9 out of 10 or 90% of Indians suffer from low health literacy. Lower health literacy translates into patients failing to seek timely medical help. In countries like the USA and UK, the health literacy rate is around 50%. Still, the USA suffers from the loss of $200 billion due to the ‘cost of ignorance’.

The diagnostic sector has been a boon in India’s healthcare as it lends value-based and timely health insights. This sector has undergone many upgrades including home collection and online report generation. Yet the contents of this report can only be interpreted by a qualified medical practitioner. Patient counseling in India depends on the practitioner4x3 and the institution. This leaves many patients unable to clearly know their own health details.

Shweta Gandhi is a Co-founder of NirogGyan. NirogGyan makes it simple to understand an individual & health test reports for even non-medical professionals. The firm has developed software that assists with clinical documentation and reporting.

NirogGyan

Shweta begins, “Health literacy is quite low not only in India but globally. And if the consumer has all the information, she would be able to make the right choice. In healthcare, many times it’s the matter of life and death. NirogGyan means knowledge of being disease-free. We are trying to empower patients with this kind of knowledge so that they understand and take charge of their health.” 

Shweta says, “We started NirogGyan 3 years back with the vision of empowering patients. Every time individuals deal with healthcare machinery, they should be able to make the right decision, be fully educated, be free of fear, and should not feel powerless. In short, we simplify medical records, which were never intended for patients. They were created for doctors or caregivers. We want to simplify the information so that no false information reaches the user. Our mission is to simplify medical records while increasing patient involvement. Fortunately, we are already receiving positive validation from both the patients and providers."

USP of NirogGyan

Shweta emphasizes, “Preventive healthcare is not new. It saves both time and money. Most of the products that are designed are for the patients but we feel that the product has to be felicitated by the healthcare provider. We make products for healthcare providers and empower them. The process remains the same.” 

Customer base

Shweta informs, “We have 40 plus clients. We have also reached into the middle east, US and UK. We have processed 1 million records till date, every month we process on an average of 1-1.5 lacs records. All clients have renewed month on month, we have got good validation from our clients.”

Funds and their utilization

Shweta describes, “We always believed that finding the right product-market fit is very important before you actually raise a huge round. Funds were raised mostly to get acceptance from the healthcare veterans in the industry. We are moving to the next seed round in the next 2-3 months and will be raising 1 million dollars next. The fund will be mostly utilized in building products. Right now, Smart reports are simplifying medical records but we are moving towards data analytics also. We are building end to end patient engagement suite. So, funds will be largely utilized for building products and having more compliances in place.”

Revenues of NirogGyan

Shweta states, “Post-COVID was actually lucky for us. Most of our clients came back after COVID. We just started making revenue, In FY 22 we locked at 30-40 lacs and in FY23 we are targeting somewhere 1.5-2 crores. The ARR(Annual Recurring Revenue) is looking healthy, so I think we will be able to make up for it.” 

Scaling and expansion plans

Shweta mentions, “India is the home market; we have fairly penetrated India. We have already started getting clients from the middle east, the market is somewhat similar to India. The US is the market leader when it comes to patient engagement. So, the US and Europe will be our next markets.”

Valuable advice for an aspiring entrepreneur

Shweta advises, “Always have your purpose very clear. It is a difficult journey and a long journey. If your purpose and vision are clear, it will be good for you. A startup is something that tries to bring innovation and disruption, have patience throughout your journey. The short-term success will last soon, it is the long-term success that matters. Try to do GTM (Go to market) as soon as possible, feedback from consumers and the market is very helpful in developing a product.”

A true example of a couplepreneur startup

Shweta concludes, “Fortunately in our case, the duo team was good for us. It has many advantages. Understanding and knowing the partner helps us to trust each other. Mostly it has been positive for us.”

(Edited by Renu Gupta)