Building transformative DHPs requires a dedicated, innovative, multi-discipline team

Meet our founders

Two disciplines, two perspectives, one vision —
improving healthcare

Neeraj Apte and Nayan Kalnad
Our efforts are powered by a global, multi-discipline team, but Avegen began
with two co-founders, where two halves made a whole. 

As a former medic, Nayan Kalnad, saw firsthand how digital was going to transform a patient’s lived experience of their condition.
As a serial software entrepreneur, Neeraj Apte had the expertise required to harness technology to maximise its impact.

It was this core knowledge, empathy for the patient and belief that digital would shape the future of health that led to Avegen.

It still drives us today.

Meet Avegen’s leadership team

Nayan Kalnad

Dr. Nayan Kalnad

Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Nayan Kalnad, CEO has over 20 years of experience in healthcare.

Beginning his career as a practising medic, before transitioning into the world of pharma to work at the forefront of digital health. He understands the challenges facing today’s healthcare innovators from every angle.

He is motivated by the needs of the patient, can empathise with the challenges facing clinicians and is energised by how Avegen’s work impact lives. Nayan knows firsthand the challenges facing healthcare and firmly believes a platform approach is needed to maximise the impact of DHPs on health outcomes.

Neeraj Apte

Chief Product Officer

Neeraj Apte, CPO has amassed over 20 years of experience in software.

He brings the technical vision and expertise to Avegen. He has scaled our development, engineering and quality assurance teams into product builders who are focused on safety, efficiency and impact.

Having already built and exited his first entrepreneurial venture, Neeraj knows HealthMachine has to first serve its key stakeholder, the patient. He believes this patient-centric approach is the only way to create fast and sustainable improvements in user’s health and ensure Avegen’s clients improve the experience of living with the long term conditions they choose to target.

Martha Carruthers

Chief Commercial Officer

Chief Commercial Officer. With a wealth of experience spanning over 17 years in pharmaceutical, digital health and therapeutics, Martha brings invaluable expertise to our team. Throughout her career, she has held numerous leadership positions across strategy and commercial functions, spearheading growth initiatives and forging strategic partnerships.

Martha’s passion for digital health fuels her commitment to leveraging technology and healthcare synergies to impact individuals’ lives positively. Her extensive experience across pharma and digital health equips her with a deep understanding of stakeholders’ needs, paving the way for innovation and success and enabling the creation of Digital Health Products (DHPs) that revolutionise patient care. 

Dr. Sumiti Saharan

Product Solutioning & Strategy

Dr. Sumiti Saharan, Product Solutioning & Strategy, is a Neuroscientist by training and has extensive experience designing outcome-driven DHPs from concept to scale.

She has built the research function at Avegen into a trusted collaborator that our clients rely upon to bring their innovation, ingenuity and impact to life through their products.

Dr. Neha Gupta

Director - HealthMachine Research and Design

Dr. Neha Gupta, Director – HealthMachine Research and Design, has experience building and scaling DHPs globally, with expertise in designing and deploying Software as Medical Devices.

She works between Avegen’s clients and our research and technical teams to capture and deeply embed the user voice in all our products, creating intuitive, quickly-adopted solutions that deliver results.

Beginning her career in dentistry, before shifting to work with the earliest innovators in digital health, as well as a stint in big pharma to drive digital adoption from within, Neha knows firsthand the empathy, imagination and motivation it takes to lead teams that are building the future.

Katie Cannon

Director - Strategic Partnerships

Katie Cannon, Director – Strategic Partnerships, brings more than 15 years of experience driving revenue and building impactful partnerships.

Fuelled by a belief that the future of health is both proactive and personalised, the commercial team supports our clients on their journey from the earliest concepts to successfully deployed products.

As health continues to move well beyond the walls of traditional healthcare providers, Katie’s highly-collaborative approach ensures our DHPs are embedded across the full health ecosystem and working well for all stakeholders to ensure the patient impact being targeted can be achieved. 

Squads

In response to client demand and growing expertise, in 2022 we shifted to working in cross-functional squads focused on 4 key indication areas – Mental Health, Cardiovascular, Infectious Diseases and Maternal Health.

This structure allows us to work even more closely with our clients, deepening our understanding of the patient’s lived experience of their long term condition. HealthMachine™ remains condition agnostic and able to support the full spectrum of DHPs, but these specialisms allow us to move faster for our clients.

We have developed a range of hyper-relevant, reusable modules, content and insights that deliver meaningful user engagement and lasting behaviour change for all long term conditions.

Our squads are structured to maximise both experience and expertise. They are multi-disciplinary, composed of designers, developers, QA and data engineers, with implementation at their core and the user as their focus. They work collaboratively and efficiently, sharing the regulatory expertise and human resource support that sits at Avegen’s core.

The Avegen team

Meet Avegen’s clinical partners

Prof Prasanna Sooriakumaran MD PhD

Clinical Lead for Urological Innovation

Prof PS,Clinical Partner, is the Lead for Urology at Cleveland Clinic London. He is a world leader in prostate cancer care, the only surgeon to win the University of Surrey’s Alumni Achievement Award for his “significant contributions to society and the field of prostate cancer care”. He was triple nominated for the Crystal Matula Award, awarded to the most promising young academic urologist in Europe and specialises in Retzius-sparing robotic prostatectomy, an operation that has far fewer side-effects than the standard robotic procedure in select prostate cancer patients. 

Learn more about Life @ Avegen

Values

Values

From day 1 Avegen’s culture has been flat. We work as a team, collaboratively, supporting each other to meet new challenges and deliver exemplary work for our loyal clients. Every employee is encouraged tod learn, grow and speak up for the user at the heart of our products.

Benefits

Benefits

This collaborative team spirit is embodied by 

  • flexible working policies
  • weekly learning and well-being events
  • regular socials
  • personalised training and development plans

Learn more about working @ Avegen

“My days are always varied working in Discovery. I scope potential digital solutions across a range of long-term health conditions, plan content, understand the patient user journey and review research evidence. I enjoy the positive energy shared by team members, the dynamic nature of the projects and the opportunities I’ve had to develop professionally and personally.”

Dr. Katrin Hulme

Associate Director - Product, Research & Design

“My day to day responsibility is to ensure that the company is compliant to the different quality management standards globally to help our products gain market access. I work closely with the MHRA and notified bodies who certify us so we continue to set the right goals and objectives as an organisation.”

Rohan Parge

Regulatory Manager

"A typical day for me involves lots of coding, fixing technical issues, lots of fun! I’ve been at Avegen for over 4 years and it is a great company for freshers, as well as those with experience, who want to explore their knowledge.”

Trupti Kate

Mobile Developer

"At Avegen there’s always something new to learn and I’m happy to push my limits. Everyday, a new opportunity awaits you.”

Varsha Bawari

Delivery Manager and Tech Lead