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Zoho, the leading Software as a Service (SaaS) company from India, has invested $5 million in Bengaluru headquartered medical devices startup Voxelgrids for a 25 percent stake.

Voxelgrids builds Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners and Zoho noted that its investment highlights the need for India made deep engineering prowess.

Zoho co-founder and CEO Sridhar Vembu said,

“One of the pressing concerns for the Indian economy today is the lack of indigenous industrial know-how and manufacturing capabilities. A healthy deeptech ecosystem is vital to solving this issue and driving structural economic change. Voxelgrids is one of the few companies that is working to solve this problem with MRI machines entirely built in India.”

He noted that startups like Voxelgrids can own and command deep engineering know-how across different sectors. “We hope that Voxelgrids’ success brings in more support for deeptech products made in India,” he added.

Founded in 2017 by Arjun Arunachalam, Voxelgrids manufactures 1.5T MRI scanners that are lightweight, mobile, and easy to install, operate and maintain even in remote locations such as small villages. The equipment also includes a proprietary software package for imaging purposes, the statement said.

Arjun Arunachalam, Founder & CEO, Voxelgrids, said, “Deeptech products, like ours, require a significant amount of time from completing the R&D to taking the product to the market, and most often, this is the time where we face insufficient funding. The investment from Zoho will help us bridge this gap and speed up our efforts to scale.”

Studies estimate that close to 70 percent of the world population has no access to MRI scanners. Meanwhile, in India, there are only 0.4 MRI scanners per thousand beds with most of the access restricted to Tier-I cities.

The Indian market is dominated by either imported machines or refurbished equipment. Zoho said Voxelgrids’ indigenous MRI technology provides a next generation, cost-effective alternative that enables healthcare facilities to save on capital and operational expenditure.