- Zoho will acquire about 25% stake in
Voxelgrids over a period of two years. - The investment from Zoho would allow Voxelgrids to build strategic relationships for faster market penetration.
- Voxelgrids aims to have multiple full-fledged clinical sites before the end of the 2021-22 financial year.
The investment will be made in two tranches over the next two years and Zoho would own around 25% stake in Voxelgrids.
Voxelgrids was founded in March 2017 by Arjun Arunachalam, who has nearly two decades of experience in the field. He has previously worked as lead scientist at GE Corporate Research in the US. He was also an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay.
The startup has over 22 employees. Its founding tem includes engineers Shankar Murthy Udupa and Sairamesh Raghuraman.
Voxelgrids claims to manufacture MRI scanners that are lightweight, mobile, easy to install, operate and maintain even in remote locations such as small villages. The equipment also includes a proprietary software package for imaging purposes.
"One of the pressing concerns for the Indian economy today is the lack of indigenous industrial know-how and manufacturing capabilities. A healthy DeepTech ecosystem is vital to solving this issue and driving structural economic change. Voxelgrids is one of the few companies that is working to solve this problem with MRI machines entirely built in India,”
He further added that more such companies are needed in India that can own and command this type of engineering in different sectors.
The investment from Zoho would allow Voxelgrids to build strategic relationships for rapid market penetration, design and intellectual property (IP) licensing opportunities and partner with original equipment manufacturers (OEM).
“DeepTech products, like ours, require a significant amount of time from completing the R&D [research and development] to taking the product to market, and most often, this is the time where we face insufficient funding. The investment from Zoho will help us bridge this gap and speed up our efforts to scale," said Arunachalam.
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