Chennai and Mysore-based healthcare devices firm Perfint Engineering Services Pvt Ltd, a startup formed by ex-GE Healthcare employees, on Thursday announced that it has received $3.5 million in first round of funding from IDG Ventures and Erasmic Venture Fund. While IDG has put in $3 million, the remaining amount has come from Erasmic.
Perfint, that has already conducted over 100 clinical trials including human trials, will rollout its first product PIGA, a tool positioner for image guided minimally invasive procedures by March-end. “It is probably a first-of-its-kind device in the world that has a precision of 100 microns and .1 degree and allows the radiologist or the doctor to get inside the body in a minimal invasive way, touch the tumour and allow biopsy, especially in lungs and abdomen,” Perfint chief executive officer S Nandakumar said.
Perfint will use a significant portion of the funds for doubling their products portfolio.
He said usually the devices that are present in the developed countries like the US are used for brain and spine and cost $.25 million. “We will have a price point that is one-tenth of the US devices, basically because the product has been developed in an emerging market,” Nandakumar said.
IDG Ventures India chairman and managing director Sudhir Sethi, who will join the board of directors of Perfint, said they expected the company to be cash flow positive two years from now. “We expect the company to have revenues of over $50 million in the next three-four years. But Perfint will require another $5-10 million and we will raise funds at that stage,” he said, adding this was their first investment in life science engineering segment.
The global market for minimally invasive image-guided interventions is currently over $3 billion, but currently only less than 15% of all surgeries are performed using this approach.