Dear Pro member,

Halodoc has raised US$100 million in a Series D funding round led by existing backer Astra Digital. With this, the total capital raised by the Indonesian healthtech company so far has touched US$258 million, bringing it closer to achieving unicorn status.

The company’s success can be attributed to its extensive network of more than 20,000 medical practitioners, 3,300 hospitals, and 4,900 pharmacies, providing comprehensive healthcare services to the Indonesian population.

As of 2022, Halodoc boasts an impressive user base of over 20 million monthly active users, demonstrating its widespread popularity and effectiveness. This substantial investment will undoubtedly bolster Halodoc’s growth, allowing it to expand its services further and solidify its position in the competitive healthtech market.

This is the top story of today’s Ecosystem Roundup.

Scroll down to read the other major headlines.

Sainul,
Editor.

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Indonesia-based healthtech firm Halodoc raises US$100M Series D
The lead investor is Astra Digital; Halodoc’s platform offers its users a network of over 20,000 medical practitioners, 3,300 hospitals, and 4,900 pharmacies.

VinFast to close SPAC deal in August at US$23B valuation
The merger with Black Spade Capital brings VinFast to a US$27B enterprise value and US$23 billion equity value, making it one of the most highly valued EV firms globally.

Bukalapak posts US$40.7M net profit in Q2 as revenue increases 30%
A major driver for this growth is its marketplace unit, which recorded a 74% growth in revenue to US$45.3M; The segment encompasses its general Bukalapak platform as well as Itemku, which it acquired in 2021.

Blibli’s revenue up 16% in H1 2023, loss narrows by 29%
The company generates its revenue from first-party retail, third-party retail, corporate customers, and physical stores. Only first-party retail experienced a decline in net revenue for H1 2023, dropping 6% year on year to US$260M.

Vietnamese K-12-focused edutech startup VUIHOC raises US$6M Series A
The investors include TNB Aura, Do Ventures, BAce Capital, and Vulpes; VUIHOC aims to harness the power of AI to offer personalised learning experiences specifically tailored to meet students’ individual needs.

Biodiversity Accelerator+ unviels startups joining its 2023 cohort
More than half of the companies in the Biodiversity Accelerator+’s first batch have females at the helm, and 63% are based out of APAC; The 3-month programme will commence in Singapore next month.

SME financing platform Validus appoints Vineet Agarwal new Singapore CEO
He will replace Jayanta Roy, who is retiring; Agarwal previously served as the president of payments at the firm, where he helped roll out the company’s SME financial services offering in Singapore.

Airwallex pumps US$165M into Singapore entity
Airwallex Singapore recorded US$5.4M in revenue last year; Meanwhile, the fintech firm’s loss from operating activities increased to US$5.9M in 2022 from US$4.3M in the year before.

Capital A partners with UnionDigital Bank for SEA expansion
The aim is to push the expansion of BigPay, Capital A’s fintech arm, in Southeast Asian markets, including Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Justin Choi resigns just a month after taking charge as Spenmo CEO
Choi resigned from his role at the expense management startup due to personal reasons; Jo-Ann Chung, Spenmo’s CPO, will take over as acting CEO.

‘Asia presents potential for high-impact, high-return investments in life sciences, deeptech’
Yet, there’re unique challenges to investing in Asia, such as its complex regulatory environment and cultural and language differences: says Harmonix’s Maximilian Winter.

How Circular can help to reduce e-waste through its device subscription service
Circular notices a problem of underutilisation that leads to the significant amount of e-waste generated in Singapore each year.

Top 10 tech events in Southeast Asia you can’t afford to miss
We have an action-packed quarter to look forward to tech events in the Southeast Asia region. Save the date!

In the age of AI, which human skills increasingly stand out?
AI has limitations, and likely, for decades, it will not be able to compete with a few critical human skills.

Tried-and-tested marketing strategies for startups across all stages in Singapore
For startups or emerging brands, marketing matters more than ever to ensure that they stand out and succeed in their respective markets.

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The post Ecosystem Roundup: Halodoc raises US$100M Series D; Bukalapak posts US$40.7M net profit in Q2 appeared first on e27.

One of our greatest global health challenges is mental health.  As this challenge increasingly becomes more dire in recent years accelerated by COVID, many digital solutions have arisen.  Many of these have put data science and AI at the core, and more recently, capabilities in generative AI and Large Language Models.

I presented three ‘calls’ that are thematics of what will drive real-world application in mental health and some examples of global innovators that showcase these themes.  These were presented alongside speakers from MOHT and SAS Institute at a recent IDEAS event, hosted by Temus and organised by the Singapore Computer Society (SCS).

Real-world applications of AI in mental health can

• Enable precision in mental health. ML and AI can help more accurately diagnose and provide personalised treatment plans by collecting and analysing a wide range of data points (e.g., medical history, symptoms, and behavioural patterns) instead of relying on traditional inputs such as self-reporting.
• Combine physical and mental wellbeing together. Mental health has physical indicators that offer a far more powerful, objective basis, especially when we combine AI with other technologies such as IOT.
• Build solutions that can provide immediate cost savings now, not only focusing on solutions that provide potential savings in the future over very large population cohorts.

