Shaktipreneur in Spotlight: Praapti Jayaswal (Co-founder, AarogyaAI)
amita-adminIn India, Tuberculosis affects 2.7 million people each year, and thousands of people die every year. It is astounding that out of the 19 anti-TB drugs available, doctors do not always know which ones will work for whom.
Currently, there are no tools to diagnose drug-resistant tuberculosis quickly and comprehensively. AarogyaAI aims to diagnose drug-resistant tuberculosis in a few hours so that a patient can be prescribed effective treatment instantly.
“We use a DNA sequence from the patient and upload it to our SaaS (Software as a service). Our machine-learning algorithm then gives an output report of a comprehensive drug susceptibility status of the patient,” says Praapti Jayaswal, Shaktipreneur in Spotlight and Co-Founder of AarogyaAI.
The inspiration behind the project
Co-founders, Praapti and Avlokita, were motivated by their life experiences to develop a solution for the growing challenges of Drug-Resistant tuberculosis. Praapti grew up in a family of doctors and was motivated to address public health issues using her scientific training in infectious diseases. Avlokita lost her grandmother to tuberculosis and wanted to be a part of the solution to eliminate this disease.
AarogyaAI was conceptualized in 2019 while Dr Praapti was at Entrepreneur First(an accelerator) in Bangalore, and Avlokita had just returned to India after completing a research stint in Japan. They saw immense value in disrupting a system where the prescription of tuberculosis treatment is highly empirical.
To make this highly accurate and rapid AarogyaAI exploits genomics and Artificial Intelligence to rapidly and comprehensively diagnose drug resistance in tuberculosis.
AaroyaAI is at a validation and trial stage.
“AargyaAI has developed a time and cost-effective test for the drug-resistant disease, and now one can get a report in just five hours,” she proudly adds.
The idea behind the name- Aarogya AI
Aarogya in Sanskrit means good health. AI was added at the end since the company uses AI in the product. “AarogyaAI’s vision is to make a precision diagnosis for antimicrobial resistance accessible at the point of care, contributing towards faster recovery and better health,” Praapti adds.
Journey as an entrepreneur
AarogyaAI’s initial challenges came in convincing people about how much data would be generated, and how it would be done. There were even questions around the relevance of their product.
“We overcame such challenges by explaining the product in the simplest of terms,” she says. These conversations helped simplify AarogyaAI’s pitch, too.
A strategic investment by Illumina Inc., the largest genomics company, considerably helped them.
After the Covid-19 pandemic happened, the questions were less about the relevance of the product and more about how to execute it. Bringing clinicians as advisors in the company, also nudged the product in the right direction.
The team and the roles of the members
AarogyaAI has a dedicated team of qualified people working for the cause.
Praapti Jayaswal (Co-Founder & CEO) completed her PhD in tuberculosis research at the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), Faridabad, India. She has expertise in molecular and microbiology. She has a deep understanding of global TB challenges and is motivated to work for eliminating TB. https://www.linkedin.com/in/praaptijayaswal/
Avlokita Tiwari (Co-Founder & CTO) has worked as a TB researcher and understands the disease and its clinical manifestation. She has specialized with a master’s in bioinformatics from the University of Turku, Finland, and spent over five years coding for biological data. Her skill set makes her computational and machine learning skills at par with her understanding of microbiology. https://www.linkedin.com/in/avlokitatiwari/
Dr Smita Hingane (R&D Lead), has a PhD in infectious disease virology from THSTI, India. Her expertise lies in infectious diseases. With years of experience in molecular and microbiology, she is leading the in-house R&D for scaling AarogyaAI’s novel diagnostic technologies. https://www.linkedin.com/in/smita-hingane/
Aniruddh Sharma is a data scientist with experience in various innovative technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Computer Vision), Robotics, Aerial Control Systems, and the Internet of Things. He is leading the product deployment and machine learning development in the company. https://www.linkedin.com/in/aniruddh1/
Rahul Angane is a bioinformatician with experience in working next-generation sequencing, RNAseq data, and building bioinformatics pipelines. He is the bioinformatics analyst at AarogyaAI. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahul-angane-752aa615b/
Impact of covid
“Every industry is feeling the effects of the COVID-19 emergency. Healthtech is undoubtedly the most affected sector,” Jayaswal says.
As Covid is a respiratory infection, it has hijacked the existing tuberculosis infrastructure, leading to a steep decline in TB incidence reporting since March 2020. On the other hand, the general awareness of the importance of the health-tech industry, how vaccines work, and what scientists around the world do with taxpayer money has increased manifold. Praapti believes that people are talking about issues like antimicrobial resistance, vaccine efficacy, and the spreading of infectious diseases, irrespective of their educational backgrounds.
“After emerging from this pandemic, we are likely looking at a very different and aware world than that which went into a complete lockdown,” she adds.
Future plans
AarogyaAI has just closed their seed funding round of USD 700,000 with investments from Info Edge (India) Ltd backed Redstart Labs (India) Ltd, Avaana Capital Seed Program, and AarogyaAI’s existing investors- Entrepreneur First and First In Ventures.
“We will be using this investment primarily for R&D, team expansion, validation, and pilot deployments,” Jayaswal says.
Advice to new entrepreneurs
An avid Harry Potter fan, her advice to new entrepreneurs is, “Help will always be given to those who ask for it.”
She suggests that entrepreneurs find a lawyer and a chartered accountant at the very beginning of the journey to help them.
“A major hurdle faced by startups in India is facing a myriad of regulations and taxations, without enough clarity on how they can navigate through the maze, and a good lawyer and chartered accountant can be a great help,” she adds.
Journey as a Shaktipreneur
Praapti feels that as they were first-time founders, there was a lot to learn for them. “Incubation programs provide a sort of crash course in entrepreneurship, and the peer learning is invaluable,” she says.
Praapti chose Shakti as the program resonated with her ethos.
“The power of its name drew me to participate in the program,” she adds.
” I got access to an advisor who was on the same wavelength as me and shared the same values,” she says.
She believes that it helped them in their journey of growth.
“The community of peers with similar ambitions of making an impact through their business is also unique,” she says.
Praapti had an invaluable experience with her mentor at STEP.
“I have a 2-year strong relationship with my mentor, and it has grown from strength to strength,” she adds.
Jayaswal felt excited to be a part of the community, and it reflected in her interactions with them.
“I think I add diversity to the group – being a tech company in the healthcare space and one of the few for-profit startups from the cohort,” she adds.
“Shakti’s greatest power is women supporting women by empathizing with gender-based challenges compounded with those of being a founder,” Jayaswal says fondly.
Praapti, the person
The academic Praapti loves the fantastical book,” Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban“. Her favourite foods are Masala Crabs and Solkadi. She loves hills, and Gulmarg in Kashmir is her favourite holiday destination. She is inspired by the great cricketer Virat Kohli.
A quote that inspires her is, “Don’t let the Muggles get you down.”
