IIT-M startup’s virus wrist band gets Rs 22 cr funding

Chennai

A wearable wrist tracker to detect COVID-19 symptoms at an early stage will be available in the market next month with its developer, an IIT-Madras incubated start up, raising a funding of Rs 22 crore for the purpose.

“Muse wearables”, the start up incubated at IIT-Madras by an alumni group along with an NIT Warangal alumnus, is planning to launch the trackers in 70 countries.

The wrist-based tracker has sensors for skin temperature, heart rate and SpO2 (blood oxygen saturation) which can continuously track these body vitals remotely to help in early diagnosis of COVID-19 symptoms.

The tracker will be Bluetooth-enabled and can be connected to the mobile phone via an app called the Muse Health App. The user vitals and activity data are stored in the phone as well as a remote server. Administrative access can also be provided for centralised monitoring of people in containment areas for COVID-19 symptoms. The tracker can get notifications from the Arogya Setu app and alert the user when she enters a COVID containment zone.

“We are targeting two lakh product sales this year with plans to achieve 10 lakh product sales by 2022 across the world. The investors believe in our innovations and believe that we can create a huge difference in the consumer tech space and we have been able to generate a funding of Rs 22 crore,” KLN Sai Prasanth, an IIT Madras alumni.

K Prathyusha, an NIT Warangal graduate, said, “Our main objective with this product is to facilitate identification of patients who have COVID pneumonia sooner so that they can be treated more effectively.”