Almost 90% of people with common skin ailments such as acne, hair fall, etc., do not go to a dermatologist. They try to self-treat it with off-the-shelf products. Self-treatment is not only ineffective, it is dangerous too. For example, it has led to wide-spread use of unsafe products (like topical steroid creams) that only damage the skin further in the long run. Additionally, most of these conditions also require lifestyle interventions in addition to products for treatment.
CureSkin is a new technology-enabled startup that uses artificial intelligence (AI) for image recognition, to detect various skin conditions from a photo. CureSkin provides home-delivered treatment kits given and approved by doctors to cure and care for these conditions. These treatments can be used at home and are followed-up by the doctors through their mobile-app. All without charging for an upfront consultation fee. CureSkin is doing over 1000 of these consultations a day.
CureSkin customer Vidhya (name changed) says, “I just thought of giving a try of this app and I was amazed at the results. It really worked well for me and they have made it very easy even with the regimen which will be provided by them.”
Prior to founding CureSkin, Guna Kakulapati worked in various technical and leadership roles in the US at Google and Amazon. And experienced the need for this skin-care solution first-hand when his son was diagnosed with a severe form of a condition called Atopic Dermatitis. After trying out several treatment approaches and multiple visits to different dermatologists, it became clear that the current model of single-consultation is not the right approach.
Dermatology conditions require continuous care which is outcome oriented instead of a single one-point-in-time consultation. Most conditions relapse quickly if appropriate care is not taken on a continuous basis. Additionally, most patients have no easy way to get back to their dermatologist after they start their regimen. CureSkin’s treatment regimens include regular and periodic follow-ups with their doctor, customised diet and lifestyle guidance and anytime chat support in the app. All this is in-addition to the products.
Besides Kakulapati, CureSkin’s founding team includes Rama Krishna Rajanna, a long-time technology veteran with over a decade of experience at Google building machine learning technology and Charu Sharma, who has over 15 years of experience in dermatology and was previously heading the division for aesthetic treatments at VLCC.
Says Guna Kakulapati, “The positive feedback and testimonials from our customers bring joy to the entire team. We are realising that this app is becoming an indispensable part of our customers’ lives.” CureSkin estimates its addressable customer base at over 100 million people in India, due to growing middle-class income and propensity to spend for treating these common skin conditions.
CureSkin was part of the prestigious YCombinator accelerator programme at the idea and prototype stage. It was the only company from India to be selected into the first YC AI cohort. CureSkin believes it has now hit the right product market fit and found a scalable business model. It is currently closing its current fund-raise round. For the next phase, focus will be on expansion with the right investments in growth, branding and further automation.
Long term, CureSkin believes consumer health will be completely different from how it is now, due to new technology enablers like AI. Easy detection of particular conditions, tracking change of symptoms, continuous monitoring of these conditions, quick response in case of flare-ups or relapse, are all possible now.