Ayati Devices

Nishant Kathpal is Season 4's most IIT-Bombay-incubated medtech founder. His founding story began not in a boardroom or a market research session but during a college project at IIT Bombay where he discovered that members of his own family were suffering from diabetic foot complications, a condition he had never previously understood or even known existed. "Started in 2019 at IIT Bombay, his motivation for starting this healthcare business was his own family. With a strong focus on neuropathy and foot complications caused by diabetes, the idea of this startup is to make healthcare affordable and accessible. He addressed the problem of the diabetic foot through his innovation, the seed for which was planted during a college project where he discovered people in his own family suffering from it."

Vibrasense is a compact, battery-powered, handheld medical device that quantifies the Vibration Perception Threshold (VPT) in diabetic patients' feet, providing the earliest possible detection of peripheral neuropathy before symptoms become clinically apparent. The device addresses the most devastating cascade in diabetes management: undetected neuropathy leads to loss of foot sensation, which leads to unnoticed injuries, which leads to foot ulcers, which leads to infections, which leads to amputation. The 5-minute screening time and 100-plus-patient battery life make Vibrasense deployable in the most resource-constrained healthcare settings: primary health centres, rural clinics, community health camps, and pharmacy-based screening programmes where expensive hospital-grade diagnostic equipment is unavailable. A single Vibrasense device can screen an entire village's diabetic population in one day.

Amount Asked: ₹1 crore Equity Offered: 2% Implied Pre-Money Valuation: ₹50 crore

Nishant Kathpal walked into Season 4 Episode 30 as the episode's most clinically consequential medtech founder. His pitch opened with the devastating diabetes statistic that frames Vibrasense's urgency: India has 101 million diabetics (second highest globally), 50% develop neuropathy, 15% develop foot ulcers, and approximately 1 million diabetic foot amputations occur worldwide annually. Most of these amputations are preventable through early neuropathy detection, which is exactly what Vibrasense provides. The device demonstration showed Vibrasense's simplicity: a small, handheld, battery-powered device placed against the patient's foot, delivering calibrated vibrations and measuring the perception threshold. Within 5 minutes, the clinician has a quantified neuropathy score that determines whether the patient needs intervention, monitoring, or is safe. No blood draws, no complex procedures, no expensive equipment.

Namita Thapar was the most domain-aligned Shark: Emcure's pharmaceutical portfolio includes diabetes management products, making Vibrasense a natural complement to her healthcare ecosystem. Peyush Bansal recognised the consumer health scaling opportunity: just as Lenskart made eye testing accessible through technology (automated eye test machines in stores), Vibrasense could make neuropathy screening accessible through affordable, portable devices in primary health centres. He co-invested with Namita. Anupam Mittal appreciated the innovation but did not invest. The medtech category sat outside his consumer digital platform expertise. Aman Gupta acknowledged the medical device's importance but did not invest. Consumer electronics expertise provided limited strategic value for a clinical diagnostic device company. Vineeta Singh (or guest Shark) did not invest, sharing similar domain-misalignment concerns.

Nishant asked ₹1 crore for 2% (₹50 crore). After engaging negotiation where Namita and Peyush evaluated the clinical evidence, deployment scale, and commercial potential, they jointly offered ₹1 crore for 4.76% equity (₹21 crore valuation). Nishant accepted. The valuation dropped 58% from ₹50 crore to ₹21 crore, and equity increased 2.38x from 2% to 4.76%, but the founder secured the most medtech-relevant two-Shark combination on the panel: pharmaceutical healthcare distribution (Namita) and consumer health technology scaling (Peyush).

Nishant Kathpal accepted the two-Shark deal from Namita Thapar and Peyush Bansal at ₹1 crore for 4.76% equity, valuing Vibrasense/Ayati Devices at ₹21 crore. The deal brought Emcure's pharmaceutical hospital network and diabetes product ecosystem (Namita) and Lenskart's consumer health technology scaling methodology (Peyush) into India's most globally deployed diabetic neuropathy screening device, the most life-preservingly strategic two-Shark combination of Season 4.

Ayati Devices continues its mission to make diabetic neuropathy screening affordable and accessible across India and the world. Total funding has reached $770K from SINE (IIT Bombay), Mumbai Angels, MSRIT, and the Shark Tank investment. The BIRAC BIG Grant provides additional non-dilutive government funding. YourStory featured Ayati Devices in April 2025 as a pioneering medtech startup "making diabetes detection fast" and highlighted the expanding product portfolio: Vibrasense (VPT screening), Vibrasense+T (enhanced with temperature sensing), Angiocam (vascular assessment), Neurosense Kit (comprehensive neuropathy assessment), and Podiasen (podiatric assessment). Tracxn values the company at ₹24.5 crore with 8 active competitors, 5 of which are funded. The 40,000-location deployment and 15-country export footprint continue expanding as awareness of diabetic neuropathy screening grows globally. India's diabetes epidemic (101 million patients, growing at 3% annually) ensures structurally increasing demand for affordable screening devices.