December 21, 2017
Rajlakshmi Borthakur, how one mother’s courage can change the lives of millions
Rajlakshmi Borthakur is one of the five winners of the joint AXA-Global Invest Her (GIH) Mentoring competition, dedicated to promoting women entrepreneurship. Discover her story.
3 minutes
Rajlakshmi Borthakur never thought she would embark on the entrepreneurial route. However, all this changed in February 2011, after the birth of her son Tejas who suffers from epilepsy. While his condition was stable at birth with simple jerks in the initial days, the situation quickly worsened and Tejas suffered from full-blown seizures that would not stop on their own and required immediate medical attention.
The original devastation of her son’s condition turned to shock. Indeed, there was very little information and resources available for parents in India. Thus, Rajlakshimi decided to take matters in her own hands and read all the literature she could find on the disease to better grasp the various issues at hand.
TerraBlue XT, a concrete solution
She toiled for three years to provide a new solution to detect the tell-tale signs of an impending seizure and finally, the former UX professional and IoT enthusiast created her startup TerraBlue XT. This MedTech company creates medical grade sensor-based wearables for the prediction, detection, and management of different types of diseases and disorder. These wearables track brain activities, vital signs, physical activities, stress and sleep states to predict future health risks, helping in early intervention and better management of any hitherto undetected ailments. The apps associated with the wearables act as a life coach to the users, monitoring their health and detecting anomalies so that the user is alerted to seek medical intervention at the right time. Indeed, one of the main issues of epilepsy is seizure prevention and although detection devices were available in the United States and Europe, they were unfortunately unsuited to the Indian market and the data was often hard to interpret by local doctors.
Think bigger!
Rajlakshimi dedicated her time and resources to bring solutions to the market. Her courage and determination have already been bearing their fruits as TerraBlue XT has been recognized by the Government of India for its unique wearables and health innovations. Indeed, in 2015, Rajlakshimi won the Innovate for Digital India contest. More recently, in November 2017, Rajlakshimi’s work was highlighted at the 8th Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) 2017 in Hyderabad, India where international leaders applauded her courage and determination in the face of adversity.
Today, she is developing multiple medical devices based on one predictive intelligence platform. Xaant, a unique wearable for the management of mental stress and physical activities is poised to launch in the next six months, while TJay, an intelligent glove and patented IoT solution named in honor of her son will be released in the middle of 2018.
Rajlakshimi thinks big: she is already operating out of Bangalore Bioinnovation Center, a government-supported biotech incubator, in India and plans to enter Europe, Australia and the APAC region in 2018. In addition to this ambition schedule for the coming year, the tenacious entrepreneur is also developing low-cost products for cardiovascular related ailments targeting emerging markets.
“Just believe you can and you will thrive”
With all this success and accolades, one may ask why Rajlakshimi would apply to AXA’s GIH program. As she explains: “I want to learn how to build an executive presence and become a global tech leader. I also want to learn to negotiate at an international level and how to build a sustainable and socially-relevant organization. I am sure the esteemed women mentors of the network will help me achieve my goals.” Our courageous entrepreneur sees herself as the woman version of Elon Musk who can provide solutions that can positively impact people all over the world. She sees technology as a vector for the greater good of humanity and wants to actively participate in its development.
“Today, there are over 55 million people in the world suffering from chronic neurological troubles. What I learned working on this project is that I could not only improve the life of my son, but of millions around the world.” She encourages all, and especially women, to take the plunge and start their entrepreneurial journey. Rajlakshimi believes that there is no barrier that can stop women: “Just believe you can and you will thrive. Go for it with an open mind.”
