Molbio Diagnostics, a startup with its registered office and manufacturing unit at Verna Industrial Estate, has become the first unicorn from Goa.
Singapore-based investment firm Temasek has invested $85 million (around ₹680 crore) in the Goa-based diagnostics chain that will take the company’s valuation to $1.6 billion.
A unicorn is a startup with a valuation of over $ 1 billion. Molbio Diagnostics becomes the 108th unicorn in India and is also the first in the medtech (medical technology) sector.
The company tweeted the onboarding of Temasek on Tuesday stating, ‘A new #unicorn is born! We’re pleased to announce funding of $85 million from @Temasek at unicorn valuation!’ Temasek is an investment company headquartered in Singapore, with 12 offices in eight countries.
Sriram Natarajan, Director and CEO, Molbio Diagnostics, said, “We are delighted to have Temasek on board. The demand for high-quality, point-of-care molecular diagnostic systems is higher than ever today. The strategic partnership with Temasek will strengthen our ability to provide sustainable choices to address global healthcare challenges.”
A statement issued by the company said that onboarding Temasek, alongside existing investors such as Motilal Oswal Alternates, will further strengthen and accelerate the company’s ability to develop and commercialise a host of near-care technologies based on clinical need gaps. Furthermore, this will also help the company in fast-tracking its efforts to take the Truenat platform to global markets.
Commenting on the investment, Dr Chandrasekhar Nair, Director and CTO, Molbio Diagnostics, said, “We see the partnership with Temasek accelerating our efforts to work on newer technologies that address the critical need gaps in diagnosis globally.”
Molbio Diagnostics provides innovative solutions for universal access to high-quality healthcare and is known for its game-changing Truenat technology – a point-of-care, portable, battery-operated Real-Time PCR platform.
Hailed globally as a high-impact breakthrough innovation, Truenat is the world’s first point-of-care molecular diagnostic platform to get endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a replacement to smear microscopy for the diagnosis of Tuberculosis.
The platform can test for over 40 diseases in addition to TB, including Covid-19, Hepatitis, HIV, HPV, and vector-borne diseases like Dengue, Chikungunya and Malaria.
Truenat has been deployed in over 5,000 testing centres across over 40 countries. The Government of India has deployed these devices at primary and community health centres across all states and Union Territories under the National Tuberculosis Elimination Program.
Truenat also played a significant role in India’s fight against Covid-19 by expanding access to RTPCR testing in rural, resource-limited geographies across the country.
Rohit Mantri, Director at Motilal Oswal Alternates, said, “Over the past three years, Molbio has changed the diagnostic paradigm across India and has had a real impact in saving millions of lives. We take pride in the fact that we associated with Molbio just few months prior to Covid when the requirement of capital was extremely critical, and something that led to Molbio playing a very important role in ramping up the testing infrastructure in India. Now, as the company goes global, we continue to remain extremely excited and welcome Temasek as a new partner in Molbio's growth journey.”