IIT Madras-incubated Start-up Plenome Technologies, which develops disruptive solutions for secure data management at scale, has raised Seed Funding of Rs. 6.5 Crore from Indian and Foreign Investors.
This is a major boost to access global markets for this Blockchain-AI solutions firm, which is developing technologies to enable data transfers in sensitive industries like Healthcare and Voting.
Plenome’s BlockTrack ‘OraganEase solution’ for managing sensitive organ donation databases is already being deployed in trial runs in partnership with the apex body for organ transplants at a South Indian State. Plenome is also pioneering a novel pay-per-use model for conducting remote elections in large organisations, using its record-setting Blockchain-based ‘BlockVote’ software. This software was already successfully deployed for IIT Madras Student Elections.
Additionally, Plenome is conducting trial runs of ‘Ashwin’, a suite of AI-powered electronic data capture, record maintenance and insight generation platforms in the dental specialisation within healthcare and is seeking to extend this to eye care, cosmetic and fertility segments. Ashwin offers voice-enabled electronic data capture through input in several Indic and foreign languages.
Founded by IIT Madras faculty Prof. Prabhu Rajagopal, a Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awardee, Plenome addresses the challenge of developing digital applications that can protect the privacy of users and security of records, while ensuring interoperability across organisations, geographies and smooth operations at scale. The other co-founders are IIT Madras MS (Entrepreneurship) student Mr. Vijayaraja Rathinasamy, an embedded systems expert, and IIT Madras Graduate Mr. Anirudh Varna, a blockchain expert.
The investors include Ovington Capital Partners, a Luxembourg-based investment firm, which has taken on the mantle of lead investor, AADI, an UAE-based firm that specializes in trading and distribution of plant, machinery and capital equipment and Mr. Manish Gandhi, who has earlier invested in iconic startups ranging from ePlane and CynLr to GoStop, LegalKart and Fermbox.
Thanking the investors for reposing faith in their innovation, Prof. Prabhu Rajagopal, Founder Chairman, Plenome Technologies, and Faculty, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras, said, “Our work improves access to healthcare in remote locations while enabling interoperability and insight generation based on structured medical records. Our work on remote elections is very exciting, offering the possibility of voting through mobile devices from any location. We are grateful to Ovington, Ram and Manish for backing this vision. We hope to grow organically with impact in the coming years.”
The Start-up emerged from Prof. Prabhu Rajagopal’s research group on Automation and Data Engineering at IIT Madras’ Center for Nondestructive Evaluation. Plenome develops Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs), popularly known as ‘Blockchain’, based solutions for applications in safety-critical fields such as healthcare information systems, voting and digital database management in large-scale user-generated dashboards.
Unifying data creation, management and diagnostics built on this DLT platform, Plenome is also developing the AI-SAAS ‘Ashwin’ software for AI-based structured record creation on the front-end, and AI-enabled insight generation on the back-end.
Mr. Vijayaraja Rathinasamy, Co-founder of Plenome, said, “At Plenome, we are driven by the conviction that technology should be purposeful and inclusive, reaching those at the margins and delivering outcomes that are tangible, equitable, and sustainable.”
Mr. Anirudh Varna, Co-founder of Plenome, added, “By decentralizing critical systems from healthcare diagnostics to secure voting, we are putting power directly into people’s hands. We are looking forward to scale our Ashwin and BlockVote platforms globally.”
Further, Dr Tamaswati Ghosh, CEO, IIT Madras Incubation Cell, said, “Operating in health tech and e-governance domains, which are fiercely competitive, Team Plenome brings some unique strengths with novel technology-backed solutions powered by Blockchain and AI. Their solutions for healthcare and voting have already gained wide appreciation and I learn that efforts for trials at leading national and international chains are at an advanced stage. Glad to note their first fundraise led by our ecosystem partner Ovington.”