Healthtech startup Briota Technologies – which is on a mission to simplify the diagnosis and management of chronic respiratory diseases – won the coveted ZS PRIZE healthcare innovation award, followed by medtech startup Ayati Devices and UrvogelBio as runners up.

The ZS PRIZE healthcare innovation award is an initiative by global management consulting and technology firm ZS Associates to recognize, celebrate, and advance the most impactful tech-enabled healthcare innovations solving for India. ZS PRIZE focuses on innovations that leverage data, analytics, and advanced technologies to create smart health solutions that are affordable, accessible, and scalable.

“ZS PRIZE started off in India due to the need for disruption in the health sector and because of the wide talent pool available in the country. To add to that, the digital revolution that is taking place in the nation is only increasing the opportunities for disruption. Eventually, ZS PRIZE will go global and help catalyze the innovations of entrepreneurs from all over the world, to solve issues all over the world, at a local and global scale,” said Sanjay Joshi, Managing Principal of ZS and founder of ZS PRIZE initiative.

The second edition of the ZS PRIZE healthcare challenge received an overwhelming response and culminated in the top 8 finalists vying for the Rs. 1.5 crore+ prize money and the opportunity to receive focused mentorship, guidance, and connections enabled by ZS. In the final round of the challenge, the eight finalist teams competed for the winning spot, presenting before and engaging with an august jury panel that had Ravi Venkatesan, ex-Microsoft Chairman India, Business Leader, Author and Social Entrepreneur as Jury Chair.

The winners and top eight finalists included:

• The winning team Briota, which won Rs 75 lakhs, for its holistic digital therapeutics solution for chronic respiratory diseases.
• Runner-up teams Ayati Devices, for its innovation Angiocam, which is a laser-based, non-invasive, imaging device for microcirculation assessment in diabetic peripheral neuropathy, and UrvogelBio, for launching a solution to diagnose brain pathologies from the peripheral space with neuronal exosomes. Each of the runners-up teams received Rs 25 lakhs each.
• Special mention teams Neodocs, for its instant lab tests on smartphone solution, and Primary Healthtech Private Limited, for its Mobilab solution that can analyse more than 25 parameters for diagnosis of kidney, liver, pancreas, and heart problems; each of the teams received Rs 10 lakhs each.
• The other three finalists that were part of the top eight teams – Autoyos, CogniAble, and Cureous Labs Private Limited – each received Rs. 2 lakh in prize money.

The latest edition of ZS PRIZE saw more than 25,000 registrations and over 1,200 idea submissions from startups, working professionals, and students. From this, 20 healthcare innovation teams were initially shortlisted for extensive mentorship from ZS leaders and industry experts to refine their healthcare innovation ideas and pitch. This list was further shortlisted to the top eight finalist teams, which received additional mentoring from ZS experts, before presenting to and being adjudged for the winning spot by the jury panel.

“I think what is really different this time is the quality of the final eight teams. Actually, that reflects the quality of the broader pool of applications. I also think ZS has done a much better job mentoring these final eight and that’s evident in the quality of the ideas and quality of the presentations,” said Jury Chair Ravi Venkatesan.

The ZS PRIZE jury panel comprised renowned names from diverse fields such as G.V. Prasad, India Business Executive, and Co-Chairman and Managing Director, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd; Aarti Shah, Board Member at NVIDIA and Northwestern Mutual; Vinita Bali, Global business leader, ex-MD & CEO of Britannia; Vijay Chandru Reddy, Co-Founder, Strand Life Sciences; and, Dr. Ferzaan Engineer, Co-founder and Chairman, Cytecare Hospitals.

“Now that we have successfully completed two editions of ZS PRIZE… I think there are a number of ways in which we could consider scaling this up. One is obviously to go global and set up ZS PRIZE in Africa, South America, or other parts of the world. The other one would be to also try and do this annually. I could also see us, over time, actually creating some sort of an accelerator that puts all these startups through this acceleration process… So sky’s the limit in terms of how this could evolve over time,” Venkatesan added.

Here’s a brief overview of the winning teams:

1. Briota Technologies – Winner: Founded by Gajanan Sakhare and Shardul Joshi, Briota is on a mission to help 10 million people improve lung health by 2030. Briota’s cutting edge Spirometry-at-Home solution leverages an AI and IoT-first approach to democratise the diagnosis and lifecycle management of chronic respiratory ailments, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, interstitial lung disease (ILD), long Covid, and post-Tuberculosis diseases. Briota’s homegrown innovation has already helped over 55,000 patients, and the company is now looking to expand globally beyond India and Denmark where it currently has a presence.
2. Ayati Devices – Runner Up: Founded by Nishant Kathpal, Ayati Devices is on a mission to reduce the risk of foot amputations due to diabetes by enabling early diagnosis through timely and accurate detection of diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Ayati’s maiden product Vibrasense is a low-cost, portable, smart screening device that can detect the severity of foot neuropathy in patients with type 1 and 2 diabetes. Its new solution Angiocam is a laser-based, non-invasive imaging device that provides real-time video images of microvascular perfusion.
3. Urvogelbio Private Limited – Runner Up: Founded by Dr. M.V. Sasidhar and Co-founder Dr. Subhashini Prabhakar, UrvogelBio is dedicated to advancing neuro care with a particular emphasis on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The startup’s cutting-edge platform employs exosome-based diagnostics and genetic testing to enable personalized treatment through early and easy detection of neurological diseases. It also offers patients access to minimally invasive, comprehensive early age treatments that slow the progression of neuro diseases.
4. Neodocs – Special Mention: Founded by Nikunj Malpani, Anurag Meena, and Pratik Lodha, Neodocs has developed an instant at-home smartphone-based health test platform that lets users take lab tests, anywhere and anytime, for a variety of metabolic and infectious diseases and get their results in 30 seconds. The company’s current test portfolio includes urinary tract infection screening test, kidney care, antenatal pregnancy care, and elderly care. Over the next 12 months, its test pipeline is expected to increase to include Vitamin-D, IgE, Malaria, and HbA1c.
5. Primary Healthtech Private Limited – Special Mention: Founded by Sahil Jagnani, Ankit Chowdhury, Rahul Patel, and Pooja Poddar, Primary HealthTech has developed a portable and affordable multi-diagnostic device called Mobilab which is capable of analysing more than 25 parameters for diagnosis of kidney, liver, pancreas, and heart problems. With the goal of providing comprehensive healthcare solutions for all, Primary HealthTech’s patented technology makes use of nanotechnology, advanced optics and optimised algorithms for performing diagnostic tests at low volume with better accuracy.

The ZS PRIZE initiative is supported by The Economic Times and TechGig. Find out more about the winners of the ZS PRIZE second edition here. You can also read more about the top 20 teams and top 8 finalist teams here.