Singapore-based Smarter Health has announced an SG$5.15 (US$3.8) million in Series A fundraise led by East Ventures.

Orbit Malaysia, Citrine Capital, HMI Group, and Emtek also co-invested.

As per a press statement, the health-tech company will use the funds primarily for product development and market expansion in Southeast Asia.

Founded by Liaw Yit Ming (CEO) and Dr Lee Hong Huei (COO), Smarter Health is a unified platform that facilitates secure data exchanges between insurers, healthcare providers and patients throughout the entire healthcare journey. This enables the use of data to guide decision-making for patients and improve the accuracy and speed of claims processing.

The startup claims to have achieved good traction in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

Also Read: Meet the VCs: In conversation with East Ventures’ first female partner Melisa Irene

Willson Cuaca, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of East Ventures, said: “The COVID-19 pandemic has forced insurers and healthcare providers to reflect and re-strategise on their operations, catalysing digital transformation. Smarter Health is here to make healthcare accessible, affordable, and accountable by providing an AI-powered interoperable platform.”

East Ventures is a sector-agnostic VC firm and is the first investor of Indonesia’s unicorns Tokopedia and Traveloka. Its other notable companies in the portfolio include Ruangguru, Warung Pintar, Kudo (acquired by Grab), Loket (acquired by Gojek), Tech in Asia, Xendit, IDN Media, MokaPOS (acquired by Gojek), ShopBack, KoinWorks, Waresix, and Sociolla.

Orbit Malaysia is a series A regional fund co-managed by Kejora Capital and Sunway Group of Malaysia. It is also part of the fund portfolio of Mavcap Malaysia.

Citrine Capital is a principle-based investment firm committed to global sustainable development.

HMI Group is a regional private healthcare provider with a presence in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. It owns and operates two tertiary hospitals in Malaysia. In Singapore, the group operates a healthcare training centre, a primary care clinic chain with 25 locations, and a private one-stop ambulatory care centre.

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American venture capitalist, well-known author, and entrepreneur Brad Feld once said, “they say it takes a village to raise a child and a startup is not different.” It takes a whole community to raise a successful startup company that can grow, scale, and contribute to a healthy economy, he added.

It is true that to achieve success, startups need to operate within a larger network of reputable companies that can help lift each other. Collaboration and innovation have been at the heart of the success of businesses forever but in light of the ongoing pandemic, working together and fostering ecosystems that help startups and SMEs grow has become a necessity.

In fact, several studies and reports have cited collaboration and partnerships to be key for post-pandemic recovery for startups in the APAC region and across the globe. A 2020 PwC study states that for complete economic recovery amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and after this crisis, stakeholders need to realign their future path based on strategic intent and focus. The study highlights “fostering a collaborative innovation ecosystem” as one of the key pillars that will be critical to Asia Pacific’s journey over the next 10 years.

Collaboration is key when it comes to early-stage startups

In 2019, the failure rate of startups was around 90%. The research concludes 21.5% of startups fail in the first year, 30% in the second year and 50% in the fifth year, and 70% in their 10th year, and one of the main reasons for their failure is the lack of a collaborative ecosystem.

While collaboration is important for small and big companies alike irrespective of what stage they’re at, when it comes to young startups that are still in Series A to C stages, collaboration is an absolute imperative. An ecosystem that boosts business growth, guides these young companies towards success, and fosters partnerships that result in business development and scalability, is a necessity.

Also read: China Mobile International hosts mCloud Carnival 2021

Some of the key elements that a collaborative ecosystem can help young startups with include:

• Exposure: Startups need to be able to engage with peers and learn about best common practices, industry standards, and so on.
• Technological know-how: They need knowledge and skills to be able to leverage technology and gauge the right platforms to test and develop products.
• A robust network: Growth and expansion can only happen if they have access to the right network of both investors and B2B startups for partnerships and collaborations.
• A supportive community: Startups also need access to global markets with the help of partner organisations and network retailers and distributors, among others.
• Mentorship and guidance: Startups can future-proof their growth and scalability through continuous mentorship and support.

These elements are not easy to come by, especially for newcomers in the startup ecosystem. While there is no dearth of programmes like accelerators and incubators that claim to help young startups thrive, unfortunately, rarely are they able to offer benefits as complex and comprehensive as the ones mentioned above.

Enter Fast Forward with HPE!

To fill this gap and help series A to C startups, Fast Forward with HPE is fostering a robust and supportive community for startups that focus on providing B2B services and solutions.

