IIM-A's CIIE invests in healthtech start-ups Doux Dentistry, Zeolr

Doux offers affordable dental care, Zeolr is into developing solutions to aid in better management of chronic diseases by patients

The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A)'s incubator, Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) has invested undisclosed amounts in Doux Dentistry and Zeolr.

While Doux Dentistry is a dental care startup aiming to make dental care affordable & accessible for patients at their homes under the brand name Mobident, Zeolr is an IoT based healthcare startup which is into developing solutions to aid in better management of chronic diseases by patients and availability of information to physicians for regular supervision, revision and reinforcement.

With Mobident, CIIE hopes to test the waters in the homecare innovation space and foray into more asset light models that address key barriers in making healthcare ubiquitous. Through Zeolr, CIIE looks to take forward its involvement in healthcare IoT.

The incubator also launched its first Healthcare Accelerator earlier this year, and plans to bring a new set of market driven healthcare innovations by the end of 2016.

"CIIE-IIMA is delighted to invest in Zeolr and Mobident. These companies have immense potential and we believe that their innovative ideas will play a key role in solving few critical healthcare issues. We believe that the combination of India's mettlesome entrepreneurs and CIIE will play a key role in solving many complex issues," said J Salim Vali, Vice President (Investments), CIIE.

Co-founded by Dr. Devaiah, a dentist with over twenty years of experience, and Vivek Madappa, a serial entrepreneur, Doux Dentistry already has presence in four cities - Bangalore, Pune, Mysore, and Ahmedabad.

The startup looks to address barriers of lack of awareness and the consequence of neglecting dental health among the population. Based on an asset light model, Mobident's 'Dental clinic in a Suitcase' is designed to address challenges of dental care industry such as end-user experience and high cost of dental services in India.

The startup's model is one tenth the cost of setting up a new clinic and provides almost all the dental diagnostics and corrective procedures that are available in a dental clinic at the comfort of our own homes, offices, schools and hospital OPD's. Through the fund infusion from CIIE, Mobident looks to derive cross learnings from CIIE and propel its business to the next level through active support in fund-raise and business development, according to Madappa.

On the other hand, Zeolr's flagship product, RespirON, is a comprehensive modern approach to help asthmatic and COPD patients as well as their physicians come up with the best plan for managing their conditions.

The product comprises a three tier system that includes a device and a smartphone application (compatible with Android, iOS & Windows) connected to the cloud server that helps patients and physicians consistently monitor and manage their condition. For Zeolr, CIIE comes with the much needed hands-on support to ease the hardships and mitigate the risks that most early-stage startups experience. The startup was found by engineers, Roshit and Ajay, who began working on their dream venture right from college.

With healthcare innovation being one of CIIE's focus areas, at present its healthcare portfolio consists of nine startups across medical devices, e-Health, health-education and home care.