Anthill Ventures, an investment and Speed Scaling platform for early growth stage startups, in partnership with HealthCare Global Enterprises Limited (HCG), the largest provider of cancer care in India, has shortlisted six start-ups for Lumos Health. Lumos Health is a Market Access Program focused on scaling technology start-ups in Healthcare and Life Sciences, powered by Anthill Ventures & HCG.

The program is for 12 months and had launched its call-for-applications during late last year. It is designed to help startups focused on emerging technologies in Healthcare and Life Sciences, accelerate their business growth by providing them support and mentorship. Lumos Health will help the selected startups to raise investments, provide assistance with mentoring and regulatory approvals, increase their customer base and generate more revenues. A cohort of six start-ups that brings in exciting solutions for healthcare and life sciences has been selected out of over 120 applications received from across the world.

Speaking at the launch event, Dr B.S. Ajaikumar, Chairman and CEO, HCG Enterprise Limited said, “Today technology has become a crucial part of healthcare. There is an advent of various innovations to bring about better outcomes in healthcare, particularly in fields like cancer, diabetes and other wellness programs. HCG is looking at being at the forefront of bringing new disruptive technologies. To encourage this, we have partnered with Anthill to give an opportunity to the young minds of India and across the globe to come up with their proposals. I sincerely hope that our shared enthusiasm and passion for working in the healthcare segment will result in a grand success for everyone involved.”

Speaking on the occasion, Prasad Vanga, Founder and CEO of Anthill Ventures said, “There is tremendous growth of emerging technologies in the healthcare and life sciences industry globally, that have a huge potential to disrupt the space. We are thrilled to work with these start-ups – Alixir, AyuRythm, BiMedis, C-Test Medicals, Kronikare, and Raybaby. We will scale them with speed to the global markets as some of them will work on real use cases, and deploy their products in real client engagements through our tailored market access program.”

Anjali Ajaikumar, Program Director, Lumos Health & Vice President – Strategy & Quality, HCG Enterprise Limited said, “HCG and Anthill’s combined experience and history of fast growth makes this partnership ideal for healthcare start-ups to leverage upon. Under the Lumos Program, start-ups will enhance their product, have impactful interactions with our 30+ partner companies in both the local and global network and see how their company is making a difference in the quality of health and patient care. I am excited that Lumos is paving the way for start-ups to make a significant impact in the future of how healthcare will be delivered.”

Lumos Health is focused on scouting startups in the verticals of Oncology, Fertility, Genomics, Bioinformatics and Research & Diagnostics. The six selected startups have the potential to enhance the healthcare & life sciences innovation ecosystem in India. The entrepreneurs have developed solutions using Key Technologies such as Image-Based Pathology, Mobile Health, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Early Detection of Cancers, Easy wound assessments).

A panel discussion was also organised during the launch of Lumos Health program by HCG and Anthill Ventures on how to scale up the healthcare delivery ecosystem collaborating with start-ups. which was moderated by Dr BS Ajaikumar, Chairman and CEO, Healthcare Global Enterprise. Present at the discussion was Shri Gaurav Gupta, Principal Secretary, Dept. of ITBT, Government of Karnataka, Shantanu Ghosh, Ex Business Leader and CFO, General Electric, Genpact and Unilever, Krishnakumar Shankarnarayan, Executive Director, PWC Consulting Service, Naveen Kumar S, VP – Research and Innovation, Altran and Dr. Ramesh Byrapaneni, Managing Director, Endrya Partners.

Gaurav Gupta Principal Secretary for Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science & Technology Government of Karnataka speaking at the panel said, “Disruptive technology and innovation is no longer a dream especially in the healthcare space. Quite a few Government supported start-ups across the state have come out with unique technologies like affordable healthcare, early detection of cancer, bio engineered human cornea and a lab grown mini liver which have made global headlines. He went on to say that “Bangalore is the place to be and we have made a conscious effort in the way the Government is supporting start-ups and Innovation. With eleven thousand start-ups in Karnataka out of forty thousand in the country, the Government is keen on fast tracking regulations, permissions and is even funding and incubating innovative start-ups through various programmes”