IIT Madras-incubated Plenome bags Rs 6.5crore funding

CHENNAI: IIT Madras-incubated Plenome Technologies, a blockchain-based data management startup, has raised a seed funding of Rs 6.5 crore from Ovington Capital Partners, a Luxembourg-based investment firm, UAE-based AADI, and veteran investor Manish Gandhi.

Founded by IIT Madras faculty and serial entrepreneur Prabhu Rajagopal, along with Vijayaraja Rathinasamy and Anirudh Varna, it develops blockchain-based applications to protect users' privacy and security of records. Speaking to TOI, Rajagopal said the startup would initially focus on healthcare data, targeting customers in the US, the UK and the UAE market, where the regulatory environment is mature. “Enterprises have started to increasingly focus on data security and cybersecurity after major security breaches.

With the adoption of AI, there are more risks such as data poisoning, where AI models are deliberately fed with misinformation,” he said.Plenome plans to work with hospitals and clinics directly as well as with healthcare software platforms. It is developing an AI-SaaS platform for structured record creation and insight generation. The startup is conducting trial runs for an AI-based electronic data capture, record maintenance and insight generation platforms in the dental specialisation within healthcare, Rajagopal said.

Emerging from the research group on automation and data engineering at IIT-M, Plenome develops blockchain-based solutions for applications in safety-critical fields. It is based on a patented architecture. Plenome is also developing a distributed artificial intelligence (AI) protocol, where multiple agents work together to solve a problem.