World’s First Virtual Blood Donation Platform- SIMPLY BLOOD

Safe Blood Save Lives. Blood is the most precious gift that holds the power to save someone’s life. Everyone across the globe is aware of the significance of blood which is inexpressible in words.

World’s First Virtual Blood Donation Platform- SIMPLY BLOOD

On the substantial day of World Blood Donor Day, pay attention to the Delhi-based startup, Simply Blood which aims to connect the individual who requires blood and the blood donor directly. With this platform the founder, Kiran Verma eliminates middlemen and any kind of fraud while searching for blood donors. During the India International CSR Conclave 2017, Kiran Verma was honoured as “Social Entrepreneur of the year 2017”, at Ph. D Chambers of Commerce.

In India every two seconds someone is juggling to get blood. India has the world’s largest shortage of blood, with all states together battling a huge shortfall of 41 million units and demand outstripping supply by over 400%. The amount of blood which is collected has always been riddled with problems related to poor standards, inefficiency, corruption and other ills. 

There comes the world’s first virtual blood donation platform to rescue our nation from these issues. The startup is available at your single click. You need to download the ‘Simply Blood’ Android app from Google Play Store. Non-android users can visit the official website of the startup. One who wants to donate blood- requires to download the app, register as a blood donor and select a date for donating blood. It is an GPS enabled app which tracks the user’s location and shares their availability on the app to other platform users within a 10 km radar. It ensures to update only the needy closest to the blood donor on a specified date.

One can request for blood requirements with 3 clicks and on the other end all the eligible donors available on the date and location get notified for the same.

Journey of Simply Blood

The thought of a blood bank stroked Kiran’s brain when he lost his mother due to cancer at the age of 7 years. He vowed to do something for mankind. The time he became eligible to donate blood (i.e., 18 years), he started donating blood. 

He became an active donor and created a WhatsApp group of blood donors who want to help people in need of blood. In August 2016, he saw another bad experience, when a whatsapp group member’s mother lost his life due to the shortage of time. The incident made him learn the value of time, specifically in medical emergencies.

In December 2016, he received a call for a required blood donor at a hospital. He donated blood and later got to know from the patient's wife that they got blood at cost of Rs1500. Kiran was shocked and realized the person who called him was a tout and indulged in black marketing of blood. 

Immediately he decided to quit his job and put his entire vision and focus to this noble cause. With the efforts of developers and Kiran Verma an online platform ‘Simply Blood’ was launched on 29th Jan 2017. Later on, 23rd September 2017, a second version of the app was launched by Vijay Goel, the former Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports. 

Now, the awareness needed to be spread across the masses. The founder travelled to different parts of India and also served Nepal and Bhutan. During his travels, awareness about the importance of donating blood was spread to around 600,000 people. 

How does it work?

When in need of blood, you are likely to contact Blood Bank and many large networks to find a blood donor. However, this eats up the valuable hours and efforts, which many times leads to loss of lives, that could have been saved by timely blood donation. Simply Blood is the solution to all such huddles. 

The startup, having a database of 60+k blood donors across India (increasing everyday) and more than 6k registered donors on its platform, creates a medium to find potential blood donors in the nearby area of the one requesting for blood. No middlemen exist in this process. 

One in need of blood has to raise a request with required details of blood type and all the registered donors get notified through the App, SMS, and email within a few seconds. In case the search doesn’t get a response, the request is handled manually using the aid of donor databases and partner agencies. 

Revenue Model

The startup's aim is not profit-making. To keep operating they follow the Wikipedia revenue model of raising money. It shall do a fundraising event every year and use the fund to run the operation. 

Stepping towards success

In the early days (Aug’16 – Dec’16) when it was operating through WhatsApp, it was able to save 13 lives. The startup received positive response across India and even from outside nation’s boundaries. Since 2017, the startup has saved 600+ lives across 8 countries. The app made its footprints in 170+ nations within 16 weeks. It impacted 7000+ users in 15+ countries. It recorded a rating of 4.9 from 200+ users on Google Play Store. 

Kiran Verma, his team and 600,000+ registered donors under the umbrella of Simply Blood are fulfilling the duty of a responsible citizen and humankind. The Need for Blood is ALWAYS There. Be Responsible, Keep Humanity Alive  and Donate Blood.