Experiencing India’s thriving AI startup ecosystem: Qure.AI awarded at Innovation Factory India
- 21 October 2024
by Cindy X. S. Zheng
The India tech startup ecosystem has demonstrated a considerable growth over the past years. Argued to be driven by a strong “startup ecosystem and entrepreneurial spirit” (Nisha Parveen, 2024), India is now the third largest startup ecosystem in the world. During the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly hosted in New Delhi, India, AI for Good side event Impact India featured it’s renowned Innovation Factory pitching competition. From this local call for startups emerged two AI healthcare entrepreneurs.
Elevating start-ups to accelerate the UN SDGs
As the UN-led pitching platform, AI for Good Innovation Factory, the global startup pitching session seeks to identify the most promising solutions leveraging AI to tackle sustainable development challenges. This special edition focused to any innovative Indian startups spearhead innovation for a sustainable future. Since the first session in 2020, more than 50 pitching sessions with over 200 finalist startups from 80 countries have already taken place.
More than a pitching platform, AI for Good Innovation Factory champions the movement of impactful use of AI in innovation to further sustainable development. The competition is a unique opportunity for startups to present their innovations on a global stage, receive critical feedback from AI industry leaders, and network with potential partners and investors. Indeed, it offers opportunities including global pitching, funding connections, top-tier mentoring, VIP experiences, exclusive events access, speaking opportunities, participation in the Startup Acceleration Program, media exposure and joining the grand finale of the pitching competition in Geneva in July 2025 for the AI for Good Global Summit.
- 30 October | Meet the top Africa entrepreneur finalists 2024
- 5 November | AI for Good Innovation Factory 2024 live pitching session – 2nd session – deadline to apply 25 October
- 3 December | Meet the top robotics startups advancing sustainable development – deadline to apply 22 November
- 8 December | AI for Good Innovation Factory Baltics
Seeking the most innovative and inclusive AI solutions in India
The global start-up pitching session introduced two start-ups providing impactful healthcare AI applications, demonstrating how AI can be leveraged in critical situations such as personal health emergencies. India has a HealthTech space that has enjoyed exponential growth with over 8.000 startups in 2023 that were growing at a rate of almost 40 % (NATHEALTH).
One of these promising ventures and first competitor is Adiuvo Diagnostics, represented by Geethanjali Radhakrishnan, Founder and CEO, who presented their solution to the looming global health crisis of antimicrobial resistance focusing on unnecessary and misused antibiotics prescriptions. Driven by ineffective assessment in wound care through low visual inspection accuracy and slowness in detection, Adiuvo Diagnostics developed the world’s first computational optical biopsy technique, applied in the AI-powered wound assessment device Illuminate. It can detect and classify wounds, providing real-time wound analytics for faster, more accurate assessments and tailored antibiotic use.
“There’s a huge void in wound care. We want to bring about all those novel unique AI solutions with hardware and at the same time, digital health tools, and also [recommend] therapeutic solutions that are an alternative to an antibiotic”, said Radhakrishnan.
Grounded on a large inclusive database, Radhakrishnan pointed out that their Opto-Electronics solutions do not stop at diagnostics but go till therapy, explaining their long-term vision of reimagining pathogen detection with photonics and AI.
The second competitor Qure.ai is on a mission to make healthcare accessible, affordable, and timely using the power of AI. Sanya Chawla, Director of Health Systems Innovation at Qure.ai, detailed their achievements and ongoing operations, particularly their flagship solution of Chest X-ray AI. Chest X-rays are the most common radiology exam, but the procedure often lacks skilled oversight by radiologists and clinicians, especially in under-resourced settings. Qure.ai’s WHO-evaluated AI solution supports quick and accurate diagnosis, providing early detection of more than 35+ different anomalies, and has already impacted more than 25 million lives by avoiding delays in diagnosis and treatment.
“When there were no such solutions, these population health programs used to visit remote rural areas and wait for 7-14 days to get chest X-ray interpretation. Till then, your patient has gone and already left, you lost them. Now with the use of this AI solution, you are able to identify the anomalies within a minute,” explained Chawla.
Both solutions were inspiring and unique, leaving the jury to deliberate. More than solutions, the entrepreneurial spirit has inspired audiences and juries alike.
“If you look at how AI has opened up a whole new avenue […] People are becoming really creative and a lot of things are changing in a positive way”, Jibu Elias, Country Lead for the Responsible Computing Challenge at Mozilla Foundation.
Sneha Basu Roy, VC & Startup Partnerships at Google India pointed out that AI has become an important part of every sector arguing that unless the society really benefits from it (AI), we’re all gonna be stuck.”
Manju Dhasmana, Senior Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at Microsoft India, argued that what is exciting is “the opportunity but also the responsibility that if you’re not thoughtful, not everyone will benefit from it.”
For Frederic Werner, jury member and the Chief of Strategy and Operations at AI for Good, highlighted how the Innovation Factory continues to bring AI solutions for sustainable impact to the international stage:
“If they do make it to market, that means they are successful enough to be adopted and scale, and that’s where you’ll start to see the impact on peoples’ lives” said Werner.
Following deliberation, Qure.ai emerged as victorious at the Innovation Factory India. Winner Qure.ai will receive a Leaders Pass, an exhibition booth, and a pitching opportunity, competing with other top finalists at the Innovation Factory Grand Finale taking place at the AI for Good Global Summit 2025.
Read more on Qure.ai on AI for Good and their homepage.
Credit: Geethanjali Radhakrishnan, Founder and CEO of Adiuvo Diagnostics
