Indian Startup SigTuple Awarded at Google's Demo Day Asia

For their work in using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support the healthcare system in India, Bengaluru-based SigTuple was given the "Judges' Choice" award at the Google's first Demo Day Asia programme held in Shanghai, Google said on Thursday.

SigTuple creates AI-based solutions to automate healthcare screening.

It has built intelligent screening solutions to aid diagnosis through AI-powered analysis of visual medical data.

The start-up also has an AI platform called Manthana, which helps analyse visual medical data efficiently.

Manthana has enabled the company to work on five high-volume screening processes - analysis of peripheral blood smears, urine microscopy, semen, fundus and OCT (optical coherence tomography) scans and chest X-rays.

The start-up was founded by Apurv Anand and Rohit Pandey in 2015.

"It's really wonderful to be recognised at the first Google Demo Day Asia! This one is all for our team back home. This award is dedicated to the entire SigTuple family," Apurv Anand, Co-Founder SigTuple, said in a statement.

"SigTuple is what it is today because all of us aspired to make a huge social impact," Anand added.

Starting a search for the best startups in the region, Google announced the first Demo Day Asia six months ago.

Out of hundreds of applications from entrepreneurs across Asia-Pacific, 10 outstanding founders were chosen as finalists.

This week, the tech giant brought them to Shanghai to help hone their presentations about their businesses.

"Then, we put them on stage before our Demo Day judges and an audience of top international investors, and watched them wow the crowd with their incredible products," Michael Kim, Partnerships Manager, Google for Entrepreneurs, wrote in a blog post.

The audience in Shanghai was also given a chance to vote for their favourite startup.

The "Audience Choice" award went to Marham, a digital healthcare platform from Pakistan.

"We came to Shanghai to connect the region's startups with top investors. We left amazed by the world-class quality of its entrepreneurs," Kim said.

"These founders are proof that the startup ecosystem is truly alive and thriving in Asia-Pacific, and we're more motivated than ever before to support more startups here to realize their incredible visions and solve big problems," Kim added.