Raises $1.5mn pre-series A from Ventureast, Endiya Partners, Eight Roads Ventures & F-Prime Capital Partners
Hyderabad, India, 28th February 2017: Celes Care, a digital healthcare start-up today launched India’s first virtual health clinic for women. The online service was launched in the presence of Sri. K. T. Rama Rao Garu, Hon’ble Minister of State for IT E&C, MAUD, Industries & Commerce, Mines & Geology, Public Enterprises and NRI Affairs and Dr. Steven Steinhubl – Cardiologist, Director of Digital Medicine at STSI, San Diego, USA and author of over 220 peer-reviewed manuscripts.
Founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Mr. Raghu Bathina and US Certified Interventional Radiologist, Dr. Rajah Koppala, the company recently closed their Pre-Series A round of funding of $1.5mn from noted investors like Ventureast, Endiya Partners, Eight Roads Ventures, Boston based F-Prime Capital Partners, Dr. Varaprasad Reddy and other prominent investors.
Celes Care aims to provide women of all ages with state of the art, tech-enabled telehealth services delivered 24/7 through medical professionals, who are trained on international best practices. The company has a team of well-trained female doctors and advanced technology platforms such as Electronic Health Records (EHR) and health feeds, which are licensed from USA. Some of the significant women health issues addressed by the online service include: fertility, pregnancy, thyroid, PCOS, weight control, menopause, etc. Women can use their mobile phones to connect with a trained female physician in less than a minute. Celes' empowering, patient-centric approach has already helped over 6000 women during the company’s pilot phase.
Different women have different health and well-being requirements during different stages in their lives. Celes Care is designed for long term care so that a woman can keep visiting her “own doctor” as well as access health records throughout her health care journey.
Mr. Raghu Bathina, CEO of Celes Care said, “We are extremely delighted to launch Celes Care, a complete telehealth platform for women. In today's stress filled society and workplace, women must have an avenue where they can get their health issues addressed, conveniently and privately. We at Celes Care are committed to revolutionize health care accessibility via our unique combination of deep medical expertise and technology innovation."
"With over 10,000 consults completed since our soft-launch, we have witnessed a strong demand for our services. 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.
Speaking about the future of digital medicine, Dr. Steven Steinhubl, Director of Digital Medicine at STSI said, “The convergence of genomics, digital devices and precision medicine is going to transform the future of healthcare delivery around the globe. We’ve already seen the proliferation of wristband activity trackers and blood pressure cuffs that sync with your smartphone, which, as great as they are, don’t cause change, but rather only enable change to occur. But the next few years will see more advanced efforts to use technology to deliver the right health care services to the right people when and where they want to receive them.”
“Digital Health will radically change healthcare in the next 10 years in India by improving access to care and patient outcomes at less than half the cost. We are very bullish about the sector. We are honored to have the guru of Digital Health and Genomics, Dr. Steven Steinhubl, join the board of Celes because of his strong belief in telehealth for India”, said Venkatadri Bobba, Partner at Ventureast.
"India should leverage telehealth solutions to solve the health problems of its billion people. Virtual visits can avoid unnecessary travel and loss of productivity. With increasing availability of smart phones and connectivity, this is the ideal time even for the government to push Telehealth solutions and allow e-prescriptions." said Dr. Ramesh Byrapanani, Cardiologist & entrepreneur turned Venture Capitalist at Endiya Partners.
Dr. Prem Pavoor, Partner at Eight Roads Ventures added, “The women’s health segment in India presents a large unmet need for innovative models addressing access to and delivery of high quality care. We are excited to partner with Raghu and Dr. Rajah as they use technology to bridge the gap between healthcare providers and these consumers.”
About Celes Care:
Celes Care is a digital health start-up founded by Raghu Bathina and Dr. Rajah Koppala in 2016. Celes Care aims to provide women of all ages with state of the art, tech-enabled telehealth services delivered 24/7 through medical professionals, who are trained on international best practices. The company has a specialized team of doctors who provide guidance on a range of topics including fertility, pregnancy, thyroid, PCOS, weight control, menopause, etc., Celes Care is funded by Ventureast, Endiya Partners, Eight Roads Ventures and F-Prime Capital Partners. https://www.celes.care/