Blood is one of the most important requirements in times of medical crises. But family members of patients in need of blood are seen frantically requesting friends or acquaintances for help when they fail to find the required blood type in the blood banks.

In fact, timely availability of blood in India is a challenge. The estimated annual requirement is 10-12 million units but only 9.9 million units are collected.

Thus people in need of blood often turn to social media to expand their search and ensure quicker availability.

A unique service, therefore, aims to reduce the palpitating moments for the dear ones of the patients in need of blood.

Called MBlood, the app-only platform enables location-based search for the blood donors with an aim to provide timely-access to the required blood units.

Inspired from the successful ‘on-request’ cab models that leverage GPS and unique algorithm and data analysis tools, the MBlood app identifies the right blood donor in the vicinity and provides details of the ‘willing’ donors to the requestor.

Founded in January 2018 by Chennai-based entrepreneur Sushil Lalwani, this not-for-profit organisation currently has a network of more than 27,000 users and over 2100 registered blood banks across India.

An extension of SPPLJ Charitable Trust (Shri Parasmal Prakash Chand Lalwani Jain), the company has raised Rs 50 lakhs from the Trust to expand its services to a network of 1 million users by the end of 2018.

In a statement, the company said that more than 1000 blood units have been accepted via MBlood since its launch in January 2018, out of which close to 60 per cent requests were received from semi-urban and rural areas.

“Increased availability of live blood donors within vicinity can bridge the current gap between donors and acceptors significantly and also reduce the cost,” said Sushil Lalwani.

Though it brings the donor and the receiver closer, the company ensures the privacy of the registered users.

“We have ensured that privacy of registered users’ is intact. Unless a donor is willing, their details are not shared with the requestor. And once a user donates blood, they are not contacted for three months,” added Lalwani.

Available on Android platform, MBlood allows the user to specify a timeline within which the blood is required, therefore highlighting the urgency of request placed.

Besides GPS-based search, MBlood provides a unique ‘Community Code’ to the registered Corporates, NGOs and organisations to notify them when a request is raised within their group.

Users can also obtain information on free blood camps within a radius of 20 kms.