Practo Founder Shashank ND, Ex-Ola Electric and Lenskart Executives Raise Funding for Health Startup Cent

StartupTalky News

06 Mar 2026 — 2 min read

Practo Founder Shashank ND, Ex-Ola Electric and Lenskart Executives Raise Funding for Health Startup Cent

Healthtech startup Cent, founded by Shashank ND, the founder of Practo, has raised fresh funding from OneFlow Holdings and venture firm South Park Commons. The investment amount has not been officially disclosed, although industry reports suggest the seed round is around $5 million.

The Bengaluru-based startup was launched by Shashank ND along with Arpit Garg, formerly at Lenskart, and Anshul Khandelwal, who previously worked at Ola Electric. Cent is building an AI-driven early disease detection platform aimed at identifying serious health risks before symptoms appear.

Cent Focuses on AI-Based Early Disease Detection

Cent’s platform is designed to detect life-threatening conditions such as cancer, heart diseases, neurological disorders and metabolic illnesses at an early stage. These conditions account for a large share of global deaths, making early detection critical for better health outcomes.

The startup uses a proprietary screening protocol known as CCNM (Cardiac, Cancer, Neurological and Metabolic). The system combines multiple diagnostic tools including whole-body MRI scans, low-dose CT scans, ECG tests, DEXA scans, and more than 120 blood and urine biomarkers. Artificial intelligence analyses this data to generate a detailed organ-level health report.

According to the company, this approach can help identify more than 300 potential health conditions in a single visit, allowing doctors to intervene earlier.

Startup Operates Direct-to-Consumer Healthcare Model

Unlike many healthcare startups in India that work with hospitals, insurers, or corporate clients, Cent has adopted a direct-to-consumer (D2C) model.

The company says it earns revenue directly from individuals who book its health screening services rather than taking commissions from hospitals or doctors.

Cent began operations in FY26 and has already completed more than 1,500 diagnostic scans. The company claims that around 26% of these scans revealed clinically meaningful findings, while roughly 3-4% detected serious conditions requiring immediate medical attention, even though the individuals had no visible symptoms.

Expansion Plans and Growth Strategy

Cent is currently growing at about 50% month-on-month and has reached an annualised revenue run rate of around $2 million.

With the new funding, the startup plans to launch dedicated early detection centres across major Indian cities. The first facility is expected to open in Bengaluru in April 2026, followed by expansion to Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad, with more cities planned later.

The company’s long-term goal is ambitious. Cent aims to conduct 10 million scans and help save one million lives by 2035 by making preventive health screening more accessible in India.