Bengaluru Startup Brings Eye Scans to Rural India

Millions of people in rural India are losing their sight from diseases that could have been caught early, if only they had access to the right machine.

MedevPlus, a Bengaluru startup founded in 2018, has built a solution that fits in a backpack. The company's portable eye scanner brings hospital-level retinal screening to villages and small towns where the nearest diagnostic center might be hours away.

The device uses optical coherence tomography, the same technology eye doctors rely on to detect diabetic retinal damage and glaucoma before symptoms appear. Traditional OCT machines are large, expensive, and anchored in city hospitals. For someone in a small town showing no symptoms, that trip often doesn't happen until vision has already deteriorated.

Dr. Ravi Kiran Manapuram, who earned his doctorate in biomedical engineering from the University of Houston, returned to India with a specific goal: shrink the machine and take it where it's needed most. Co-founding with Sweta Patnaik, he launched MedevPlus to tackle a uniquely urgent problem in India.

Diabetic retinopathy damages the retina silently, without warning signs until it's advanced. India's massive diabetic population faces this threat daily, yet most live nowhere near screening equipment. Early detection is the only way to prevent blindness, making portable screening a potential game changer.

The Ripple Effect

The team has already taken the IXanner 7vn scanner into the field. In March 2024, they partnered with a local trust to run a retinal screening camp in Bengaluru, demonstrating how mobility changes what's possible in preventive care.

The company is developing a second product called TissueXanner that applies the same imaging technology to analyze tissue without cutting. Applications reach beyond ophthalmology into veterinary medicine, biotechnology, agriculture, and manufacturing.

MedevPlus has raised about $323,000 across five funding rounds and collaborates with IIT Hyderabad, medical device maker Remidio, and American firm Lumedica. The company reported revenue of ₹1.37 crore for the year ending March 2023.

The next challenge is familiar to every medical device innovator: moving from prototype to widespread adoption. That journey depends on regulatory clearance, competitive pricing, and clinical validation that convinces hospitals and screening programs to invest.

For now, the technology exists and has proven it can travel, bringing sophisticated diagnosis to places that have never had access before.