Cent
Preventive health intelligence platform detecting serious disease before symptoms appear using AI and diagnostics.
Website: https://www.cent.health/
Cover Block
Public sources
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Cent |
| Tagline | Preventive health intelligence platform detecting serious disease before symptoms appear using AI and diagnostics. |
| Headquarters | Bengaluru, India |
| Founded | 2025 |
| Stage | Series A |
| Business Model | Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) |
| Industry | Healthtech |
| Technology | AI / Machine Learning |
| Geography | South Asia |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (3+) |
| Funding Label | Series A |
| Total Disclosed Funding | ~$20,000,000 [Moneycontrol, March 2026] [Moneycontrol, October 2026] |
Links
Public sources
- Website: https://www.cent.health/
- X / Twitter: https://x.com/centai_health
Executive Summary
PUBLIC Cent is a Bengaluru-based preventive health startup that is trying to make early disease detection a consumer purchase rather than a specialist referral, and it has attracted investor attention quickly, raising $20 million across seed and Series A rounds in 2026 [Moneycontrol, March 2026] [Moneycontrol, October 2026]. Founded in 2025 by Practo co-founder Shashank ND, alongside former Ola Electric executive Anshul Khandelwal and former Lenskart product leader Arpit Garg, the company sits at the intersection of diagnostics, imaging, and AI, a combination that remains clinically ambitious and commercially interesting in India’s urban healthcare market [Moneycontrol, March 2026] [Bloomberg Markets] [Forbes, retrieved 2026].
The product case rests on Cent Check, which public reporting describes as a bundled preventive screening protocol using full-body imaging, blood biomarkers, and AI-supported analysis, with claims ranging from screening for more than 300 conditions to using 120-plus biomarkers depending on source [Inc42, October 2026] [Lucidity News] [Cent]. Inc42 also reported that Cent operates as a direct-to-consumer platform with its own diagnostic centres, which matters because service quality, throughput, and unit economics are likely to depend on how tightly the company controls the care delivery layer rather than only the software layer [Inc42, July 2026].
The team is one reason the company is being taken seriously this early. Shashank ND’s record at Practo is well documented, while Khandelwal’s background at Ola Electric is corroborated by Bloomberg Markets; public reporting also consistently identifies Arpit Garg as a co-founder with prior product leadership at Lenskart, though that point is less independently substantiated in the captured source set [Bloomberg Markets] [Forbes, February 2016] [Moneycontrol, March 2026].
On financing, Cent raised about $5 million in seed funding led by South Park Commons in March 2026 and followed with a $15 million Series A led by Blume Ventures in October 2026, with South Park Commons participating again and several named angels joining the round [Moneycontrol, March 2026] [Moneycontrol, October 2026] [Entrackr, October 2026]. The company also acquired AI-radiology platform Medsee alongside the Series A, a move that suggests management wants tighter control over imaging intelligence rather than relying only on third-party diagnostic tooling [Entrackr, October 2026] [Digital Health News, October 2026].
Over the next 12 to 18 months, the central questions are less about fundraising access and more about evidence of repeatable demand, clinical credibility, and operating discipline. Public reporting has cited an annualized revenue run rate of about $2 million (estimated) and rapid month-on-month growth after becoming operational, but those figures remain lightly corroborated, so investors should watch for clearer proof on center expansion, sustained consumer uptake, and whether the bundled diagnostics model can scale without sacrificing trust or care quality [Inc42, July 2026].
Lightly corroborated -- Core company, founder, and funding facts are corroborated by multiple public outlets, but several product and traction claims rely on single-source or company-originated reporting.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Value |
|---|---|
| Stage | Series A |
| Business Model | Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) |
| Industry / Vertical | Healthtech |
| Technology Type | AI / Machine Learning |
| Geography | South Asia |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (3+) |
| Funding | $20,000,000 disclosed |
How the Company Got Here
PUBLIC
Cent appears to be a very new Bengaluru-based preventive health company, and the public record is still narrow enough that chronology matters more than narrative. The company website presents Cent as an advanced full-body health checkup platform built around imaging, biomarker analysis, and longitudinal preventive care, while the structured company profile places its founding in 2025 and headquarters in Bengaluru, India [Cent, retrieved 2026].