Fast Forward with HPE! is a unique startup programme that focuses on helping startups accelerate innovation, create collaborative opportunities, develop business strategies for future growth, and ultimately expand their footprints beyond the APAC region. This programme brings the smartest ideas and entrepreneurial spirit of digital startups, top venture capitalists, accelerators, and leading technology vendors together with industry leaders, consultants, and experts.

With a keen focus on early-stage digital startups that have proven B2B Enterprise Solutions and have raised funds within the past 1 year, Fast Forward with HPE aims to help build a community that cultivates startup growth and scalability.

Also read: Expo 2020 Dubai: The Malaysian companies ready to break into the global Islamic fintech market

Fast Forward with HPE! 2021’s list of qualifying startups is a rich mix of tech startups working on the latest and most cutting-edge technologies such as cloud, AI, and AR across different industries like construction and retail. These promising early-stage startups are based in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia.

Series A qualifying startups in this year’s cohort are Cloudpick, DataVLT, viAct, Transcelestial, Quincus, Tagspace, and weR. H3Dynamics is the only Series B startup. This year’s cohort also includes two pre-Series A startups Hashstacs Pte Ltd and SeventhSense.

Participating startups were judged by industry leaders and experts, including Paul Glaser, Corporate Vice President & Global Head of Pathfinder, HPE Venture Capital Fund, Huey Lih, Heng General Manager for Channels, Service Provider & Ecosystem Sales Asia Pacific, Santhosh Viswanathan, Vice President & Managing Director, Sales Marketing and Communications Group, APJ, Intel Corporation, Suchitra Narayan, Director, Advanced Manufacturing & Venture Building, SGInnovate and Amit Gupta, CEO & Founder of Ecosystem.

Nurturing leaders of tomorrow through collaborations and support

With this programme, startups are able to learn from industry experts from HPE, Intel, and HPE’s ecosystem partners as well as from successful peers such as Tookitaki, Ninja Van, Netflix, Dropbox, Logitravel, and GoJek. They are also able to develop their products by leveraging mentorship on technology as well as utilising test and dev environments. The programme connects these startups with industry-relevant VCs, investors, and other B2B startups in the region looking for partnerships and collaborations.

The cohort also gets a chance to grow with HPE’s select installed base customers and partner network of resellers, distributors, Sis(System Integrators), ISVs (Independent Software Vendors), OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers), and alliances on top of the unique opportunity to reach out to HPE global customers.

Also read: How you can be part of solving global challenges with Leave a Nest

Furthermore, HPE Fast Forward’s live pitch day series will see the top ten startups present and pitch their business proposal before a select group of HPE leaders, partners, and venture capitalists.

With an array of benefits, community support being one of the highlight advantages, participating startups from HPE’s Fast Forward are poised to reach great heights. To learn more about the programme, visit their official page here.

You can access the pitches at FAST FORWARD WITH HPE “Pitch Day” Live Episode 1 on January 13, Episode 2 on January 20, and the final Episode on January 27.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by HP Enterprise

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Who would have imagined Vietnamese blockchain game developer Sky Mavis to become a unicorn within just three years of starting up? No one. Not even the founders or its investors. 

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), metaverse, and Web3 were the definite trends of 2021. Many companies operating in these domains attracted eyeballs and investors’ attention. These verticals will continue to take centre stage as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc worldwide.

We bring you a list of companies in the NFTs/Web3/Metaverse segments that drew attention in 2021.  

Sky Mavis (Axie Infinity)

Sky Mavis was founded in early 2018 by Aleksander Leonard Larsen, Nguyễn Thành Trung, Đoàn Minh Tú, Hồ Sỹ Việt Anh and Jeffrey Samuel Kim Zirlin. It is the creator of Axie Infinity, a popular NFT-based play-to-earn (P2E) game where players breed, battle, and trade digital pets called Axie.

NFT-based P2E games are decentralised, meaning that the players own the in-game assets that they purchase and can generate real-world rewards for their in-game activities. Axie Infinity says it has helped create income-generating opportunities for underserved people worldwide; 25 per cent of players are unbanked, and 50 per cent have not previously used cryptocurrencies.

Axie Infinity has amassed players worldwide, with more than 1.8 million daily active users logging into the platform in August. It claims to have achieved US$33 million in everyday transactions, for a total volume of over US$2 billion.

In October, the Vietnamese company scored US$152 million in a Series B financing round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Accel Partners and Paradigm also joining. This followed a US$7.5 million Series A funding in May, led by Libertus Capital. Previously, Sky Mavis raised US$1.5 million from several backers such as Animoca Brands, Hashed, Pangea Blockchain Fund, Consensys, and 500 Startups Vietnam.

