NemoCare

NemoCare Wellness, founded in Hyderabad, India in 2017, is a medical technology company focused on reducing preventable neonatal and maternal deaths in emerging markets. The founders, Manoj Sanker and Pratyusha Pareddy, met during a fellowship at the Centre for Healthcare Entrepreneurship at IIT Hyderabad in 2016, where they conducted clinical immersions and identified significant gaps in neonatal monitoring. Sanker, the CTO, brings a strong technical background in smart wearables, IoT, and machine learning, while CEO Pareddy has expertise in industrial and product design, which she developed at the National Institute of Design. Pareddy's personal connection to healthcare, being from a family of doctors and the daughter of a gynecologist, further fueled her passion for addressing unmet needs in maternal and child health.

The company's flagship product is 'NemoCare Raksha,' a smart wearable device that wraps around a newborn's foot to provide continuous, 24/7 monitoring of key vital signs. These vitals include blood-oxygen saturation (SpO2), heart rate, respiration rate, temperature, and perfusion index. The system is designed to detect early signs of distress conditions like Apnea (a temporary cessation of breathing) and Hypothermia, which are critical for preventing infant mortality. A distinguishing feature of Raksha is its ability to provide a gentle haptic vibration to the baby's foot upon detecting an apneic episode, serving as an initial intervention to stimulate breathing. This data is transmitted wirelessly to a centralized platform, allowing a single nurse to monitor multiple infants simultaneously from a nursing station and receive timely alerts, effectively turning any hospital bed into a step-down ICU.

NemoCare operates with a multifaceted business model targeting a range of healthcare facilities. For small to mid-sized nursing homes, the company often provides the devices for free and charges a subscription or per-use fee. For larger corporate hospitals, it offers personalized monitoring solutions and direct sales, with the device priced at ₹60,000. A significant portion of its revenue, around 90%, comes from a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) model, where they provide a package including devices, training, and deployment to government-run Special Newborn Care Units (SNCUs). The company has received significant backing through grants from organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, and BIRAC. It has also participated in numerous accelerator programs, including those by Axilor, MassChallenge, and Qualcomm, and secured funding on Shark Tank India from Aman Gupta.

Keywords: neonatal monitoring, infant wearables, vital signs monitoring, medtech, healthcare technology, emerging markets, Apnea detection, Hypothermia monitoring, newborn care, remote patient monitoring, digital health, smart baby monitor, pediatric device, hospital technology, connected healthcare, maternal health, infant mortality, NemoCare Raksha, Manoj Sanker, Pratyusha Pareddy, patient monitoring system, telehealth, clinical decision support, medical IoT