healthcare Pvt Ltd raised Rs 1.3 crore ($200,000) in a pre-Series A funding from three strategic investors.

Earlier this month, Medidaili Technologies Pvt Ltd, a medical support service platform that can be accessed through web and app received $100,000 in angel funding from a consortium of private investors.

In the first week of this month, Gurgaon-based medECUBE Healthcare India Pvt Ltd, which helps patients get access to doctors in hospitals and clinics, received Rs 27 crore (around $4 million) in a Series A funding round from US venture capital firm Artiman Ventures.