As per the Crunchbase data, Sky Mavis is already a unicorn.

Yield Guild Games Southeast Asia

Led by CEO and co-founder Evan Spytma and co-founders Dan Wang and Irene Umar, YGG SEA is an official sub-DAO of YGG, which launched as a decentralised autonomous organisation in July 2021. YGG SEA leverages the parent’s infrastructure and assets to serve communities within the region to join the metaverse through localised investment, education and on-the-ground services.

So far, YGG SEA has helped more than 2,500 players and investors in the region to generate additional revenue streams, including over 600 in Thailand. The regional guild plans to increase the customer base to about 10,000 by 2022.

In December, the Philippine company announced raising US$15 million over two rounds of funding. The seed round, which took place in August, was led by the parent company and Infinity Ventures Crypto. The additional funding, which came in November, was led by Crypto.com Capital, Animoca Brands, MindWorks Ventures, Poloniex, Jump Capital and Sembrani Kiqani by BRI Ventures.

Sipher

Founded by prominent Vietnamese entrepreneur Nguyen Trung Tin (CEO), Sipher aims to unify state-of-the-art blockchain tech, artwork, storytelling, multiplayer gaming with decentralised financial technologies. Its vision is to create an expansive world that attracts and keeps the player base engaged for years to come as new worlds, characters and factions are introduced.

Sipher intends to create an ecosystem where people can play for fun while earning rewards for their time spent in-game. It also provides the community with ownership of in-game assets, which directly contributes to the growth and success of the gaming industry.

In October, Sipher announced the closing of a US$6.8 million financing round, co-led by Arrington Capital, Hashed and Konvoy Ventures. Defiance Capital, Signum Capital, Dragonfly Capital, CMT Digital, BITKRAFT Ventures, Delphi Digital, Alameda Research, Fenbushi Capital, Sfermion, Hyperchain, GBV, Kyber Network, Coin98 Ventures, YGG and Merit Circle also participated.

GuildFi

GuildFi is a Thai startup that aims to create an ecosystem that connects the intricate jigsaws of the metaverse. It develops a Web3 infrastructure to connect games, NFTs, and communities to maximise players’ benefits and enable interoperability across the metaverse.

GuildFi looks to develop new features such as:

• GuildFi ID: a metaverse ID that is embedded with a levelling system that tracks players’ achievement and footprint across the metaverse. Players receive engagement points and ranking, which translate into the rewards they deserve,
• Game discovery: it helps players discover curated games and game creators discover the right player base for their game launch,
• Proof-of-Play Rewards: it enables play-to-earn on any games by analysing your lifetime activities and giving out the right benefits to you whether it’s an allocation to an NFT campaign or a bonus yield from our tokens,
• Metadrop Launchpad: it offers a special NFT and token deal from its partners where an allocation is determined by players’ ranks. 
• GameFi tools: They enhance players’ performance by providing gaming tools, for instance, the Axie Infinity toolkit that features scholarship management, daily SLP shares, PvP simulation, team status, and card explorer.
• Scholarship portal: it offers a built-in scholarship programme provided by GuildFi’s treasury and guild partners, reducing the barrier to entry for play-to-earn games and unlocking the opportunity for players anywhere in the world. 

To achieve this mission, GuildFi will collaborate with game creators globally to identify and attract the right players while supporting them through in-game asset investment and campaign collaboration to ensure successful launches and healthy growth.

In November, the startup completed a US$6 million seed round of financing, co-led by Singapore-based crypto-asset fund DeFiance Capital and South Korean early-stage VC firm Hashed. Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research, Animoca Brands, Dapper Labs, Play Ventures, SkyVision Capital, Coin98 Ventures, and other notable investors also co-invested.

OFF

OFF was co-founded by three crypto-natives, including Jinwoo Park (co-founder of South Korean crypto-asset investment firm Hashed).

OFF’s goal is to create an open ecosystem for avatar-based micro verses, and its first product is an NFT-based social metaverse platform, called MYTY.

MYTY is a decentralised social platform where people can escape the limitations of the physical world using NFT avatars. Its MYTY Camera app converts CryptoPunks NFT into avatars. It enables users to show up as the visuals of their own NFT avatars in Discord, Zoom, and other webcam-based applications.

OFF is currently working on “Ghosts Project”, the first collection of NFT avatars designed in partnership with MrMisang, the top artist in SuperRare. Ghosts Project, which is a prequel to MrMisang’s original series Modern Life is Rubbish, is being optimised for face tracking and motion tracking. It is designed to show the full capacity of MYTY’s avatars full-body tracking, including nodding, raising hands, and various emotional expressions.

