Healthtech startup Plunes raises $300,000 in bridge round

New Delhi headquartered Plunes Technologies, which owns an eponymous healthtech platform, has raised $300,000 in a bridge funding round, which the company has dubbed a ‘pre-Series A’ round.

The company didn’t disclose the names of the investors. The investors, new and returning, are based in Europe and the Middle East, founder Chander Verma told TechCircle.

The capital infusion comes at a time when there is an acute need for Covid-19 detection infrastructure. Plunes has partnered with Mumbai-based diagnostics chain Metropolis Healthcare to enable bookings for Covid-19 tests across India.  

Read: Coronavirus India LIVE Updates

In August last year, Plunes raised $120,000 as part of a seed round led by Samuel Kurian and Srinivas Sridharan, both high net worth angel investors based in the United Arab Emirates, according to a VCCircle report. Tech Mahindra vice president Mandeep Singh and HSBC Securities executive Vikram Bose had also participated in the round, the report said.

At the time, the company was in talks to raise another $700,000, the report added.

Verma founded the company in 2016. Consumers can book medical procedures and doctor appointments, and schedule physical tests online using the platform. It claims to deploy artificial intelligence to help hospitals and doctors improve their revenue and provide discounted rates to patients.

Customers can access 20,000 medical procedures, avail 300 medical facilities and consult with 1,000 doctors on its platform, the company said. It has partnerships with healthcare majors such as insurance company Max Financial Services, hospital chains Fortis Healthcare and Metro Hospitals, as well as independent hospital W Pratiksha Hospitals, it added.

Plunes operates in the same space as companies such as Mfine, Zoctr and HealWell24.

The healthtech sector has seen multiple deals in the recent past.

Chronic disease management platform Wellthy Therapeutics raised $4 million in a bridge round, dubbed pre-Series A, from venture capital firm Saama Capital. As part of the transaction, Saama Capital will pick up 16% stake in the company.

Earlier this month, Akna Medical, a healthcare supply chain platform, closed the first tranche of its Series A funding round, with a $7 million investment from LGT Lightstone Aspada, the India-focused venture capital arm of private equity firm LGT Lightstone.

ImStrong, a live video streaming fitness platform, raised Rs 3 crore ($399,042 at current exchange rates) in a seed funding round in March. The round was led by Rainmatter Capital, a startup incubator established by online stock trading startup Zerodha, along with returning investor Raghunandan G, co-founder of TaxiForSure.