From the public materials alone, the clearest operating milestone is product launch rather than a long corporate history. Cent’s website markets "Cent Check" as a comprehensive screening program that combines modalities such as full-body MRI, calcium scoring, DEXA, ECG, blood testing, and genetics-oriented risk analysis, and public coverage tied to the same company states that its first clinical prevention centre launched in Bengaluru in 2026 [Cent, retrieved 2026]. The same site indicates a direct-to-consumer orientation and describes sample collection support for customers in India and abroad, though those service claims remain company-supplied rather than independently corroborated [Cent, retrieved 2026].
A second milestone visible in public sources is scope expansion through product breadth and center buildout. By 2026, Cent’s own materials were describing screening across 200-plus conditions using 100-plus blood tests, while external public references around the same period described the platform as screening for more than 300 conditions, which suggests the public messaging was still evolving as the company scaled [Cent, retrieved 2026]. No legal entity name is confirmed in the provided company-site material, so the public view here is best read as an early operating snapshot rather than a complete corporate file [Cent, retrieved 2026].
Company-stated, unverified -- This section relies primarily on company website claims, with limited public corroboration from the company's own materials only.
Product and Technology
MIXED
The product claim is straightforward even if the underlying clinical proof points are still thin in public reporting. Cent presents itself as a preventive health intelligence platform built to detect serious disease before symptoms appear, and multiple public reports describe the core offer as a bundled screening experience that combines imaging, biomarkers, radiology, artificial intelligence, and bioinformatics [Inc42, July 2026] [Inc42, October 2026] [Digital Health News, October 2026]. The flagship product, Cent Check, is described by public coverage as a single-visit assessment that includes full-body MRI, DEXA, ECG, and other diagnostics, while Cent's own website adds CT calcium scoring, blood testing, and genetic testing elements to that package [Inc42, October 2026] [Cent] [Digital Health News, October 2026].
The more specific performance and scope claims come mostly from the company and should be read that way. Independent coverage says the protocol screens for over 300 conditions [Inc42, October 2026] [All Health Tech], while Cent's website describes 200+ conditions, 100+ blood tests, and analysis tailored to South Asian datasets [Cent]. Lucidity News separately reports 120+ biomarkers and a proprietary CCNM protocol combining AI, imaging, and biomarkers [Lucidity News]. Those statements suggest the differentiation rests less on a stand-alone software layer and more on orchestration: one consumer-facing workflow that packages several diagnostic modalities into a single preventive exam, then uses software and radiology interpretation to consolidate the output [Inc42, July 2026] [Cent].
Public evidence also shows Cent moving to own more of the diagnostic and interpretation stack. Inc42 reported that the company operates as a direct-to-consumer platform and runs its own diagnostic centres, and YourStory and All Health Tech each reported the launch of its first clinical prevention centre in Bengaluru in 2026 [Inc42, July 2026] [YourStory, April 2026] [All Health Tech]. In October 2026, Entrackr reported that Cent acquired AI-radiology platform Medsee alongside its Series A, a move that, if integrated well, could deepen its imaging-analysis capability inside the same care journey [Entrackr, October 2026]. The product architecture is legible from public sources; the remaining open question is clinical validation, because the cited materials describe what the system includes far more clearly than they document sensitivity, false-positive rates, or longitudinal outcomes.
Lightly corroborated -- Product scope is corroborated across Inc42, Digital Health News, YourStory, All Health Tech, and Entrackr, but several detailed modality and condition-count claims remain company-sourced or only partially corroborated.
Where the Demand Sits
PUBLIC
The market matters now because Cent is selling into two forces that have moved from abstract to operational in India, consumers paying directly for preventive care and providers using AI to make imaging and diagnostics workflows more scalable [Inc42, July 2026] [Moneycontrol, October 2026].
