Japanese investors fund healthcare startup Tricog

Bengaluru-based Tricog, a five-year-old healthcare analytics startup, has raised $10.5 million in Series B round of funding from a clutch of Japanese investors, including UTEC-The University of Tokyo Edge Capital, Aflac Ventures, LLC, Dream Incubator; and TeamFund, U.S. Its existing investors Inventus Capital and Blume Ventures also participated in this round.

Founded in 2015 by Dr. Charit Bhograj, Dr. Zainul Charbiwala, Dr. Udayan Dasgupta, and Abhinav Gujjar, Tricog provides virtual cardiology services through its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered healthcare platforms, which is being used by over 3 million patients globally.

Tricog’s InstaECG platform, which has been deployed in over 2,500 cathlabs, hospitals, clinics, and diagnostic centres, helps diagnose and manage patients with critical cardiac diseases, including heart attacks. The platform has been deployed across both government and private healthcare networks in 12 countries in Southeast Asia and Africa.

“Through this round of investment, we reinforce our commitment to strengthen our AI-powered platform for faster diagnosis, expand our product line, and establish a strong presence in Africa and Asia, including India, China, and Japan,” said Dr. CharitBhograj, CEO and founder Tricog.

The startup recently launched its InstaEcho platform for remote echocardiography with a focus on using AI to enable point of care cardiac ultrasound for the diagnosis of heart failure, valvular heart disease, and screening for congenital heart disease. It is also awaiting approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its proprietary DeepRhythm platform for real-time patient monitoring.

“Tricog is a shining illustration of a multidisciplinary deep-technology innovation originating in Asia while solving a large global unmet need,” said Noriaki Sakamoto, partner and board director of UTEC, Japan. As the lead investors of their Series A round in 2018, Sakamoto said, “We were especially impressed with their scientific rigor, exemplary leadership, revenue prospects, and commitment to saving lives.” In addition to its investment, UTEC will help Tricog with “Japanese medical device partnerships” and “research and development collaborations”.

“We’ve seen Tricog’s evolution from an India-based ECG healthcare startup to an integrated, AI-driven full-stack ‘virtual cardiologist’ platform,” said Sanjay Nath, managing partner at Blume Ventures. “We’re proud to see Dr. Charit and the co-founding team at Tricog lead the way in building out deep-tech innovation, expanding product lines and creating impact by saving lives across developing markets globally”.