Medical startup Inito develops portable diagnostics device

By Raaghav G R

Posted on December 23, 2017

Women in India especially, are very anxious about their fertile days after marriage. There are very few days every month (for a few years) that a woman ovulates and has a high chance of getting pregnant. This ovulation cycle can vary from woman to woman (as researched by the startup’s medical device). In 46% of the women surveyed by the startup, there was deviation from average ovulation cycles by more than seven days. This deviation in fertile days can cause couples trying to have a baby, to wrongly identify their fertile days, thus delaying pregnancy. The startup argues that going for ultrasonic scans at local clinics or hospitals every few days can be very strenuous and expensive for young couples and that commercially available, home ovulation kits do not necessarily work on Indian women. Read more on Healthcare Startups

Taking all these factors into consideration, the medical technology startup, Inito, has developed a portable device to detect fertility in women. The portability and light-weightiness of the device means women can track their fertility from their homes itself instead of going to a clinic or a hospital for scans every time. The startup claims that the instruments used in clinics and hospitals, to detect fertility in women, cost a hundred times more and weigh ten times that of the startup’s portable device. The device has been commercialized after a successful pilot run on a hundred patients during the span of six months.

Inito’s test kit comprises of test strips, the portable device and a mobile app (Inito Reader app) to display fertility results and cycles. First, the test strips are dipped in urine and inserted into the device. The portable device then measures not only Oestrogen & Luteinizing Hormone (LH) in women but can also estimate their fertility cycle (which is unique to each woman). Lastly, the Inito Reader app reads the data from the portable device and displays the result on the smartphone’s screen. These features provided by the Inito test kit enhance the chances of women getting pregnant to 89%!

“Tracking ovulation in the comfort of your home relieves the stress of waiting in a busy OPD or scan centre. Moreover, having a record of your cycle trends helps the doctor do a better diagnosis in case a treatment is required”, Dr. Lavanya Kiran, Gynaecologist at Narayana Group of Hospitals and a pioneer of robotic surgeries said.

“With today’s stressful and high performance lifestyle, maintaining good health is becoming increasingly challenging. We can be healthier & happier apart from saving tremendous cost if we can monitor our body metrics regularly. Inito was born on this thought. We believe that over the next decade, labs will get into consumer homes and monitoring devices will be as common as mobile phones. We want to be an integral part of this revolution”, Aayush Rai, Co-Founder of Inito said.

The startup is yet to get a patent from countries like US, European Union, Japan, India, Russia and China. The startup also has three prestigious awards to its credit namely: CII Design Award, India Design Mark and Japanese Good Design Award! The startup is currently engaged in upgrading its portable device, which will soon be able to detect other health metrics like Diabetes, Thyroid and Vitamin D levels in the body. Inito’s Reader App will also be updated shortly to read and display those additional metrics. Third party strips can also be used on the Inito platform by just upgrading the Inito Reader app accordingly. So far, the startup has raised US $1 million in seed round of funding from angel investors based in India and Singapore. The portable device is priced at ₹3,195/- and the eight fertility test strips are priced at ₹895/-. Presently, users can buy Inito’s test kits through the startup’s website or through e-commerce platforms like Amazon or Flipkart. It will soon be available in pharmacies.

Inito was founded by IIT Roorkee alumnus, Aayush Rai and IIT Madras alumnus, Varun AV in 2015. The startup is based in Bengaluru, India. The startup’s team comprises of engineers, doctors and scientists, all of whom, have worked for prestigious institutions like IITs, Siemens, NASA, Narayana Healthcare and Samsung. The main aim of the startup is to make people happier, healthier and more productive while reducing the burden on the healthcare system & doctors. Read more on Startup News

Medical startup Inito develops portable diagnostics device