Public sources do not provide a verified TAM, SAM, or SOM for Cent itself, so any sizing exercise would need to rely on adjacent markets rather than direct company-level disclosure. The closest grounded read is that Cent sits at the intersection of preventive health checkups, diagnostics imaging, and AI-enabled radiology, with its delivery model framed as a direct-to-consumer platform operating its own centres rather than a software-only product [Inc42, July 2026] [Inc42, October 2026]. That distinction matters because the addressable market is shaped not only by software adoption, but also by consumer willingness to pay for multi-modality screening visits and by local capacity in imaging, pathology, and clinical review [Inc42, July 2026] [Cent].
Demand signals in the available reporting are specific, even if they are early. Inc42 reported in July 2026 that Cent had reached an annualized revenue run rate of about $2 million (estimated) and had grown 50% month on month since becoming operational, figures that suggest there is at least some paying appetite for a higher-ticket, early-detection product among urban consumers [Inc42, July 2026]. The company and several coverage outlets also converge on the product concept, a bundled protocol spanning imaging plus biomarkers and screening for more than 300 conditions, although the exact count varies across sources and remains closer to product-positioning evidence than independently audited clinical-market data [Inc42, October 2026] [All Health Tech] [Lucidity News] [Cent].
The adjacent markets are easier to define than the core one. Cent can be read as competing partly with traditional executive health checkups, partly with imaging-led diagnostic chains, and partly with newer AI-radiology and genomics-informed prevention offerings, given public claims around MRI, CT calcium scoring, DEXA, blood biomarkers, and genetic testing [Cent] [Lucidity News] [Entrackr, October 2026]. That adjacency cuts both ways: it expands the theoretical pool of spending Cent can capture, but it also means the company must prove a coherent consumer value proposition against substitutes that are already familiar, narrower, and often less operationally intensive [Inc42, July 2026] [Digital Health News, October 2026].
Regulatory and macro context look supportive in broad terms, though the evidence here is still indirect. The Series A reporting consistently says proceeds will go toward research and development and expansion of AI, engineering, and clinical teams, which implies investor conviction that India can support scaled preventive-diagnostics infrastructure with a meaningful software layer on top [Moneycontrol, October 2026] [The Economic Times, October 2026]. At the same time, because Cent's model appears to combine radiology, lab testing, genetics, and consumer-facing care delivery, execution will likely be influenced by clinical quality controls, diagnostic-center operations, and the pace at which consumers accept preventive screening before symptoms appear, none of which can be reduced to software adoption alone [Inc42, July 2026] [Cent].
| Market angle | Public evidence | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| Preventive health demand | Cent is positioned as a direct-to-consumer preventive healthcare platform running its own centres [Inc42, July 2026] | Consumer-paid early detection is the immediate commercial wedge |
| Imaging plus biomarker convergence | Cent Check combines full-body MRI and other scans with blood-based testing, according to company materials and press coverage [Inc42, October 2026] [Cent] | The company is targeting a bundled diagnostics spend category rather than a single test market |
| AI-enabled radiology adjacency | Cent acquired Medsee, an AI-radiology platform, in October 2026 [Entrackr, October 2026] [Digital Health News, October 2026] | Workflow software and interpretation tooling may become part of the economic model, not just centre revenue |
| Early commercial validation | Inc42 reported about $2 million annualized revenue run rate (estimated) and 50% month-on-month growth [Inc42, July 2026] | Demand may exist, but the public data is still too thin to establish market scale or retention quality |
The table points to a market that is legible by composition rather than by a clean third-party size estimate. In practical terms, the nearer question is whether Cent can aggregate spend across diagnostics categories into a durable preventive-care habit, not whether a headline TAM can be made to look large.
Lightly corroborated -- Section relies on named public sources, primarily Inc42, Moneycontrol, Entrackr, Digital Health News, and company materials; no independent third-party TAM study for Cent's exact market was available.
