Startup chases a hardware dream

India is racing to reduce its hardware import dependency through reforms and funding initiatives. However, the path for hardware startups remains challenging, with entrepreneurs often struggling to scale their businesses.

This is especially true for Cureous Labs Private Limited, founded by Palakkad native Asish Mohandas, which has developed an innovative solution for a growing concern in ageing societies: bedsores in bedridden patients.

Medically known as pressure injuries, bedsores significantly impact the quality of life for bedridden individuals while making care both expensive and challenging for caregivers.

Cureous Labs’ solution to this problem is the Eturnal beds, an intelligent automatic patient repositioning system that helps prevent bedsores by repositioning patients at the push of a button, dramatically reducing the burden on caregivers.

Eturnal turning beds are available in an automatic home version and a semi-automatic hospital version, specifically designed to ease the workload of caregivers at home and nurses in hospitals. They perform various tasks, such as pressure relief care and sheet changing, even in intensive care units, without disturbing medical tubes or requiring additional staff.

Recently demonstrated at the Empower conclave in Trivandrum, these beds could be a potential game-changer for hospitals and homes caring for bedridden patients.

Unlike water and air beds that don't fully address the issue, Eturnal beds tackle the root cause: the continuous skin-bed contact without movement that leads to bedsores.

The solution lies in gentle repositioning that doesn’t disturb the patient – a feature already proving effective in homes and hospitals using this product. Eturnalbeds can be placed on any traditional cot, thereby eliminating the need to purchase specialised medical beds to prevent bedsores.

While the product shows promise, Asish faces the typical challenges of hardware startups in India: securing financial backing and setting up a commercial production centre in an ecosystem still in its early stages.

A Design Dreamer

Behind this innovative solution is a story of persistence and unwavering dedication to product design. Even during his school days in Palakkad, Asish was known as a perfectionist, often spending countless hours perfecting designs for science fairs. “I used to spend a lot of time on every inch of it and would always end up late in submission. But I just couldn't bring myself to cut corners,” he recalls.

After completing his mechanical engineering at Nehru Engineering College in Thrissur, Asish made an unconventional choice. Instead of accepting job offers or pursuing traditional postgraduate studies, he dedicated himself to learning design, spending over a year at home studying and sketching.

One of Asish’s first creations was a shoulder-strapped infant carrier designed to help mothers perform daily tasks hands-free – a solution born from his careful observation of everyday challenges.

Asish’s persistence paid off when he secured admission to IIT Kanpur’s Master of Design programme. The campus’s engineering focus enabled him to blend his aesthetic sensibilities with functional design, a synergy that would later define his approach to product development.

During his time at IIT, Asish developed several practical solutions, including a system to prevent bus passengers from standing on footboards and an innovative tea dispenser for railway vendors. “We travelled over 1,000 kilometres by train, and I even tried my hand at selling tea to understand the vendors' challenges firsthand,” he says.

Healthcare Design

A turning point came during Asish’s work at Lucknow’s Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute as part of his course, where he gained firsthand experience observing healthcare workers in operating theatres and emergency rooms. This stint allowed him to be on the front lines, watching experts in action. “The doctors and other healthcare workers often don't realise there is a problem, or they simply adapt to overcome such issues,” he notes.

It was there that he began collaborating with Dr. Sanjay Behari, a senior neurosurgeon at the time [who later became the director of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology in Trivandrum]. Dr. Behari, known for his focus on improving patient care, provided Asish with various problem statements that healthcare workers and doctors faced at the institute.

“One issue that particularly struck me was the difficulty in transferring patients, especially those in ICUs. From the moment ambulances arrive to handling patients in the ICU, the usual method of lifting bodies using bedsheets required at least four people. This created challenges for both the staff and patients. Dr. Behari’s challenge was to find a way to eliminate this cumbersome process,” Asish recalls.

Asish spent months studying the problem before coming up with a solution. “By that time, many of my peers had already developed prototypes, but I was still trying to understand every aspect of the problem,” he recalls.

He visited hospitals across different states, including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh, to study the issue in various settings.

Accolades Galore

This extensive research led to the creation of “Maattam” (meaning ‘change’ in Malayalam), a semi-automatic patient transfer stretcher. The product won the International Design Association Special Prize at the 2017 Taiwan International Student Design Competition and became the first Indian product to receive the James Dyson National Award.

Soon after graduation, Asish received lucrative job offers for UI/UX positions, but he chose to stay true to his passion for hardware product development. “It was tempting to take the offers, but deep down, I knew I wanted to build something of my own that could make a real difference,” he says.

He further honed his expertise through a fellowship at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, which offered a specialised course for medical device manufacturers in collaboration with foreign universities like the University of Queensland, including month-long stints in Australia. It was during this time Down Under that he identified bedsores as a global healthcare challenge, eventually leading to the founding of Cureous Labs.

