Bangalore: OneBreath, a Bangalore based medical devices company has appealed the interest of eBay’s Pierre Omidyar who is looking to invest $3 million in it by leading a group of likeminded investors. Omidyar Network, eBay founders’ philanthropic investment firm has taken keen interest as OneBreath focuses on making portable, low cost, rechargeable ventilators reports nytimes.com.

A.Vijayasimha, a Chief Executive of OneBreath said that the company was about to get funded from a consortium of investors and the funding amount could be about $3 million. The investing group also includes physicians from the San Francisco Bay area.

 “The ventilators keep critically ill patients breathing when their respiratory systems are unable to function, and because the ventilators are portable and battery operated, they can be used in rural areas which have no access to big hospitals and limited electricity,” said Vijayasimha to nytimes.com.

 This mobile ventilator has been carefully designed to address two situations, one for emergency availability and the other one to fill up the shortage of ventilators in rural areas. The product is very cheap compared to the current market prices. It is priced a nominal $3,000, compared to $10,000 to $12,000 on what normal hospitals charge. OneBreath also plans to set up its offices in the U.S. and China.

“The sectors we work in typically impact the neediest and the most disadvantaged in our society,” said Jasjit Mangat, director of investment at the Omidyar Network, in a telephone interview with nytimes.com. Omidyar Network has invested in startups that create a social impact; it has invested about $100 million in India since 2009.