Medical technology start-up Inito brings health tests to your mobile phone

The company aims to conduct laboratory grade diagnostic tests related to non-communicable diseases on a single device connected to the mobile phone

Changing lifestyles are affecting millions of people today, resulting in spreading of non-communicable diseases and putting

enormous pressure on the already burdened health care system. 

This is where home diagnostic technologies can help. Inito, a Bengaluru-based medical technology start-up, has built a “next generation” home diagnostic device to carry out dozens of tests at home. The firm was started by IIT Roorkee alumnus Aayush Rai and IIT Madras alumnus Varun AV in 2015.

The company aims to conduct laboratory grade diagnostic tests related to non-communicable diseases like diabetes and heart ailments on a single device connected to the mobile phone. It currently provides results on fertility-related tests.

Recently, Inito has been selected by Y Combinator in its Winter 2019 Cohort. This makes it the first Indian medical device start-up to be supported by Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator.

The technology start-up is initially focusing on lab-grade fertility diagnostic tests at home. The company’s innovation is a small device that enables smartphones to perform fertility diagnostic tests at home. The device is based on the company’s patent-pending ‘Flat-lens’ technology and comes with the Inito reader, app and test strips.

Currently, Inito’s monitor measures two fertility hormones, Estrogen & Luteinizing Hormone (LH), in urine and enables women to track their fertile days. Its AI-based app understands cycle variations for every individual user.

The other home ovulation tests available in the market usually measure only one hormone, claim the founders. 

“According to a study, one in six couples face fertility problems and almost 27.5 million Indian couples suffer from infertility. Inito aims to make it easier for couples to perform lab-grade fertility diagnostic tests at home, thereby increasing their chances of conceiving… The device has been recognised to increase women’s chances of getting pregnant naturally by 89 per cent by giving information regarding their fertile days,” says Aayush Rai, co-founder and CEO of the start-up. 

Inito plans to add eight more hormone tests, and tests related to diseases like diabetes, and hypo/hyperthyroidism to the device by the end of this year. “The differentiator for us lies in our patent-pending tech that allows a single device to perform dozens of diagnostic tests,” he says.

The company has shipped its product to more than 350 cities since its launch in 2018 and about  50 per cent of its sales is coming from non-tier I towns and cities. Globally, the medical technology start-up aims to be in 100 million homes by 2025.

According to a  recent study by IIT Delhi, Inito device has a 99.12 per cent correlation to lab devices that are 10x bigger and 100x more expensive. The company aims to disrupt the $30-billion global fertility market.

Earlier, it had raised $1.8 million from angel investors in India and Singapore.