Business Remedies | Rajshree Upadhyaya | Through protection and innovation, Manoj Shankar and Pratyusha Pareddy have achieved remarkable success by founding NemoCare, a company redefining infant healthcare. NemoCare is a story of design thinking aimed at addressing urgent clinical needs. Established in 2017, this Hyderabad-based team took on a harsh reality – in many parts of the developing world, neonatal and maternal mortality rates remain unacceptably high.
Driven by deep empathy for caregivers and infants, they transformed their insights into a tangible, market-ready product that connects simple hardware with real-time analytics, making clinical monitoring accessible beyond the walls of well-funded urban hospitals. The outcome of their collaboration was “Raksha”, a wearable neonatal monitor developed through a fusion of product design and clinical understanding. Conceived as a small, lightweight device that can comfortably sit on a newborn and continuously track vital parameters, Raksha redefined monitoring – transforming it from bulky, intensive-care machinery into a non-intrusive layer of safety.
By combining Pratyusha’s industrial design background with Manoj’s engineering and healthcare systems expertise, they successfully prototyped, iterated, and piloted solutions even in resource-constrained environments – where timely detection of hypoxia, apnea, or temperature instability can make the difference between life and death.
Support for Testing and Production Expansion
Their appearance on Shark Tank India brought NemoCare into the national spotlight. On the show, they sought funding to scale up manufacturing and expand access to more hospitals and clinics. The episode not only raised public awareness but also resulted in a practical outcome – an offer combining equity and debt to help the team ramp up production without losing operational momentum.
That television moment was less about glamour and more about recognition – signaling that both investors and audiences could see the life-saving potential of a simple wearable device called Raksha. The response outside the studio was swift. Media coverage highlighted not just the founders but also the real-world impact of their innovation. Reports credited NemoCare with enabling the safe monitoring of thousands of newborns during its early deployments.
In local articles and interviews, hospital staff described the device as a “guardian,” allowing nurses to prioritize interventions quickly and helping families breathe easier during their infants’ uncertain hospital journeys. Following Shark Tank, NemoCare announced significant progress in funding and partnerships, which supported further trials and expansion of manufacturing capacity.
Focused on Ending Preventable Neonatal and Maternal Deaths
Today, NemoCare presents itself as a proactive MedTech company focused on ending preventable neonatal and maternal deaths through wearable sensors, remote monitoring, and analytics. Its website and social media channels remain active, confirming ongoing deployments and product refinements. This demonstrates the company’s evolution from early pilot adopters to wider institutional adoption.
For readers following their journey, Manoj and Pratyusha’s story is a powerful lesson in perseverance. They envisioned a humane, impactful product, proved its clinical value in challenging hospital conditions, attracted investor and media attention to secure growth capital, and continued scaling up with a focus on impact over vanity metrics.
A Device Designed to Bridge Gaps in Neonatal Care
The story of NemoCare is concise yet compelling – a reminder that simple, empathetically designed tools can save lives. In the hands of founders who balance technological rigor with user-centered design, Raksha is neither a gadget nor a gimmick, but a critical tool bridging gaps in neonatal care. The company’s active presence and well-supported progress indicate that this is only the beginning of a long journey towards ensuring the safety of the world’s tiniest patients.
Written & Edited By:
Rajshree Upadhyaya