GhostsProject is currently building Twittxer and Discord communities and planning an NFT avatar sale. Ghosts will be supported by MYTY Camera after the sales.

In November, OFF announced a US$3.5 million seed funding round co-led by Hashed and Collab+Currency. The round also saw the participation of BITKRAFT Ventures, Electric Capital, Coinbase Ventures and SamsungNEXT.

Fantico

Fantico is a digital collectible platform catering to celebrated movies, artists, musicians, and sports for the Indian market. A portfolio company of Singapore-based diversified media and entertainment firm Vistas Media Capital, it builds its own version of metaverse, dubbed VistaVerse.

VistaVerse consists of virtual land, blockchain games, curated and user-generated experiences, and an NFT marketplace. It will be launched in the coming months with premium curated experiences, including from top Indian celebrities.

The marketplace has already been launched, focusing on both crypto and non-crypto user bases with marquee items to pique the interests of both segments.

The metaverse firm will leverage the parent company’s content, such as movies, music, and gaming resources, to build an experience-first approach.

In December, Fantico raised an undisclosed sum in a private financing round from Animoca Brands. Individuals, including Hemant Tucker, segment head for technopreneurs and market head (South Asia & Middle East) at Bank of Singapore, also joined the round.

Cosmic Guild

Cosmic Guild is a play-to-earn (P2E) community of gamers. The startup has run scholarships in Axie Infinity to incentivise players. The one-month-old startup operates as a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) focused on maximising yield and building communities.

Currently, the community-first guide provides NFT assets for more than 600 scholars and is said to reinvest the earnings into breeding more Axies and growing its pool of scholars.

The team believes that P2E games will increase in complexity and skill requirements. The meta changes from time to time in all games, challenging both the managers and players to rethink strategies and deploy capital constantly.

As a result, Cosmic Guild holds a portfolio of NFT game assets of crypto games loaned to guild members who can play using the NFTs and earn yields on games.

In December, it secured US$1.5 million in seed funding led by Binance Labs, the VC and incubation arm of Binance. Co-investors include DeFiance Capital, Alameda Research, and Play Ventures.

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Anfin, a stock trading app for retail investors based in Vietnam, has raised US$1.2 million in a seed funding round from investors, including Global Founders Capital (GFC) and First Check Ventures.

New investors, including the US-based The Goodwater Capital, also participated. 

According to the company, the CEOs of Gojek, Zalora, Stripe, Google, and Grab also participated in the round through XA Network.

Anfin will utilise the funding to improve its “fractional share” system further to assist users in real-time trading and boost its presence through extensive communications activities.

The fintech firm will also directly integrate its system with Viet Tin Securities Company, a brokerage firm licensed by the State Securities Commission of Viet Nam (SSC).

This seed round follows Anfin’s US$510,000 funding round last October. A month later, Anfin reportedly received US$125,000 from Y Combinator, alongside angel investments from unnamed directors at Temasek and Coinbase. The startup will officially join Y Combinator Winter 2022 Batch from January to March this year.

Also read: Pocket power: 27 personal finance startups in SEA to help you manage money

Anfin was founded in June 2021 by CEO Phuoc Tran, who was the co-founder of Vietnamese on-demand delivery platform Ahamove, and CPO Michael Do, who worked in the investment teams of several venture capital firms, including BEENEXT and R2 Venture Partners. 

The duo leverages the concept of trading in fractional shares through the Anfin app, enabling users to buy and sell stocks actively and quickly with small capital starting at only VND50,000 (around US$2). 

“On normal brokers, you can only buy a round lot of 100 shares, which are worth US$400-US$600 when buying blue-chip stocks of companies like Vingroup, Masan, or Mobile World,” Do told e27 in an interview last November. “Now you can buy and sell those stocks for only US$2 on Anfin app. Plus, we offer considerably better UI/UX for new users.”

He added that Anfin aims to simplify the financial investment process through a user-friendly, transparent and secured platform, generating passive and active income for young Vietnamese.

“Other investment apps are doing on the passive investing side, getting users invested in mutual funds, ETFs, and fixed income. However, our focus is on active investing where users have free will to buy and sell their own portfolio of individual stocks,” noted Do.

The startup also supports users’ decision-making by providing investment knowledge, from basic to advanced, and updating financial news in an easy-to-understand style.

