Niramai Health Analytix, a startup that’s building a revolutionary non-invasive, non-touch, non-radiation approach to detect breast cancer has raised seed funding led by pi Ventures with participation from Ankur Capital, Axilor Ventures, 500 Startups and Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal. Niramai (which stands for Non Invasive Risk Assessment with Machine Learning) is a pioneer of a new patented technology called Thermalytix© that can remove technological, logistical, and cultural barriers that hinder breast cancer screening among women today. The start-up’s solution uses artificial intelligence over thermal images to address the issues of early detection of breast cancer.

Niramai is on a mission to create a universal cancer screening method that can save lives by detecting breast cancer at an early stage. The overall hardware-software solution is portable and uses big data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning for reliable, early and accurate breast cancer screening. Early diagnosis is critical in saving the life of a cancer patient. Their method of screening is based on principles of Thermography that can detect tumors 5 years before mammography or a clinical exam can detect.

Niramai was founded in July 2016 by Dr Geetha Manjunath who comes with 25 years of research and innovation expertise in areas such as data analytics, machine learning, cloud computing, semantic web and Nidhi Mathur who is a 'serial intrapreneur' with rich experience in business planning, strategy and product management. Both the women cofounders have previously worked with companies like Xerox Research Center and Hewlett Packard Labs.

Dr. Geetha Manjunath, CEO and cofounder of Niramai, says, “Mortality rates among breast cancer patients are very high in India. Our solution is portable, low-cost, very safe, privacy-sensitive and can detect cancer at a very early stage making it very suitable for regular preventive health checkup as well as screening camps. This investment will help us strengthen our IP portfolio, expand operations and ensure our cancer screening tool is readily available for commercial use.”

Binny Bansal, cofounder of Flipkart said “The innovation from Niramai is solving a key problem in women’s health. We are happy to partner with this new startup that is socially relevant, innovative and has good market potential.”