Digital health startups, CalKitna and GlucoBuddy, secure starter funds

Peshawar, Pakistan – CalKitna, a calorie watch app for local food, and GlucoBuddy, a low-cost glucose measuring device for the masses, secure starter funding of PKR 350,000 each for prototyping from local investors in Peshawar.

The two startups were finalists at the PMLHacks startup event at the Precision Medicine Lab which will also be offering the two startups incubation that comes with access to their central research laboratory, mentorship from experts and access to consultants and patient cohorts in a hospital setting.

The Precision Medicine Lab is an affiliate of the National Centre for Big Data and Cloud Computing and is jointly run by CECOS University and Rehman Medical Institute.

Sabaoon Zeb, Cofounder of CalKitna, said ‘It was a great opportunity through PML hacks and the best thing was immediate validation of the idea from real-life stakeholders. When we visited the nutrition department at RMI, we gathered great insights and came to know about the significance of this idea and its demand locally’.

‘We are thrilled and see this as a stepping stone to indigenously tackle the mounting challenges of healthcare in Pakistan. We plan on making the first CGM device to improve the quality of life of over 35 million diabetics in our population. This is an urgent problem and a substantial market opportunity’, said Shahram Khan, cofounder of GlucoBuddy. ‘We are very grateful to our supporters including the Precision Medicine Lab, RMI and CECOS University’.

One of the investors, Shafique ur Rehman, who is the CEO of Rehman Medical Institute, said ‘It is very exciting to see the entrepreneurial ecosystem in KP progressing rapidly over the years, within which Health-Tech is an area that holds enormous potential. CalKitna and GlucoBuddy are two such examples of startups focusing on the preventive side of healthcare and are perfect models of ‘local solutions for local problems’.