Canbank VC Fund backs healthcare firm Renalyx floated by former Forus Health Co-founder

By Joseph Rai

  • 02 Feb 2022
Credit: 123RF.com

Renalyx Health Systems Pvt Ltd, a renal care solutions provider floated by the former co-founder of Forus Health, has raised its first round of external funding from Canbank Venture Capital Fund Ltd.

The funding will be used to develop products and software with an aim to providing end-to-end renal care solutions, Shyam Vasudevarao, founder, Renalyx, told VCCircle. The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

"We want to scale as a technology provider as innovation and R&D (research and development) is our strength," added Vasudevarao.

Canbank Venture Capital Fund invested in Renalyx through its sixth fund -- Empower India Fund, it said in a separate statement.

Renalyx has its origins in 2013 when Vasudevarao was still working with ophthalmology focussed medical device company Forus Health, which had already roped in Accel and Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDV Ventures) as its investors. Later in 2014, Forus Health raised Series B funding led by Asian Healthcare Fund.

Vasudevarao said he officially left his role as Managing Director at Forus Health in 2015 as he wanted to focus on Renalyx. He continues to remain on the board of Forus Health.

Renalyx has developed IoT (internet of things) enabled dialysis machine. The machine along with its software helps in remote monitoring of dialysis session and tracking of patient treatment history. It also allows for artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML)-enabled personalized dialysis prescription generation and helps in complete dialysis centre management.

Canbank Venture Capital Fund, a subsidiary of state-run Canara Bank Ltd, is investing out of its sixth fund. It was also selected by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) to manage the Rs 2,206-crore Electronic Development Fund.

Its recent investments include chatbot maker CoRover and business-to-business (B2B) services rental platform Settlrs.