Child Health Imprints (CHIL), a neo-natal focused tech startup from Singapore, recently announced it has raised $2.3 million in its pre-Series A funding round led by healthcare investor HealthXCapital, which focuses on healthcare tech investments in South and South-east Asia. Other participants of the round include Enterprise Singapore’s (a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry) investment arm Seeds Capital and high net worth individuals.

The freshly raised funds will go towards expanding the startup’s integrated neonatal ICU (NICU) care services in Asia Pacific as well as in securing international regulatory approvals.

CHIL was established in 2018 and co-founded by Harpreet Singh (who is also CEO), Ravneet Kaur and Dr. Gautam Yadav, who is also a neonatologist. 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT

According to its official website, CHIL is engaged in the development and application of cutting edge informational and computational technologies including IoT, artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to the practice of medicine in NICUs across the world with the objective of making early diagnosis of critical diseases and improving overall quality of healthcare.

The startup also has a cloud-based platform named iNICU that integrates laboratory results, and bedside clinical observations. The data is then analysed using medically comprehensive formats leveraging Machine Learning and Deep Learning technologies.

WHY IT MATTERS

According to a recent factsheet by the World Health Organization, 2.5 million children died in the first month of life in 2018 globally. Preterm birth, intrapartum-related complications (birth asphyxia or lack of breathing at birth), infections and birth defects cause most neonatal deaths in 2017.

CHIL’s aim is to provide better data integration among multiple devices – such as the patient monitor, ventilator and infusion pumps – as well as unified neonatal workflow practices to provide better neonatal care.

Co-founders Singh and Kaur founded CHIL after their twins were born preterm and one of them passed away within a week of birth due to necrotizing enterocolitis, a devastating disease that affects mostly the intestine of premature infants.

ON THE RECORD

“Our aim is to improve neonatal safety across countries with high neonatal mortality rate. The company will also develop inroads into more advanced neonatal ecosystems to bring their best clinical practices to other markets across the world,” said Harpreet Singh, co-founder and CEO of CHIL in a statement.