STARTUP / WOMEN SPECIAL WOMEN AHEAD - Women Who Lead From the Front
Anu Acharya has made her mark with DNA testing
and personalised genomics
...and the (ET) award goes to Anu Acharya
Mapmygenome
An entrepreneur who started her journey in the
telecom and IT sectors, Anu Acharya, 43, is well-regarded for her contribution
to genomics research, mainly through her m o l e c u l a r d i a g n o s t i c
s c o m p a ny Mapmygenome. Acharya, an alumna of the IIT-Kharagpur, grew up
with dreams of becoming a physicist. But her first job after she graduated from
the University of Illinois -with postgraduate degrees in physics and management
information systems -was with telecom software company Mantiss Information in
the US. She later joined consulting firm SEI Information, where she helped
create a networking website for entrepreneurs.
In 2000, Acharya founded Ocimum Biosolutions in
the US as a genomics outsourcing platform providing research as a service to scientists.
Ocimum raised equity investment of $17 million in 2007 and eventually acquired
three companies, including a line of biorepository from Germany's Gene Logic,
integrating MWG Biotech's microarray business and Isogen's oligonucleotide
business in the Netherlands.
This marked Ocimum's transition from a
bioinformatics platform to a lab-next-door.Acharya was Chief Executive at
Ocimum till 2013, before turning her attention to her new venture.
Mapmygenome, which Acharya founded in 2011, is a
rare enterprise engaged in developing genomics solutions for predictive
diagnosis and prognosis, using DNA testing. The company raised $1.1 million in
a pre-Series A funding round earlier this year from Rajan Anandan, Google's VP
and MD for South East Asia and India, and Satveer Singh Thakral, Chief
Executive of Singapore Angel Network, and others.
“An endorsement by The Economic Times is super
exciting, as Mapmygenome continues on its growth journey ,“ said Acharya,
Founder and Chief Executive.
Mapmygenome reaches 3,000 customers through
hospitals and by selling DIY analysis kits, besides offering counselling for
lifestyle management. “ At Mapmygenome, we hope to impact more than 100 million
lives by 2030 and to create a unique database for the Indian population to
understand the amazing genetic diversity within it,“ Acharya said in an email.
“These are exciting times for startups. With encouragement from big players and
media houses like ET, India can become a natural breeding ground for cool
technologies and disruption,“ she said. Mapmygenome was recently recognised as
the Emerging Company of the Year-2015 in the Devices and Diagnostics category
at Bangalore Bio 2015.
The award was presented by the Karnataka
government's Department of Information Technology , Biotechnology and Science
and Technology .
ET14AUG15
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