Bright spots in the industry

 One example AI being employed in digital health that I spoke about was Spring Health from the US. Their precision mental healthcare approach involved clinical assessment, personalised care plan, real-time provider feedback & recommendation and digital content.

Their mobile and web platforms use machine-learning models leveraging millions of data points to tailor interventions and treatment plans. Users reported an improvement in mental health (~70% of participants in a study improved their mental health), with fewer missed workdays, increase in productivity, and up to an average of US$7k in cost savings per participant.

Also read: How conversational AI is reshaping data insights and adolescent mental well-being

In the UK, BioBeats demonstrates how users can combine physical and mental wellbeing. It is a mental health app leveraging AI to interpret sensor data such as heart rate variability and activity, as well as psychometric data from a wearable.

A wellbeing score offers employees an overall measure of mental wellbeing based on personal health data e.g., sleep, activity, heart rate, mood and cognitive function; and delivers digital therapeutics. Companies saw a 31 per cent cut in employee absence and 54 per cent decrease in cost from reduction in length and number of sick leave when their staff used the app.

Big Health’s flagship product is Sleepio, a cognitive behavioral therapy app that aims to help users’ poor-quality sleep and insomnia. They use an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to provide people with tailored digital cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I).

Evidence is everything in digital transformation: Big Health designed an interrupted time series analysis, comparing primary care use before and after the rollout of Sleepio, and focused on how many times people saw their GP and the relevant prescriptions they received. Sleepio became the first digital therapeutic to receive NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) guidance for NHS use last year to treat insomnia.

Why are we not already using technology widely to enhance healthcare?

Technologists must collaborate with both medical practitioners and financiers to ensure the implementation and effectiveness of the solution. Because medical treatments will inevitably involve insurance and/or public subsidies, there is also the question of whether digital care or prevention can pass the traditional lens and evaluation criterion to enable coverage. Lastly, verdict is still out on what is the ‘right’ balance between safety and innovation.

We are pioneering some of these technologies and the infrastructure and processes of industrialising technology hasn’t caught up yet.  This includes the necessary medical and legal frameworks for endorsing & measuring efficacy. Current medical and legal frameworks do not account for measuring the efficacy of AI-enabled healthcare, so tests need to be designed to ensure accuracy and robustness.

Also read: Moving mental health out of Freud’s era and beyond the couch with big data

In conclusion, AI is an amazing tool when added to the healthcare toolbox, but not a silver bullet at its current stage of development. It is most powerful when combined with other technologies for a more comprehensive and practical solution. We also must recognise the barriers to adoption and scale within the sector if we hope to continue to push the boundaries of health.

AI is here to stay, and here to help. The brightest brains around the world are and continue to pour capabilities and resources into this field —  we are only just starting to see the potential of these technologies in health and healthcare.

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Image credit: Christopher Campbell on Unsplash

The post Data driven healing: The potential of analytics and AI in advancing mental health appeared first on e27.

Airalo, an e-SIM marketplace, has secured US$60 million in a Series B investment round from a clutch of investors, its Co-Founder Ahmet Bahadir Ozdemir said in a LinkedIn post.

The investors participating in the round are Etisalat’s e& capital, Liberty Global, Singtel Innov8, Orange Ventures, Deutsche Telekom’s T.Capital, KPN Ventures, and Telefonica.

Existing investors Antler, Rakuten Ventures, Peak XV Partners, and I2BF Global Ventures also joined.

How the company plans to use the new capital is not immediately clear.

A TechCrunch report said the company currently grows revenues by 20 per cent, with about one million monthly downloads. It is also in talks to onboard more investors to raise a new round at a valuation of US$800 million to US$1 billion.

Also Read: Use this eSIM wherever you go in the world, thanks to these 2 Turkish entrepreneurs

Airalo was established in early 2019 by Abraham Burak and Ozdemir. Airalo — a combination of ‘Air’ and ‘Alo’ (which means ‘hello’ in many parts of the world) — aims to bring instant connectivity worldwide by allowing travellers to purchase virtual eSIM packages.

The firm allows users to download an affordable plan directly to their phone without the hassle of needing to exchange a SIM card. It means that if you are on a foreign trip, you no longer need to go through the hassles of buying local physical SIM cards at the airport and installing it or carrying multiple cards — no matter where you are.

In October 2021, Airalo secured US$5.4 million in a Series A led by Rakuten Ventures, with participation from Peak XV’s Surge, Antler, Singtel Innov8, Wayra (Telefonica), LG Technology Ventures, GO Ventures, Ground Control, Plug and Play, and I2BF Global Ventures. Two years earlier, the firm bagged US$1.9 million in seed funding from Antler and Surge.

The post Etisalat’s VC arm, Singtel Innov8 join Airalo’s US$60M Series B round appeared first on e27.

