Menterra Ventures launch their cancer-focused Menterra Impact Challenge - Healthcare 2!

India ranks 3rd among nations having the highest number of cancer patients. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) predicts a 12% increase in cancer cases in India in the next 5 years. Over 13 lakh people suffer from cancer every year.?

More than two-thirds of ptients present themselves when the disease has advanced at the time of diagnosis. Approximately 80 %percent would need a surgical procedure during their treatment.? However, for 75% of these patients, surgery is unavailable, unsafe, or unaffordable. The current demand for cancer care in the world greatly outstrips the supply of medical oncologists. In India, we have 1 oncologist per 2000 cases of cancer which is alarmingly low, adding to the overall bottleneck in cancer treatment.?

At Menterra Ventures , our investments are focused on increasing access to affordable healthcare and improving health outcomes for underserved communities, while addressing the changing disease burden, and emerging global health priorities, cancer being at the center of this growing burden.

And in order to combat the rising trend of cancers and to explore new solutions for dealing with cancer, we are launching a 3-month, nationwide challenge in collaboration with leading incubators and companies to look for ideas that will address the existing shortcomings and enable accessible & more equitable treatment for cancer.

The technologies are expected to improve early screening and diagnosis, access (quality onco-surgery and radiation therapy) and also recovery and rehabilitation (including usage of dietary interventions and palliative care).

Key features:

Menterra Ventures will further facilitate Indian innovators by offering recognition, and financial and field validation support to them required for combating the challenges of the healthcare system. The selected businesses will receive:

• An initial investment of up to ?3 crores in businesses by Menterra for investment candidates
• Equity investment of up to ?50 lakhs for incubation candidates
• Participation in an incubation program to deliver commercial milestones that could unlock a larger follow-on funding from Menterra Ventures

Themes:

• Early screening and diagnosis

Solutions for early detection and diagnosis of cancer, and improvement of diagnostic accuracy in differentiating cancer from other medical conditions precluding its undetected progression to advanced stages.

• Improving access

Solutions that improve access to high-quality onco-surgery and radiation therapy by enabling more surgeries and radiation, employing novel methods of delivering treatment, and improving upon current practices by reducing in-treatment errors and post-treatment complications.??

• Recovery and rehabilitation

Improvement in the quality of new solutions for rehabilitation and recovery, use of dietary and other interventions to alleviate side effects and/or to boost the efficacy of treatment, and improvement in palliative care.

Who can join:

We’re looking for promising early-stage Indian businesses or start-ups in the oncology space

• With truly differentiated products, innovative technologies, and business models
• Working to increase access to quality and affordable healthcare
• Improving health outcomes for underserved communities
• Addressing the changing disease burden and emerging global health priorities

?Applications from companies/startups working in the areas specified in this challenge are now open.

Applications deadline:? 14th October 2022

To know more about the challenge:

?? Check out our video: https://youtu.be/X9Bp3Zmz-V8

?? Visit our website: www.menterra.com

?? Click to register: https://bit.ly/3dxgwYk