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SaaS startup Zoho Corp invests $5 million in medical devices startup Voxelgrids

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Zoho Corporation, an Indian software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup has invested $5 million in Voxelgrids, a Bengaluru-based medical devices company that makes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners.

The investment will be made in two parts over the next two years with Zoho owning around 25 per cent stake in Voxelgrids. The investment from Zoho would allow Voxelgrids to build planned relationships for design and intellectual property licensing opportunities, rapid market penetration and partner with original equipment manufacturers.

“DeepTech products, like ours, require a significant amount of time from completing the R&D (Research and Development) to taking the product to market, and most often, this is the time where we face insufficient funding. The investment from Zoho will help us bridge this gap and speed up our efforts to scale,” said Arjun Arunachalam, Founder of Voxelgrids.

“One of the pressing concerns for the Indian economy today is the lack of indigenous industrial know-how and manufacturing capabilities. A healthy DeepTech ecosystem is vital to solving this issue and driving structural economic change. Voxelgrids is one of the few companies that is working to solve this problem with MRI machines entirely built in India,” said Sridhar Vembu, chief executive and co-founder of Zoho Corp.

Voxelgrids was founded by Arjun Arunachalam in March 2017. He has earlier worked as lead scientist at GE Corporate Research in the US. Also, he was an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. The founding team includes engineers Shankar Murthy Udupa and Sairamesh Raghuraman and the startup has over 22 employees.

The startup manufactures lightweight MRI scanners, easy to install, mobile, easy to operate and maintain even in remote locations. The equipment includes an exclusive software package for imaging purposes.

Almost 70 per cent of the global population does not have access to MRI scanners. Procuring diagnostic imaging appliances is still a costly affair for hospitals. Voxelgrids’ scanner’s operating costs are significantly lower than those of competitors in a similar category. Voxelgrids aims to have several developed clinical facilities before the end of the fiscal year.