“The complicated process, risk aversion and large initial capital are common barriers that hinder Vietnamese people from investing in securities,” said Anfin CEO Phuoc Tran in a statement. “We strive to inspire and support Vietnamese people, especially the young, to help them confidently start investing to achieve their financial goals.”

In the first 11 months of 2021, more than 1.3 million new domestic trading accounts were opened in Vietnam, much higher than the total number of over 1 million recorded between 2017 and 2020. Around three per cent of Vietnam’s 100 million population has a stock brokerage account, according to investment firm VinaCapital.

Vietnam’s government also aims to increase the country’s stock brokerage penetration rate to 5 per cent by 2025 and 10 per cent by 2030.

In Southeast Asia, investment platforms are ripe for an explosion, with Indonesia’s Aijab and the Philippines’s Myntbecoming the latest unicorns in this sector. In Vietnam, Finhay and Infina are the two other notable startups in the industry that recently secured fundings.

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Image Credit: Anfin

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Data breaches are increasing in frequency and posing serious threats to security. The healthcare industry has been especially affected by the increase in data breaches since healthcare providers store such sensitive and important information. When the internet security of a healthcare organisation is compromised there can be lasting damages to reputation as well as monetary consequences. If the consequences are so severe for data breaches in the healthcare industry, why do they happen so often?

There are many security vulnerabilities in healthcare mostly due to outdated technology. Old medical devices are made by companies that are no longer even in business.  Some of these implanted and inter-connected devices are hackable and old software has gaping security holes. Human errors in using old devices can also increase the risk of security breaches. Many hospitals aren’t even aware of which systems run on the devices that they are using and lack full-time employees to ensure that the systems are running smoothly.

Another reason that security breaches are so common in the healthcare industry is due to the lack of trust between cybersecurity experts and doctors. Providers are often more concerned with protecting patient privacy rather than cybersecurity even though breaches of cybersecurity put patients privacy directly at risk. Providers also lack resources and awareness because they simply do not have the same skills as cybersecurity experts. Oftentimes these experts will create patches to fix old problems, but providers believe they are exaggerating the issues and so they delay installing the fixes causing even more problems to arise.

The rise in data breaches has monetary and reputational consequences for healthcare organisations. On average data breaches cost US$6.5 million, that’s about US$429 per patient record that is affected! Sixty-seven per cent of the costs are incurred during the first year after a breach, but the costs don’t end there. For years after an initial breach healthcare organisations can continue to pay legal, technical, and regulatory fees. Business is also affected since patients lose trust in their healthcare providers and stop coming to them for healthcare services.

Also Read: Breaking the taboo: Meet the Singapore-based startups that are working to provide access to sexual healthcare

It is no secret that the information that is held by healthcare providers is important, and so the security of this information should be a top priority. With the rise in hackers and data breaches, this information is becoming more and more difficult to keep protected. So what is the solution?

Many healthcare providers are making the transition to healthcare on the blockchain. The blockchain is a distributed ledger for recording transactions and tracking assets and has many promising applications in healthcare. One of these applications is wearable remote monitoring devices. These devices can monitor things such as blood pressure, pulse, or seizure activity and can be monitored by healthcare providers remotely. These devices are then attached to a patient hub that contains all of a person’s health records available for easy access by both patient and doctor.  These devices are very simple to use, leading to fewer human errors along with their added security benefits. The fact that patients have access to their files also means there is higher transparency and the audit trail allows for easier ways to track who is viewing information.

Other applications of the blockchain are useful in telehealth– remote healthcare services– which grew in popularity over the course of the pandemic when stay-at-home orders were put in place. Blockchain in telehealth means an easier exchange of data, increased consumer confidence in the system, and copies of data ledgers that are given to both doctor and patient. The use of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) is also useful in telehealth since doctors can have more confidence that they are receiving genuine data from their patients.

Companies are exploring the use of healthcare on the blockchain and are reporting overall better productivity since making the switch. Some companies use blockchain to secure real-time messaging between their clients or patients and hold negotiations and contract discussions without fear of their sensitive information being leaked to third parties. Others use the blockchain to help in data collection and analysis. In fact, blockchain data analysis was used in order to report changing statistics regarding the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic and the information was crucial in helping healthcare providers prepare for incoming patients.

Also Read: Why Khailee Ng puts mental healthcare support as key to successful founders-investors relationship

Overall, patients want to be able to trust that their medical information is in safe hands when they visit their doctors’ office whether in person or virtually. Seeing the rise in data breaches due to third-party hacking, the switch to healthcare on the blockchain is the solution to healthcare security leaks. Learn more about healthcare on the blockchain in the infographic below:

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