Mumbai Angels invests in govt backed ostomy care startup Crimson Healthcare

Angel syndicate Mumbai Angels Network on Monday said it has invested about $223,000 in ostomy care startup Crimson Healthcare.

The New Delhi based startup aims to improve the lives of ostomates, who defecate in a bag hanging from their abdomen. To this end, it has developed an ostomy management device called SphinX, the statement said.

TechCircle has reached out to Mumbai Angels Network for more information on the stage of investment as well as other details associated with Crimson Healthcare’s business.

An ostomy is a surgical procedure to create an opening on the abdominal wall at the end of the bowel or ureter. The surgery is undertaken to treat certain diseases of the digestive or urinary systems and can be either permanent or temporary in nature.

Crimson Healthcare’s SphinX is a soft and pliable insertable port, which provides a safe, secure and discreet solution to stoma management while restoring continence to the patient, the statement added.

"Mumbai Angels Network has been very supportive through the whole process of raising funds. With these funds, we plan to bring about significant changes by expanding our research and taking our product to the market and into the hands of our patients,” Crimson Healthcare co-founder Pranav Chopra said.

Founded in 2015 by Stanford India Biodesign alumni Chopra and Neeraj Kumar, Crimson Healthcare is supported by Indo US Science and Technology Forum and the Indian government through the DBT-BIRAC Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG) programme.

DBT stands for the government’s Department of Biotechnology, while BIRAC is Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council.

SphinX’s technology has been developed under DBT’s School of International Biodesign, which is a collaborative programme between All India Institute of Medical Sciences, IIT Delhi and International Partners; and is licensed to Crimson Healthcare by New Delhi-based Biotech Consortium India, the statement further added. 

“Crimson looks promising to help humans with the medical device they have manufactured. It will help many people going through Colonal Cancer operation and live normal life again,” Mumbai Angels investor Ridham Gada said.

Including Crimson Healthcare, the Nandini Mansinghka-led investment platform has made a total of 11 disclosed deals in 2020, at a time when early-stage bets saw a decline given the Covid-19 induced uncertainty in the dealmaking ecosystem.

Read: Lockdown spurs angel investor platform Mumbai Angels to accelerate dealmaking

“We’re delighted to have Crimson Healthcare in our expanding portfolio of healthcare and lifesciences sector... We recently launched LifeSciences Vertical, a network within a network for various Pharma/Healthcare companies and start-ups’ from the LifeSciences sector on our Investment Platform,” Mumbai Angels Network CEO Mansinghka said.