Competitive Landscape
MIXED Cent is not competing in a single, clean category so much as at the intersection of preventive diagnostics, radiology-led screening, and consumer health checkups, which means its real alternatives are a mix of incumbent diagnostic chains, hospital-led executive health programs, and newer AI-forward screening models rather than one obvious startup peer [Inc42, July 2026] [Inc42, October 2026] [Cent].
The public record does not name direct startup competitors for Cent, so the map has to be drawn by segment. On one side sit incumbent diagnostics and hospital systems in India, which already own patient trust, imaging infrastructure, clinician networks, and local operating density. On another sit executive checkup programs and annual screening packages that sell convenience and brand familiarity, even if they do not combine imaging, biomarker breadth, and longitudinal follow-up in the same way Cent says it does [Cent] [Inc42, July 2026]. A third bucket is adjacent substitute behavior: consumers can still assemble MRI, bloodwork, DEXA, cardiology tests, and specialist consults separately, which is slower and less integrated but often easier to source through established providers [Inc42, July 2026].
Cent's edge, such as it is in the public evidence, appears to rest on product integration and founder-market fit rather than on distribution scale. The company is described as a direct-to-consumer platform that runs its own diagnostic centres, and its Cent Check protocol bundles imaging with biomarkers and AI-supported analysis in a single visit, which is a meaningful user-experience distinction if execution holds up in clinic operations [Inc42, July 2026] [Inc42, October 2026] [Cent]. The October 2026 acquisition of Medsee also matters competitively because it suggests Cent is trying to internalize part of the radiology intelligence layer instead of relying entirely on third-party tooling [Entrackr, October 2026] [Digital Health News, October 2026]. That said, this edge is still perishable. Protocol design, test bundling, and consumer packaging can be copied by better-capitalized incumbents if demand proves real, and there is not yet public evidence of network density, exclusive payer access, regulatory moat, or large-scale proprietary outcomes data that would make replication difficult [Inc42, July 2026] [Moneycontrol, October 2026].
The main exposure is not a single named startup so much as the structural advantage of established care and diagnostics platforms. Hospitals and mature imaging networks already control specialist referrals, expensive hardware utilization, and follow-on treatment pathways, which are all important once a screening product starts surfacing serious findings. Cent may win the first visit through design and consolidation, but the public record does not show that it owns the downstream channel where diagnosis confirmation, intervention, and repeat care happen [Inc42, July 2026] [Cent]. There is a related exposure on trust. Claims around screening more than 300 conditions and using 120-plus biomarkers are attention-grabbing, but buyers in this category will eventually judge on clinical credibility, false-positive management, and physician acceptance, and those proof points are only lightly documented in public reporting so far [Inc42, October 2026] [Lucidity News].
Over the next 18 months, the most plausible scenario is a land grab for premium urban preventive care in which the winner is the operator that turns a complex protocol into a repeatable clinic experience before incumbents repackage similar offerings. On current public evidence, Cent could be that winner if its founder network, fresh Series A capital, and Medsee acquisition help it standardize interpretation quality and open additional centres faster than legacy providers can respond [Moneycontrol, October 2026] [Entrackr, October 2026]. The likely loser in that scenario would be fragmented à la carte diagnostic workflows, because convenience is the part of the value proposition most immediately visible to consumers [Inc42, July 2026]. The reverse case is also clear. If incumbent hospital and diagnostics brands move quickly into bundled full-body prevention programs with stronger clinician credibility and wider city coverage, newer standalone models like Cent would face a steeper customer-acquisition fight despite differentiated product design [Inc42, July 2026] [Cent].
Opportunity
PUBLIC
PUBLIC If Cent executes on the model described in public reporting, the prize is not a better annual checkup business, it is a new consumer health category in India that packages advanced imaging, blood biomarkers, and AI-assisted interpretation into a recurring early-detection platform [Inc42, July 2026] [Inc42, October 2026] [Cent].
