Medical tech startup SigTuple sees top team rejig as two co-founders exit

Bengaluru-based medical-technology startup SigTuple’s co-founders CEO Rohit Kumar Pandey and COO Apurv Anand have resigned from the company on personal grounds, Tathagato Rai Dastidar, the remaining co-founder, announced in a LinkedIn blog post.

Dastidar will assume the role of CEO.

“Work became worship and everything else became secondary to achieving our goals. Then one day we found ourselves in a situation where the hard choice was between our health and the journey, or between our family at home and the journey. Unfortunately for us, two amongst the three of us are facing such a moment of truth,” he wrote.

“With a heavy heart, I have to share that Rohit and Apurv are in such a situation now, and have no choice but to relinquish their roles at SigTuple and move on,” he added.

Dastidar, Anand and Pandey launched SigTuple in 2015. The trio previously worked at Big Data Labs of American Express.

SigTuple builds cloud-based solutions for medical diagnosis using artificial intelligence techniques and has tied up with medical institutions to get data for the analysis.

The company's main product is an artificial intelligence solution called Manthana, which processes visual medical data from different devices for diagnosis.

Dastidar said Covid-19 has severely affected SigTuple’s primary diagnostics business and other associated business streams besides thwarting its fundraising plans. As a result, the company was forced to close down multiple centres in different cities and cut jobs. However, he did not divulge more details on its cost-cutting measures.

In April last year, it had around 300 employees, including doctors and data science engineers.

Dastidar said the company will continue to build its technology platform. “We are converting AI101 (it’s smart microscope) into a whole slide imaging system powered by deep learning, venturing into microbiology and many other fields. We are also building the ophthalmological twin of AI101 – a smart retinal imaging, analysis and reporting system,” he wrote.

SigTuple has raised about $42 million till date, according to VCCEdge.

Its most recent fundraising was in last April when the company raised $19 million in a Series C funding round.  The round was led by Trusted Insight, a US-based platform for institutional investors, with participation from existing investors including Accel, Chiratae Ventures, Pi Ventures and Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal.

The fundraising was carried out primarily to develop its new subsidiary business lines -- Mirable Healthcare and Truelyser.

Mirable, launched in 2018, leverages technologies like artificial intelligence for diagnostics. Humain Diagnostics, the consumer-facing brand of Mirable, had about nine labs in Bengaluru during the funding. The company had stated it plans to expand to more than 50 labs across eight cities by the end of this year.

Medyog, the other offering of Mirable, offers doorstep collection of blood and urine samples. 

Truelyser manufactures and distributes diagnostic solutions and services. It enables diagnostic providers with a full-stack solution to help them to set up, run and scale their businesses.

In June 2018, SigTuple had raised $19 million in a Series B round led by existing investors Accel and IDG Ventures India (now known as Chiratae Ventures). In early 2017, the startup had raised $5.8 million (around Rs 38.8 crore) in a Series A funding.

Prior to that, it had raised $740,000 in 2016 from Flipkart founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, Accel and a few other angel investors.