Blackfrog Joins Exclusive WHO Club with Portable Cooling Device

When two young men set up Blackfrog Technologies in Manipal, a small coastal town in Karnataka, in 2015, they had no idea the impact it would have just a few years later. With Emvólio, the medical devices start-up introduced a world-class portable refrigerator, which has proved crucial for immunisation across remote Indian hamlets and even Africa. It provides a platform for the last-mile delivery of vaccines and other biologicals like blood and serums. This device maintains a pre-set temperature for up to 12 hours, reducing the economic cost of wasted vaccines. To address the need for efficient vaccine storage and transportation, Blackfrog transitioned from a prototype design house to a manufacturing company under founders Mayur Shetty and Donson D Souza.

Humble Beginnings

Shetty was always fascinated with machines. And at Little Rock Indian School, where he met his close friend D Souza, it only grew. By the time the duo entered Manipal Institute of Technology, engineering felt less like a career decision and more like destiny. Like all engineers, they were nearly caught by the Bengaluru net. But questioning the need to leave their hometown, they made Manipal their base. The turning point for Blackfrog was in 2017, when Dr Arun Shanbhag, chief innovation officer at Manipal Academy of Higher Education, sparked the idea of a battery-powered, portable medical refrigerator.

The problem—safe, temperature-controlled transport of vaccines and biological samples—was not new. Health agencies globally have been struggling with it as older ice-based technologies were not enough. For Shetty, with his background in automobile engineering, the challenge of heat transfer was something he was familiar with. But it took years of intense R&D.

The result being Emvolio Plus, a WHO-prequalified device, earning Blackfrog a place among a small number of global med-tech firms to have secured the status. A WHO-prequalified device is an instrument or test that meets stringent global standards for safety and quality.

First Commercial Product

Emvolio, the start-up's first commercial product in 2021, came in during the pandemic. Cold-chain workers in 14 Indian states were transporting critical biological substances using Emvolio devices, be it through villages, mountains or forests. And Blackfrog’s device made it possible as it could sustain a range of temperatures—from -20°C to 20° C—with a variance of less than 0.5°C.

India’s vast geography makes vaccine delivery one of the toughest public-health challenges, says Dr Setu Sinha, deputy medical superintendent at the Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, and a national assessor for India’s cold-chain systems. "This is why Emvolio is transformational. It has a monitoring system that tracks humidity, compressor activity and power supply that goes beyond what existing systems capture."

R&D Push

It is incredibly challenging to build anything in hardware in a small town. But with chief executive Shetty as the one with vision and cjief operating officer D Souza making the ideas see light of the day, the start-up took on the challenge.

Blackfrog was also at the nexus of hardware and public health, two sectors characterised by regulatory barriers and substantial proof-of-reliability barriers.

However, government agencies came to the rescue and provided the much-needed support. Grants from Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, a government body, and the Department of Science and Technology assisted Blackfrog Technologies in producing a proof of concept. Monitoring solutions were then supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a Canadian government agency.

As the product developed, influential investors such as the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms, an Indian government initiative, Centre for Health Research and Education, a UK health-care company, and Global Innovation Fund (GIF), a UK-based non-profit, also came on board.

Just last year, Blackfrog raised $1.7mn in Pre-Series A funding—$1mn from GIF, $350,000 from Rainmatter Capital and a follow-on investment of $350,000 from the Manipal Education and Medical Group. “We strongly believe that Blackfrog will find more backers and supporters to cheer them on,” says Dinesh Pai, head of Investments, Rainmatter.

For Shetty, the vision remains clear and ambitious: To make India the global leader in medical refrigeration by 2030. He wants every vaccine, vial of blood, organ and temperature-sensitive drug to move safely—no matter where it travels.