Story of Resilience

Initially, Asish was part of a three-member team, but before product development could even begin, both of his teammates dropped out. This put him in a difficult position. If he chose to stick with his dream of product development, he faced the risk of financial instability, as he was already halfway through his fellowship and the stipend was only for two years.

Asish found himself at a crossroads. The prospect of a stable job in a multinational company within the medical device sector was tempting, especially as his peers had already moved into comfortable positions.

However, it was his mother’s words that gave him the courage to press on. “My mother grew up as the daughter of a nomadic carpenter who couldn't afford a permanent home. But, inspired by a teacher at age eight, she pursued her dream and eventually retired as a school headmistress,” Asish says, his voice choked with emotion.

“She had a strong conviction that even if things might not work out, you should pursue what you really want to do in life.”

With this encouragement, Asish incorporated Cureous Labs, making his mother the second-largest shareholder. The startup gained momentum through various grants, including 7 lakh (700,000) rupees from the Department of Science and Technology, 35 lakh rupees from the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (Birac) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and 10 lakh rupees from Swissnex, an India-Swiss programme.

Building a Future

Today, Cureous Labs operates out of Bangalore, incubated at IKP Eden, with a five-member multidisciplinary team. “I might be the face of the company, but it is my team I am proud of, who have substantially contributed to where we are today,” Asish says.

The startup is gradually building a core business team and collaborating with potential partners to enter the market and make their product known to prospective clients. They have already showcased the Eturnal Home at the Famedico unit in the Mall of Travancore, Trivandrum.

The response has been encouraging, but Asish recognises there’s still a long way to go, as scaling up the business is a different challenge altogether.

Cureous is determined not to be a one-product company and has begun developing pressure-sensing technology that can monitor various mobility signs, provide early-stage warnings to prevent patient falls, and enable timely patient repositioning with less human intervention.

This could be a game-changer, especially in the hospital sector. In India, it could help make quality healthcare more accessible and affordable, while in developed countries, it will help healthcare facilities avoid potential litigations related to lack of attention.

Navigating the System

As a hardware startup, Cureous Labs faces significant challenges in scaling up. The Indian startup ecosystem is heavily skewed towards software, making it difficult for hardware ventures to secure funding and resources.

“Building a hardware medical device company is difficult, but we always envision the impact it can create if these products reach those in need and solve their problems. It is totally worth it in that case,” says Asish.

Cureous has received substantial support from the IKP Eden incubator, which focuses on medical devices, as well as the Kerala Medical Technology Consortium (KMTC), a government body dedicated to promoting medical technology.

“The ecosystem is slowly evolving, and I’m hopeful that things will improve for hardware startups in India,” he says.

The rise of corporate power

Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), S Somanath, usually sticks to his area of expertise when speaking publicly. So, it was refreshing to hear him delve into topics like corporate power and the impact of AI. Speaking at Confluence 2024, organised by the Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology in Kochi, Somanath stated that by 2050, nation-states will become weaker, and the world will be governed by corporations. He also predicted that by 2030, many existing jobs may disappear, automated vehicles will likely replace drivers, and drones will take over delivery jobs.

Whether all his predictions and insights will prove true is debatable, but his assertion about corporations gaining power while states weaken seems to be unfolding. The election of Donald Trump as the next US President has already paved the way for a prominent role for Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Reports say he joined a telephone conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Musk's influence in other countries has also been rising, and India's move to allocate telecom bandwidth instead of auctioning it has been linked to the SpaceX founder's growing influence.

One app to clone them all

Apps that translate videos into multiple languages have yet to gain widespread traction. However, US-based startup Panjaya claims their AI-powered tool helps with lip-syncing, audio timing, and creating seamless gestures, making dubbed videos appear as though they were originally filmed in the target language. The company already boasts customers like TED Media and JFrog, who trust Panjaya for their video translations. Co-founded by deep learning experts Hilik Shani and Ariel Shalom, Panjaya recently emerged from stealth mode with 9.5 million US dollars in funding. The company now plans to expand beyond B2B into sports, education, and other sectors.

Baidu eyes a virtual battle

Baidu is set to give Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses some serious competition. At the upcoming Baidu World event in Shanghai, the Chinese tech giant plans to unveil AI-powered glasses equipped with built-in cameras and voice interaction features. These smart specs are designed around Baidu’s own Ernie AI model, making them a powerful tool for capturing photos, videos, and engaging in hands-free conversations. While the glasses aren’t officially available yet, they’re already generating buzz as Baidu steps up its game in the AI hardware space.

Easy way to keep your beer cold

A scientist at the Federal University of São João del-Rei in Brazil has just solved one of the most pressing problems we face: how to keep a glass of beer cold longer. Dr Claudio Pellegrini discovered that the ideal beer glass isn’t the classic pint shape, but one that is narrow at the bottom and gradually widens at the top. His paper delves into heat retention theories, and you’re welcome to quench your scientific thirst at this link. Or, like us, you can simply browse the pictures provided and pick the one you like. Cheers!