Instead of building bigger labs, this startup shrank diagnostics into a handheld device designed for villages, clinics, and field conditions most healthcare tech ignores.
For millions across India’s tier-2, tier-3, and rural regions, a diagnostic test is rarely a simple medical step. It often means travelling long distances, losing a day’s wage, paying for repeat visits to collect reports, and absorbing costs that sometimes exceed the treatment itself. Faced with these barriers, many patients delay or skip tests altogether, allowing diseases to progress unnoticed. Healthcare, as a result, remains largely reactive.
This is the systemic gap a young Indian deep-tech startup, Scanbo is attempting to address not by building faster laboratories, but by questioning why diagnostics are still confined to them. The idea took shape in 2015, when Ashissh Raichura, the company’s founder, struggled to find a single, easy-to-use device to track basic vitals for his father, who was later diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. What began as a personal need quickly revealed a wider reality: diagnostic infrastructure in India was fragmented, expensive, and largely inaccessible beyond major cities.
Compressing a Lab Into a Handheld Device
Rather than developing another single-parameter point-of-care tool, the team chose a more complex route integrating multiple diagnostic functions into one compact device. “The current platform supports eight diagnostic parameters, with plans to expand to 19 blood and physiological markers over the next few years”, Ashissh mentioned.
The distinction lies not just in test count, but in execution. Most point-of-care systems still depend on bulky terminals, multiple peripherals, or manual data entry. This device operates as a single, rechargeable unit weighing under 100 grams, automatically transferring results to a mobile app eliminating human entry errors that continue to burden healthcare systems.
Reaching this stage took years of iteration. Early prototypes were bulky, 3D-printed units with limited accuracy. Thousands of sensors were tested and discarded as the team refined ECG, SpO₂, temperature, and electrochemical blood sensing to achieve clinical-grade reliability. Designing for real-world use proved to be the hardest challenge. Controlled temperatures, uninterrupted power, and trained techniciansassumptions common in labsdo not exist in remote clinics or community health settings.
To overcome this, the startup developed microfluidic test strips that function reliably between –20°C and +50°C, without cold storage. Proprietary drying techniques preserve enzyme activity, allowing deployment in mobile health units, rural clinics, and extreme environments, including defence field trials.
Equally complex was electronics integration. Ashissh mentioned, ‘Combining electrical, optical, thermal, and chemical sensing in a small form factor risks signal interference. This was addressed through multi-layer PCB architectures and electrochemical sensing designs that isolate signals while maintaining accuracy. The device also monitors its own operational health, flagging calibration or sensor issues before results are compromised”.
From Diagnostics to Data
While the hardware enables access, the long-term strategy is data. The platform has already generated over 150 million diagnostic data points, forming one of India’s largest diagnostic-grade datasets. This feeds AI engines analysing vitals and ECGs, increasingly matching clinician-level accuracy for specific conditions.The company sees diagnostics as the entry point, not the end goal. Its roadmap includes predictive AI models and blockchain-based data protection, positioning it as a healthcare data and AI platform rather than a device maker alone.
Scaling now poses the next challenge. With growing demand and a target of one million tests per day by 2026, funding, manufacturing expansion, regulatory approvals, and skilled manpower must scale in parallel.Whether diagnostics can truly move out of labs and into everyday care may determine how quickly India shifts from reactive to preventive healthcare.
The full, in-depth interview covering the technology, engineering challenges, and future roadmap will be published soon. Watch this space.
