Attune Technologies, a start-up that makes cloud-based software for hospitals and labs, will tackle markets outside of India after scoring a $10 million Series B round from Qualcomm Ventures and returning investor Norwest Venture Partners.

This is the first investment from Qualcomm Ventures' Strategic Venture Fund in India, which was announced at the end of last month. Along with a $6 million Series A that Attune Technologies raised in May from Norwest and angel funding, this brings the startup's total venture funding so far to $17 million.

Founder Mr Arvind Kumar said, "There is still plenty of room to grow in India, where Attune's software currently handles 10 million patient records for 2,500 healthcare centers, but it also plans to launch soon in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa."

Attune was founded to give smaller organizations without IT departments an affordable alternative to traditional hospital management software, which is often costly to deploy and maintain. The company charges a fixed monthly fee for SaaS products tailored to hospitals, diagnostics labs, and clinics.

"What the cloud and SaaS does is democratize a lot of software which was only available to large hospitals and labs before that could afford to pay a premium," said Mr Kumar. Besides scaling in India, Attune also plans to offer its products in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia in the Middle East; Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and Mauritius in Africa; and Malaysia, India, and Vietnam in Southeast Asia.

Attune's mobile technology may also help it cement partnerships with companies that offer home healthcare visits, a fast-growing market in India.