Introduction
Anupama Bhat’s entrepreneurial story did not begin in a lab or a boardroom. It began in her kitchen. Long before founding her Startup, Miraii, she was experimenting with eggless chocolate cakes and experiencing the thrill of building something of her own. Today, as the founder of Miraii, Anupama Bhat is building smart, ring-based solutions designed to address real problems around elderly care and women’s safety.
Miraii and Its Three Product Lines
Miraii is developing three distinct product lines all built around smart ring technology and designed to serve different user needs.
Their flagship product is the Elai Smart Ring, an AI-powered voice companion worn on the finger. It functions as an emotional companion and personal assistant, allowing users to interact through voice. Along with conversational AI, the ring provides wellness insights such as heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, and general health data. It is also designed to support guided meditation and anxiety management.
The second product line, Fearless Star, is focused on senior citizens. It includes fall detection and an SOS system that can be triggered automatically through motion sensors or manually through a button. The idea is to ensure immediate medical attention during critical moments, especially when elderly individuals are alone.
Fearless Pro, the third offering, is aimed at women. It combines menstrual cycle tracking and fertility insights, with a safety focused SOS feature. In unsafe situations, users can trigger an alert that shares their real-time location with emergency contacts.
A Product Line that is Personal
The idea for Miraii was born from Anupama Bhat’s own family experiences. Both her parents suffered falls at home when no one else was around. While the incidents were not medically severe, they highlighted a frightening reality that help often comes too late when there is no immediate alert system.
As Anupama Bhat researched further, she discovered how widespread falls among senior citizens are in India. While smartwatches offer some fall detection capabilities, she felt they were bulky, uncomfortable for constant wear, and impractical during sleep.
A smart ring is lightweight, discreet, easy to wear continuously, and has a longer battery life. These advantages convinced her that a ring could be a more effective and user friendly solution, especially for elderly users.
The Future of Miraii
All Miraii products are currently in development. The team has begun manufacturing demo units and is working on integrating hardware and software into a functional product. These initial versions are meant for testing and iteration before a full market launch. The company is targeting a tentative launch window around July 2026. At launch the devices will be positioned as wellness products. Over time Miraii plans to work toward regulatory approvals such as CDSCO or FDA clearances to transition into the medical grade device category.
Learning from IIT Bombay’s ATMAN 3.0 Program
Miraii was selected for ATMAN 3.0, an accelerator program conducted by IIT Bombay. Entry into the program involved a competitive application process that required a detailed business plan and pitch deck, covering the problem statement, solution, go-to-market strategy, revenue projections, and scaling plans.
During the accelerator, Anupama Bhat and her team received mentorship and guidance on product trials, market entry strategies, and overall startup execution. The program was open to both early-stage and scaling startups.
The Challenges of Building a Hardware Startup
Building a hardware startup comes with its own set of hurdles. Many of the high precision components used in Miraii’s devices need to be imported, bringing challenges related to customs, regulations, and logistics. Manufacturing small prototype batches is expensive, and cash flow management becomes especially difficult when bootstrapping. Miraii has received a NIDHI PRAYAS government grant of around ₹9 lakh which helped fund the initial prototype.
Being a Woman Founder
While entrepreneurship itself may be gender-neutral in spirit, Anupama Bhat acknowledges that access to funding tells a different story. Globally, women led startups receive only about 2% of venture capital funding, a reality she describes as deeply discouraging. This challenge becomes even more pronounced for women centric products, such as safety or menstrual health devices, which are sometimes perceived as serving a niche market despite women comprising half the population.
Advice to Aspiring Founders
For first time founders, Anupama Bhat emphasizes resilience above all else. The startup journey, she says, is long, unpredictable, and often lonely. Having mentors, supportive peers, and a strong founder network can make a critical difference during difficult phases. She describes building a startup as a marathon, not a sprint.
Interview by : Khevna Reddy
