Celes Care creates e-clinic for women after $1.5m funding round
Indian digital healthcare start-up Celes Care has launched a virtual health clinic for women. This comes as the company raised $1.5m in pre-series funding from multiple investors. The firm's platform will allow women to get in touch with medical professionals via its website or app to discuss issues relating to nutrition and reproductive health. The service, which reached 7,000 women in its pilot phase, will operate using a pay-as-you-go model. Celes Care hopes to raise an additional $5m in the next six months and has plans to launch a healthcare technology development centre in Hyderabad.
Hyderabad: City-based digital healthcare start-up Celes Care on Tuesday announced the launch of a virtual health clinic for women as well as its plans to set up an R&D centre in the city that will work in the area of healthcare technology. Founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Raghu Bathina and radiologist Dr Rajah Koppala, the startup has recently raised a pre-series funding of $1.5 million from multiple investors -- Ventureast, Endiya Partners, Eight Roads Ventures, Boston based F-Prime Capital Partners, Shantha Biotechnics chairman Varaprasad Reddy, among others.It is also planning to raise another $5 million in the next six months. Celes Care CEO Raghu Bathina said that women can get in touch with the medical professionals of the startup via its website or app to discuss issues related to nutrition, fertility, pregnancy, thyroid, PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome), weight control and menopause. The startup will follow the pay-as-you-go model. In its pilot phase, the startup has already touched 7,000 women since August 2016. “Given that many medical issues can be handled via telehealth, Celes aims to provide instant, affordable and accessible healthcare with the best clinical practices,” added Celes Care co-founder and medical director, Dr Rajah Koppala.The startup has a team of 25 medical professionals and plans to take it up to 40 by the year end.The virtual health clinic was launched by the state minister for IT E&C, MA&UD, industries & commerce, mines & geology, public enterprises and NRI affairs, KT Rama Rao, who announced that Celes Care will also be conducting a pilot project in his constituency Sircilla, where it will be providing services to 10 primary healthcare centres. On the proposed R&D centre, Bathina said the startup has requested for an acre of land and that the centre, which will work in the areas of wearables, electronic health records and non-invasive technologies is expected to be set up over one to two years.