The headline opportunity is straightforward. Cent could become the best-known direct-to-consumer preventive diagnostics brand for affluent and upper-middle-income Indian households who are willing to pay for earlier detection rather than episodic, symptom-led care [Inc42, July 2026] [Moneycontrol, October 2026]. That outcome is reachable, not merely aspirational, because the company already appears to have assembled several ingredients that are hard to line up at once: founder credibility from scaled Indian consumer and healthtech companies, an owned-centre model rather than a pure marketplace, a product that combines multiple diagnostic modalities in one workflow, and enough external capital to build clinical, engineering, and AI teams while expanding the footprint [Forbes, retrieved 2026] [Bloomberg Markets, retrieved 2026] [Inc42, July 2026] [Moneycontrol, October 2026]. Public reporting also indicates that the company became operational before its July 2026 profile and was growing rapidly from that base, though those commercial figures remain lightly corroborated [Inc42, July 2026].
The public evidence supports a few distinct paths to scale.
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer prevention brand | Cent turns Cent Check into a recognized premium health product in major Indian metros, with repeat annual use and family-level adoption | The October 2026 Series A finances expansion of AI, engineering, and clinical teams, which can support more centres and a more standardized protocol [Moneycontrol, October 2026] | The company already operates its own diagnostic centres and launched its first clinical prevention centre in Bengaluru, giving it a physical care-delivery base rather than a concept-stage product alone [Inc42, July 2026] [YourStory, April 2026] |
| Imaging-plus-biomarker platform | Cent becomes a differentiated full-stack diagnostics platform where imaging, biomarkers, and AI interpretation are sold as one integrated service rather than separate tests | Product standardization around Cent Check and the reported use of more than 120 biomarkers alongside imaging can create a clearer clinical and consumer proposition [Inc42, October 2026] [Digital Health News, October 2026] | Multiple publishers describe the same multi-modality model, and the Medsee acquisition suggests management is adding radiology capability rather than outsourcing the intelligence layer [Inc42, October 2026] [Entrackr, October 2026] |
| South Asia risk-intelligence layer | Cent uses South Asian-specific data and longitudinal screening results to improve risk stratification and become more than a diagnostics provider | Expansion of the installed customer base and repeat screening over time could increase the volume of imaging and biomarker data available for model refinement [Cent] [Moneycontrol, October 2026] | The company publicly claims genetic and risk insights tailored to South Asian datasets, and its direct-to-consumer model gives it a path to gather recurring first-party diagnostic data if retention holds [Cent] [Inc42, July 2026] |
The compounding logic matters more than the initial visit volume. If one customer visit bundles MRI, CT-derived calcium scoring, DEXA, ECG, blood biomarkers, and potentially genetic data into a single record, Cent is not only selling a checkup, it is building a longitudinal dataset that can make future recommendations, triage, and report quality better over time [Cent] [Inc42, October 2026]. The company has also moved to add Medsee, an AI-radiology platform, which points to an effort to own more of the interpretation stack rather than remaining a thin diagnostic aggregator [Entrackr, October 2026] [Digital Health News, October 2026]. If that works, the flywheel is plausible: more customers generate more multimodal data, better interpretation improves trust and conversion, stronger trust supports repeat screening and referrals, and higher visit density can improve centre utilization. Public evidence that the flywheel has started is still early, but Inc42 reported roughly $2 million annualized run-rate revenue (estimated) and 50% month-on-month growth after operations began, which at minimum suggests initial demand formation rather than a pre-revenue clinical concept [Inc42, July 2026].
The size of the win is harder to pin down because the source set does not include a confirmed market-size study or a clean public comparable for this exact model. The most defensible way to frame upside from the available evidence is strategic rather than formulaic. Practo, the prior company associated with Shashank ND, was substantial enough to draw Reuters coverage in 2025 on international growth strategy, which is a reminder that scaled digital health platforms can become durable businesses in India when they pair consumer demand with care-delivery infrastructure [Reuters, May 2025]. If Cent can build the leading premium prevention platform across major Indian metros, add recurring annual usage, and turn its multimodal dataset into a defensible interpretation layer, it could plausibly become a strategically important healthtech asset worth several hundred million dollars or more in a future financing or exit outcome (scenario, not a forecast). That upside case rests on brand, data density, and clinical workflow ownership compounding together, not on a single screening package alone [Inc42, July 2026] [Moneycontrol, October 2026] [Entrackr, October 2026].
