For Sumona Karjee and Aseem Mishra, every-thing was going perfect as they were preparing for their baby to come to the world until one day when Sumona's O&G immediately hospitalized her and had to act upon an emergency C-section to deliver the baby. Sumona had developed a pregnancy complication called ‘Pre-Eclampsia’ due to which her condition had gone worse in just a matter of seven days. After frequent trips to ICU and then finally getting to hold their baby girl in 45 days, Aseem and Sumona realized the major loopholes prevailing in the healthcare system of the country which motivated them to stand up and do something about the problem.

"Being researchers, we were prompted to know more about the disease and its diagnosis. After extensive research, we found that the problem is much bigger than it seems and occurs in almost six percent of pregnancies in the country which are never recorded in the healthcare system. That's when we decided to enter the space and do something about it which then sculpted the foundation of Prantae," informs Aseem Mishra, Co-Founder and CEO. This marked the beginning of Prantae. Started in 2015, the Bhubaneswar-based startup aims to develop diagnostic solution primarily in the pregnancy

healthcare sector. With its user-friendly self-diagnostic product portfolio, Prantae is striving to make it possible to detect Pre-Eclampsia at the earliest stage. "We are just trying to make pregnancy potentially safer by providing people with a setup through which they can identify the complications and opt for early diagnosis rather than waiting for the clinical symptoms to show when the situation has already become fatal. We have three self-diagnostic products in the development stage as of now, EyeRa, ProFloU and Embargo," asserts Sumona, Founder and Director.

Despite thriving in an environment where there was no awareness around the issue and people were not ready to invest in the idea, Prantae has come a long way. Currently, the biotech startup is relentlessly working on making molecular prognosis available by merging cutting-edge technological applications. Through Prantae, Sumona and Aseem are trying to sensitize more and more people about the shortcomings in the healthcare system and paving way for its product amidst the prevailing cultural and social taboos in the society.

With its high-end easy-to- use self-diagnostic product portfolio, Prantae is trying to bring a wave of consciousness among the people about the shortcomings prevailing primarily in the pregnancy healthcare sector

With a strong team of 12 people and four mentors, the company had received immense support from the government and now further plans to venture in both B2C and B2B markets through its customer-oriented and design-led products. It is expected to launch its first product in the market by March next year which will be a B2C model. In the next four years, Prantae aspires to launch four new high-end diagnostic products in the market and is also looking forward to extending its reach to the rural market as well.