Forus Health Raises Rs 50Cr Series B funding from Asian Healthcare Fund, Accel and IDG

Bangalore-based fast growing healthcare venture Forus Health has successfully raised Series B funding of Rs 50 crore in a round led by Asian Healthcare Fund. Accel Partners and IDG Ventures India, the existing investors, also participated. Unitus Capital was the sole advisor to Forus for the transaction. Forus was founded in 2010 by Dr. Shyam Vasudeva Rao and K. Chandrasekhar with a mission to address healthcare delivery issues through innovative and inclusive product design, and service deployment for affordable ophthalmic technology and solutions. Dr. Shyam was previously the Director Technology at Philips Healthcare and Chandrasekhar was previously the Director Strategy at NXP Semiconductors.Forus was part of the YourStory's 2011 TECH30 startups - India's best emerging product startups list. Forus’ flagship product 3nethra is an integrated, intelligent, affordable, rugged and portable eye screening device that can screen a patient in less than 5 minutes for common eye problems. These devices are integrated with a unique cloud hosted telemedicine application ‘Foruscare’, offering a complete eye care solution platform.

With an extremely low ophthalmologist to patient ratio in India, 3nethra has been designed so that it can be operated by a minimally trained technician, and can be deployed in remote areas, exponentially improving access to quality ophthalmic care. Due to its ease of use and superior technical and imaging capabilities, the device has gained extensive recognition within the Indian ophthalmic community and has also received widespread traction globally, with more than 220 installations across 14 countries till date and has since screened 600,000 eyes worldwide.

"Acceptance from the ophthalmic fraternity and encouragement from our marquee investors motivate us to strive towards fulfilling Forus’ mission. This investment will be crucial in helping us achieve scale through strengthening our supply chain and sales networks, as well as developing new products from our world class R&D facility in Bangalore" K. Chandrasekhar, the CEO of Forus, stated.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Shyam Vasudeva Rao, the President and CTO of Forus said - "Forus aims to help 20mn people in the next three years by revolutionizing healthcare delivery, adopting a prevention-centric approach and democratizing screening."

“3Nethra is a cutting-edge product that can address 1/3rd of the world’s population that needs affordable eye testing. With their deep technology background and great execution, Forus has achieved widespread traction internationally. We are excited to partner with Forus on this journey and their success." said Anand Daniel, Principal, Accel Partners

Ajay Kumar Vij, CEO, Asian Healthcare Fund said on the occasion “We have been impressed with the unique value proposition and management depth of Forus as well as the social impact created by their product 3nethra. We look forward to partner with K. Chandrasekhar, Dr. Shyam V. Rao and their team in their journey of building a leading player in the medical devices space in India and globally.”

"We believe Forus’ pre-screening technology has the potential to be a game-changer in addressing the issues relating to preventive healthcare globally. As early investor in Forus, we are very happy to see the company scale from strength to strength and we remain committed to their chosen growth path." said Ranjith Menon, Senior Vice President of IDG Ventures India.

"We are extremely proud to be associated with Forus through its Series A and Series B fundraises. The increased acceptance of 3nethra not only in India but internationally as well, makes Forus poised for a high growth trajectory. Global ophthalmic companies have just not focused on designing a product catering to the emerging markets and this is where Forus has excelled" stated Eric Savage, Co-Founder & President, Unitus Capital.

Forus is emerging as one of the success stories from Indian healthcare space and we wish KC and team the very best in achieving their target of serving 20mn people in next three years.

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