Having proven itself as the birthplace of unicorns and even decacorn in e-commerce and ride-hailing verticals, the spotlight is now on Indonesia’s healthtech startups

Back in October 2018, Indonesia’s Minister of Communication and Information Rudiantara mentioned that both healthtech and edutech verticals are set to grow the country’s next unicorn.

The statement is not without credence, considering the country has seen the rise of gojek as a decacorn, and Tokopedia, Traveloka, and Bukalapak all steadily grow at an encouraging pace holding the unicorn status.

“In theory, healthtech has a bigger chance than other tech sectors in Indonesia, considering five per cent of our state budget goes into the health sector,” said Rudiantara during the IdeaFest 2018 event, as reported by Bisnis.com.

Rudiantara also noted that the Indonesian government continues to support the country’s startup, especially by inviting more investors to put money into edutech and healthtech startups.

Whether or not the minister’s prediction will come true, these eight healthtech startups are certainly up for the race.

Medigo

Focussing on the growth in the health service ecosystem, Medigo claimed that it leverages digital technology to build a bridge for basic problems encountered in Indonesia.

Medigo is a platform that assists hospitals and clinics to become connected digitally with patients, standardise manual filings, tackle problems in reference management, and create a more efficient way to connect with insurances, including with the government-aided BPJS.

Also Read: Your cheat sheet to the top-funded healthtech startups in Singapore

Medigo was founded in May 2018 by Harya Bimo, to focus on the issue of interoperability in all levels of healthcare facilities from Puskesmas (local health centre), clinics, to hospitals. There is also inefficiency in accessing medical records for both patients and healthcare providers, along with complicated referencing process between healthcare facilities. Not to mention the manual process required for insurance claims.

To address the problem, Medigo introduces an out-patient management platform for hospitals to manage their polyclinics operations such as registrations, queue, patient slots, and doctors’ schedules through API connection.

For clinics, Medigo provides an integrated clinic management application called Medigo Qlinik, which is aimed towards clinic owners or management to digitise their operations.

It received seed funding from Venturra Discovery, which is the new investment arm of Venturra Capital in April 2019.

Pasienia

Here is another facet of healthtech that is easily overlooked: a social connection. Pasienia, founded by Fadil Wilihandarwo, an alumnus of Gajah Mada University, offers the Android-based app to find and connect with friends who are also going through the same thing.

If the notion seems too much of a melancholy, Google Business Group (GBG) Stories sure did not think so. It was chosen as the champion, beating 468 apps back in April 2017, and given chance to visit Google HQ in Mountainview, Calfornia. The competition itself is an annual entrepreneurs-targeted occasion to encourage business owners to go digital.

Pasienia allows access to two timelines: One for patients to be connected to each other, and one for doctors to consult symptoms directly with doctors online.

Using the app, patients can get information about healthcare and programmes to support the recovery journey. The connection to fellow patients can also help them improve their quality of life.

The company’s currency is undoubtedly the sense of community and companionship and the sharing of information on the basis of solidarity. Something that is refreshingly needed by digital adopters, who easily grow inept to social connection.

PesanLab

PesanLab dubs itself as “the first platform for lab test and medical check-up in Indonesia that gives the customer the ability to make a better decision for their health”.

In 2014, PesanLab began with LabConX, a platform that gathers and analyses data from medical check-up result around Indonesia and processes it into actionable information.

LabConX then added lab testing and medical check-up booking platform in 2015, that came in with a partnership with several local, reputable clinical laboratory to give autonomy to customers to decide the kind of service they want to get. It then changed its name into PesanLab in 2016.

Also Read: A sneak peek into healthtech startups operating in Vietnam

Using the platform, PesanLab customers can book a wide range of services, from a blood test that can be done with home service, to an x-ray test. They can also access the results online. From the other end, medical staff can access a dashboard that enables them to access patients’ data, requested services, and track the payment process.

PesanLab is CEO-ed by Dimas Prasetyo and is a sister company of HaloDoc, gojek’s health collaborator along with medicine delivery startup ApotikAntar. The startup shared with e27 back in August 2016 that it has raised its seed round of funding from undisclosed angel investors.

Homecare24

Homecare24 was established in 2017. It focusses on providing a variety of homecare services, on-demand booking with qualified and certified nurses to ensure the ability to perform emergency medical action if needed. The tech-enabled platform highlighted that its main mission is to “provide healthcare access for all while maintaining nurses’ wellbeing with a dependable career”.

Homecare24 was founded by Theresia Lumban Gaol who is a graduate of the University of Indonesia’s nursing faculty, with co-founders Monica Lumban Gaol and Alexander Horison.

She discovered that the poor quality of healthcare services in Indonesia is related to the meagre wages that nurses are receiving, which may go as low as IDR500,000 (US$37.5) per month in rural areas, Lumban Gaol told e27 in an exclusive interview.

Right now, Homecare24 is available as an Android- and iOS-based mobile app and offers one-hour and eight-hour services, as well as live-in services for the duration of up to one month.

HaloDoc

Among all healthtech startups being mentioned in this article, HaloDoc would be the one with the most development in the past year.

Operating a mobile platform for patients to access doctors consultation, pharmacy delivery as well as home lab services, in March the startup raised US$65 million funding from UOB Ventures. In July, it received another investment from Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

In the past, HaloDoc made waves after President Joko Widodo mentioned its name as one of the four startups that shape the country’s “digital energy”. In 2017, gojek integrated its Go-Med option with HaloDoc platform, which runs until today.

In total, the startup has raised US$100 million so far.

TeleCTG

TeleCTG described itself as “a simplified CTG device consists of developed hardware and software that is cost- effective, portable, and can directly send the result.” The device aims to provide a more affordable Tele-CTG device that it can fulfil the needs of CTG as a diagnostic device by four to 10 times.

With an affordable device, the company said it has contributed in succeeding the achievement of one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which is lowering the mortality rate of mothers and babies. Such a device can help with accurate and timely diagnosis, as well as better governance to take place.

TanyaDok

TanyaDok allows users to access health information and consultation online with the vision “better health access for all”. It provides health access for the family of Indonesia, in the form of the health community, online doctor Q&A, health articles, healthy living solutions, and referral to suitable health care.

Also Read: In Thailand, these healthtech startups are tackling a wide variety of challenges

Having been around since 2006, TanyaDok has been in operation significantly longer than the other healthtech startups. The company claims that it has over 200 doctors joining its community and has been building awareness about health through its platform, email, and social media.

TanyaDok was started by medical doctor Gregorius Bimantoro, and it was the representative for Indonesia at Echelon 2013, winning the Indonesia Satellite.

AloDokter

AloDokter boasts 18 million monthly active users since it was established in 2014. The startup bases its service on providing understandable and accessible health information in Indonesian.

AloDokter provides integrated medical service from updated content, chat with doctors, online booking platform for consultation, and hospital searches on both web and mobile app.

The company was established in 2014 by Nathanael Faibis after a four-year stint at Lazada and Sanisphere in Vietnam and Jakarta. Faibis sat down with e27 in 2017 shortly after raising its Series B funding by Softbank and Golden Gate Ventures explaining about its fast growth.

AloDokter first raised seed funding in 2015, and steadily fundraised over the next couple of years, with US$2.5 million in Series A funding led by Golden Gate Ventures in 2016 and US$9 million in Series B funding back in 2017.

These eight healthtech players are occupying a hot seat that launches directly into the market needs, given its digital readiness, answering and sorting out problems in Indonesia’s healthcare issues. Whether or not they can emerge as the next unicorn as predicted remains to be answered.

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