Healthcare analytics startup THB tops up seed round

Clinical research and data analytics startup THB, operated by Sekhmet Technologies Pvt Ltd, has raised $2.1 million (Rs 14 crore) in a round led by early-stage venture capital firm Blume Ventures and healthcare-focused VC firm Healthquad, a company statement said.

Fireside Ventures, a consumer-focused venture fund; Apoorva Patni, son of Patni Computers co-founder Ashok Patni and director of Currae Healthtech Fund; and Arpan Sheth, partner at management consulting firm Bain & Company, also participated in the round, the statement added.

The Gurgaon-based startup raised the current tranche of funds as an extension of its seed funding round. It will use the funds to expand its technical teams.

The startup was founded in 2015 by Akansh Khurana (chief executive), an investment professional and former executive at Bain & Company. The other co-founders are Rajesh Pachar (chief technology officer), a former Microsoft and NVIDIA executive; Rohit Kumar (analytics head), a former customer marketing analytics professional at American Express; and Gagandeep Singh (chief operating officer), an operations lead with large-scale SAP implementation experience.

“We have partnered with some of the leading healthcare providers in the country to drive clinical intelligence, and have a strong set of investors and mentors supporting us in the path ahead,” Khurana said in the statement.

The company was earlier known as The Healthy Billion but changed it to THB—short for technology, healthcare, and big data analytics—in April 2016 due to a conflict over the name with another organisation.

Through data analytics, the company provides personalised care to patients, helps doctors with diagnoses, and offers clinical research to pharmaceutical companies and government stakeholders.

The company leverages technology to automate analytics for healthcare providers. THB’s products integrate with multiple IT systems at a given provider, creating a coherent view of the providers’ datasets, offering the ability to run seamless analytics.

THB uses LOINCS and ICD codes to standardise data in real time, which in turn ensures there is no mismatch in clinical terminologies. Apart from that, it utilises an advanced tech stack, storage techniques and micro-service architecture to bring patient data together across different systems and to make it accessible through application programming interfaces.

Additionally, the company aggregates data from diagnostic labs and conducts clinical research through its analytics platform, THB Externalytics. It collects anonymised patient data and medical cases for statistical and research purposes.

The company last raised funds in December 2016 led by former Nokia executive Ajith Sukumaran and Currae Healthtech Fund.

Recent deals in the healthcare segment include Medlife International Pvt. Ltd, a self-funded online platform that delivers medicines and offers other healthcare services. Last week, the company said it is going to acquire a wholesale drug supplier. It did not disclose the name of the supplier. The acquisition will offer Medlife direct access to pharmaceutical firms, from where it can procure and sell medicines through online and offline channels.

Last month, healthcare technology startup eKincare raised $1.5 million (Rs 9.53 crore) in a Series A round from early-stage investment firms Ventureast and Endiya Partners, private equity firm Eight Roads Ventures and financial services firm Touchstone Equities. BVR Mohan Reddy, the former Nasscom chairman and executive chairman of Cyient, also participated in this round.

In December last year, online healthcare services aggregator EasyBuyHealth raised $350,000 (Rs 2.2 crore) in a seed round from a group of angel investors from the business and medical communities.

In the same month, Afsal Salu, the head of express delivery at online grocer BigBasket, quit the company and launched his own health-tech venture, BestDoc, along with Fayaz Bin Abdu, former co-founder and CTO of IT solutions company Exuberant. The startup will connect patients, doctors, hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centres and pharmacies all through a single platform.