Meet the four startups joining HealthStart's third accelerator programme

Healthcare-focused startup incubator HealthStart has announced the third batch of its accelerator programme. This batch has four startups including a company building an Artificial Intelligence-based diagnostics platform and a company engaging in media and communications dedicated to healthcare, HealtStart founder and chairman Pradeep K Jaisingh told TechCircle.

A total of 200 companies had applied for the latest accelerator programme, Jaisingh said. The list was first whittled down to 50. Of these, 20 companies were picked to make presentations and four were finally selected.

"The response was great, which is a testimony to the growing entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country. We, therefore, plan to have two batches for our accelerator programme annually from this year," said Jaisingh.

HealthStart typically invests Rs 20-25 lakh from its accelerator fund for a 10% stake and a small additional stake for mentoring the ventures.

Here is a sneak peek into the new batch of HealthStart's startups.

Elth.Care: The company is an AI-based medtech startup that aims to solve health problem discovery, incorrect referrals and absence of a 24x7 medical adviser. It terms its Elth bot as the "omniscient medical friend". The company was founded by ex-Flipster and IIM alumnus Srinath Akula and dental implantologist Akhila Srinath.

The Health Orange: The company is a millennial-focused digital media platform in the health and wellness space with emphasis on expert-driven, high-entropy, actionable and preventive-health content. The platform has created a community of about 100 experts and influencers across various categories such as nutrition, sexual health, yoga, fitness and parenting.

KidNurture: The company provides a software platform to ensure timely detection and early intervention in child health issues, especially child growth and development. It offers a web- and mobile-based solution via subscription to doctors and health agencies. The parental app is currently free and it says it will monetise the user base later through different means.

SportsPal: The company is an online sports networking platform that helps connect players on the basis of their sports preferences, skill set, availability and location. SportsPal will also offer various other allied utilities in sports and fitness domain which would make it a one-stop destination for the sports lover.

HealthStart's first accelerator programme in 2014 had four startups and its second accelerator programme in 2015 had three firms. It also runs an angel network, which was started following requests for funds from companies after crossing the accelerator programme stage.

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