A report by the National Association Of Software and Services Companies(NASSCOM) shows that a total of 2,250 tech Start-Ups were founded in 2021. A 39% cumulative growth of Indian startups. It also states that as much as 48% of start-ups are bringing solutions for India’s No.1 and No,2 Income group. Thus making it both a diversified and inclusive ecosystem.
Another interesting Government shared data is that Women lead MSME’s have risen by 75%. During the years 2021-2022,8.59 lakh Women-led MSME”S have registered.
Today I am sharing the story of a woman-man-led start-up. Founders Rachna and Vishal Gupta, started Gynoveda. It is a Tech-enabled Platform which focuses on a problem which is a Taboo in our country.
The Ayurvedic Healthtech, Gynoveda has built First of its kind Gynaecology Robot. It’s named” MenoBot”. It uses AI technology to identify period problems in a woman and then prescribe required Ayurvedic Supplements.
Rachna credits Gynoveda’s Inception to Vishal as an Intentional Entrepreneur and herself as an Accidental Entrepreneur. Let’s read How the idea of Gynoveda was given birth?
Inception of Gynoveda
Let’s go back to 2010, Vishal suffered from a skin disease-Psoriasis. Our first approach was to visit our family physician who recommended us to a skin specialist, After being the guinea pig for a long time, Ayurved saved him of further torture in the next 60 days.
It began with some audio clips which promisingly spoke of Ayurveda. Being a Business head of Jio and Vice President of Clear Trip, the analytical mind took Vishal to study the Ayurvedic scriptures. The more I read, my hunger pangs increased and I started studying the Ayurvedic bibles” Ashtang Hridayam” and “Charak Samhita”. It surprised me that Ayurveda resolved about 20 gynecological problems.
I may have not read and discovered the potential of Ayurveda had it not been the failure to get relief from the umpteen number of allopathic medicines I had eaten.
Vishal’s now knowledge that Ayurveda had huge potential as a business combined with his passion for Technology and Rachna’s passion for bringing a change in the lives of women, who earlier quit as the Head Of Customer Service At Intelnet Global Services led to the birth of GYNOVEDA. It was Rachna’s strong calling to do something for Women’s health that got the Duo to begin the venture and Rachna began her entrepreneurial journey.
Gynoveda – A DIgital Platform for Menstrual Issues
Some facts which will astound many readers is that in her entire lifespan, on an average a woman experiences 400 menstrual cycles and at least two pregnancies. They are born to have healthy periods. Cramping pain, heavy flow, irregular periods is part of the process of Menstrual cycles and they-Women have been told from the time they enter the puberty stage that these are the necessary evils they have to bear.
Rachana Gupta, CoFounder of Gynoveda and author of the book Happiness Ki Khoj says” Women who have their mensturation cycle are blessed as it is a health dashboard which shows their Deep Seated Internal heal condition. So to help women with their problems, in 2018 Vishal and Rachna invested in a Ayurvedic clinic.
They had women, and young girls coming to the clinic. However, they observed that the women and especially the young girls were hesitant to speak to the male doctor fratenity.
So make things better in the same year they roped in Dr. Aarati Patel, a gynecologist with about 11 years of experience. Further to have a better reach out, they decided to build the online platform.
Vishal and Rachna understood that Menstrual problem was related to women all over the Globe. Over 800 million women globally suffered from PCOS, painful periods, abnormal white discharge, irregular periods,and infertility. All these are menstrual-related disorders.
The stunning fact is, Women do not visit gynecologists easily. Three reasons were attached to it:
- Most critical fear, the fear of social prejudices.And if a married woman had some problem, then they feared being judged.
- Insufficient knowledge about the problem and having access to the right gynecologist.
- Physical examination is what they dreaded the most.
Gynoveda’s vision was to give women the experience of self-care enabled healthy periods, life long by combining Technology with Ayurveda. To give them a community for women’s health care, especially Menstruation!
Moreover, an offline clinic could cater to women living in and around the area. Hence going the digital way would help women from all over the globe.
Working of the platform
After a lot of research, a list of 20 questions is uploaded to the website. The client has to answer these questions which are related to their menstrual health. It takes only 3 minutes to answer the test. Based on these questions which act as a diagnosis, which is a kind of scanner used on the reproductive system of the client. Based on the test, Gynoveda showcases the root cause of the diagnosed problem.
The platform provides the clients a hotline where they can chat, consult and call to share their test results with the Gynoveda’s Ayurveda experts. On a clarification of all doubts, Gynoveda gives them the treatment packs.
Begining Investments and Investors in Gynoveda
In the initial stage, the founders invested $2 million from their personal savings. In 2019, Kanwaljit Singh- Founder of Fireside Ventures invested in Gynoveda. He believed in Gynoveda’s mission of bringing about a change in the lives of millions of women globally.
Thereafter Gynoveda has not looked back. It takes pride in sharing that 4 lakh women every month visit its website. Their customer bank grew by 1000X. More during the pandemic when moving out of the house was restricted.
The duo Rachna and Vishal who quit their high-paying jobs are now successfully running Gynoveda whose mission is to make Ayurveda the world’s first choice for Menstrual health care.
Thanks for the story.