Startoon Labs, a city-based startup incubated at WE Hub, has raised the first round of equity funding for its operations.
Founders of the startup Mythreyi Kondapi and Susurla V.S. Suresh, alumni of IIM, said the capital raised would be used to build Pheezee, a smart physiotherapy tool kit. The device is being designed to monitor and report patients’ rehabilitation and recovery by tracking their mobility and muscle strength.
Led by Ms. Kondapi, Startoon Labs is part of the first cohort of 26 women-led start-ups selected for incubation at WE Hub, a Government of Telangana initiative to promote and foster women’s entrepreneurship from all sectors including IoT, AR, VR, Edutech, Healthtech and FMCG.
“Hardware development is time consuming and capital intensive. Biomedical hardware is much more so, given the stringent compliance, clinical validation and trials required. Finding investors is always challenging,” Ms. Kondapi said, adding that they had found an investor who believed in the product and the team.
Stating that hardware is an integral part of any device or machine, Mr. Suresh said, “When we started off, a lot of software was being built indigenously but hardware was still at a nascent stage. Startoon Labs is building indigenous systems in the field of IoT and healthcare”. Assuring that WE Hub would enable market linkages for the commercial adoption of Startoon Labs’ physiotherapy device Pheezee, CEO of WE Hub Deepthi Ravula said: “The team at Startoon Labs represents inclusive workforce, progressive talent and innovative mindset that we are championing at WE Hub.”
“WE Hub has been working diligently in connecting women-led startups to financing and in catalysing their growth through strategic partnerships,” Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan said.