Lightly corroborated -- Section relies on multiple named public sources for funding, launch, and product direction, but several material upside premises, including growth rate, revenue run rate, and dataset-based differentiation, remain single-source or company-asserted [Inc42, July 2026] [Moneycontrol, October 2026] [Cent].
Sources
Public sources
[Moneycontrol, March 2026] Practo founder, former Lenskart and Ola executives raise $5 million from South Park Commons for healthcare startup Cent | https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/startup/practo-founder-former-lenskart-and-ola-executives-raise-5-million-from-south-park-commons-for-healthcare-startup-cent-13852551.html
[Moneycontrol, October 2026] Cent raises $15 million in round led by Blume Ventures, South Park Commons | https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/startup/cent-raises-15-million-in-round-led-by-blume-ventures-south-park-commons-14061315.html
[Bloomberg Markets] Shashank Nd, Practo Technologies Pvt Ltd: Profile and Biography - Bloomberg Markets | https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/person/17859142
[Forbes, retrieved 2026] Shashank ND | https://www.forbes.com/profile/shashank-nd/
[Inc42, October 2026] Cent Raises $15 Mn To Scale AI-Led Preventive Healthcare Platform | https://inc42.com/buzz/cent-raises-15-mn-to-scale-ai-led-preventive-healthcare-platform/
[Lucidity News] Cent Raises $15 Million to Transform Preventive Healthcare in India | https://lucidityinsights.com/news/cent-raises-15-million-to-transform-preventive-healthcare-in-india
[Cent] India’s Most Comprehensive Full Body Checkup and MRI | Cent | https://www.cent.health/
[Inc42, July 2026] Can Cent’s One-Scan Protocol Outdo India’s Legacy Preventive Healthcare Players? | https://inc42.com/startups/can-cents-one-scan-protocol-outdo-indias-legacy-preventive-healthcare-players/
[Forbes, February 2016] Shashank ND - 2016 30 Under 30 Asia: Healthcare & Science | https://www.forbes.com/pictures/lmh45edfhd/shashank-nd/
[Entrackr, October 2026] Practo co-founder Shashank ND’s startup Cent raises $15 Mn led by Blume, acquires Medsee | https://entrackr.com/news/practo-co-founder-shashank-nds-startup-cent-raises-15-mn-led-by-blume-acquires-medsee-12757196
[Digital Health News, October 2026] Cent Raises $15 Mn in Series A Funding, Acquires AI Radiology Platform Medsee | https://www.digitalhealthnews.com/cent-raises-15-mn-in-series-a-funding-acquires-ai-radiology-platform-medsee
[YourStory, April 2026] Practo founder Shashank ND’s healthtech startup Cent launches first clinical prevention centre in Bengaluru | https://yourstory.com/2026/04/practo-founder-shashank-nd-healthtech-startup-cent-launches-clinical-prevention-centre-bengaluru
[All Health Tech] Cent launches first center in Bangalore, backed by South Park Commons | https://allhealthtech.com/cent-launches-first-center-in-bangalore-backed-by-south-park-commons/
[The Economic Times, October 2026] Cent: Practo founder’s Cent raises $15 million from Blume Ventures, South Park Commons | https://economictimes.com/tech/funding/practo-founders-cent-raises-15-million-from-blume-ventures-south-park-commons/articleshow/135225550.cms
Articles about Cent
- A Full-Body MRI, 120 Biomarkers, and AI: Cent’s Preventive Health Wedge — The Practo founder’s new venture has raised $20 million to build a direct-to-consumer preventive health platform, anchored by a comprehensive diagnostic scan.