Recently, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned in his speech at UN Headquarters that “the era of global boiling has arrived”, stressing the increasingly urgent need for global action on emissions, climate adaptation and climate finance.

So far, the startup ecosystem seems to be rising up to the occasion.

Looking back into our own coverage of the latest updates in the Southeast Asian (SEA) tech startup ecosystem, this year alone, we noted that there are at least eight funding announcements in the climate tech and sustainability sectors. These funding rounds were raised by startups working on various solutions, from alternative protein to food waste.

During Echelon Asia Summit 2023, we also learned how leading investors such as Monk’s Hill Ventures have begun putting ESG elements in their consideration of a potential investment, regardless of which sector they are working on.

Apart from that, we also see new funds for investments in the climate tech sectors being announced, with companies working on different solutions to mitigate the impact of climate change operating in the market.

Also Read: Demystifying the financial impacts of climate change with Intensel

All of this might sound like a great effort to tackle the greatest crisis in our lifetime. But sometimes (often), one might wonder whether we have done enough, whether there are things that are left to do. We might think that we have done and considered all the best solutions, but there is bound to be a blind spot.

Da-dum.

(I added sound effects for dramatic effects. And to hit the word count.)

Now, I understand that this is not a question that we can answer overnight—let alone in a 600-word opinion piece. More importantly, the answer might look different depending on your role in the startup ecosystem. I can only speak from my experience as a writer and editor who has been working in the community for close to a decade.

Recently, I had the privilege of attending the Sustainability Media Academy held by EB Impact. The two-day event consisted of masterclasses, workshops, and panel discussions on reporting climate change issues for journalists and content creators in SEA. During the event, I had the opportunity to meet and learn from senior journalists and editors about how to tell stories about climate change.

There are many important lessons learned over the course of two days, but one that stays with me was this line said by senior journalist and media consultant Augustine Anthuvan:

Reporting climate change is all about people and their needs, not about technology or being green.

As an editor for a publication that focuses on the startup ecosystem, this hits me deeply. Certainly, in our coverage of climate tech and sustainability, we put focus on the startups and tech solutions that they build to solve the problem. But there is a stakeholder that we have been missing out on: the humans in the story.

Also Read: Following fund completion, Eurazeo aims to support up-and-coming leaders in climate tech

This goes beyond the startup founders and investors that are involved in building and growing the company. The humans here are the people who will be directly impacted by climate change itself, the most vulnerable parts of society —those whom the tech solutions are supposed to benefit the most. Who are these people? What are their challenges? How exactly can climate change (and its solutions) change their lives? What happens when they are missing from the story? Why are they missing from the story?

It definitely encourages me to rethink how I have been writing about climate tech and sustainability. And hopefully, I will get to make that change soon.

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Image Credit: RunwayML

The post What is left behind in our conversation on climate change appeared first on e27.

HD, the Bangkok-headquartered company behind the HDmall, a healthcare and surgery marketplace in Thailand and Indonesia, has secured a “significant investment” from Vietnamese VC firm FEBE Ventures.

The size of the deal has not been disclosed.

The capital will enable HD, which describes itself as the ‘Airbnb for surgeries’, to expand its reach and deepen its market presence in emerging Southeast Asia.

This round follows a US$6 million raise in January from Partech Partners, M Venture Partners, AC Ventures, iSeed, and Orvel Ventures and the launch of its new elective surgery product HDcare.

Also Read: These former aCommerce execs are building an ‘Amazon’ for healthcare in Southeast Asia

HD was co-founded in 2019 by Sheji Ho, Aditya Jamaludin, Raya Chantaramungkorn (all former top executives at Thailand’s leading e-commerce enabler aCommerce), and Frankie Shum (formerly with Ardent Capital). It connects patients to hospitals, clinics, operating rooms and surgeons while offering healthcare financing solutions to increase access to affordable care and surgeries.

HDcare works with healthcare providers – many already on the HDmall platform – to increase the utilisation of hospitals’ and clinics’ operating room capacities.

The firm works with 1,500 healthcare providers, including some of the largest hospitals. To date, it has served over 250,000 patients.

Since its launch in November 2022, the company claims the patient demand for HDcare has grown 30x. It aims to achieve profitability by the end of this year.

Sheji Ho, CEO and Co-Founder of HD, said: “FEBE’s network and market expertise will accelerate our expansion into Vietnam, a country with a population of 100 million and a healthcare ecosystem that aligns with our healthcare marketplace and surgery solutions.”

The healthtech recently entered into a strategic partnership with Johnson & Johnson MedTech, aiming to elevate the surgical skills of healthcare providers and surgeons operating on HD’s HDmall and HDcare platforms. This collaboration aims to increase patients’ access to high-tech and innovative surgical procedures, improving patient outcomes and reducing the cost of healthcare services.

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The post ‘Airbnb for surgeries’ HDmall gets FEBE Ventures backing to deepen market presence in SEA appeared first on e27.