Large technology and pharmaceutical companies are accelerating the implementation of artificial intelligence in the health care industry. Last month alone, AWS and General Catalyst announced their partnership to speed up the development and establishment of healthcare tools. GE Healthcare joined AWS to build that generator for medical use in 2024.
Now, a Thailand -based health care startup, HD, has built a market, HDMALL, to digitize fragmented medicine industry in Southeast Asia. Starting helps users find health care providers such as hospitals and clinics. It also helps people find specific operations and health checks, services collected to reduce costs and provides users with installment payment options.
Starting has provided $ 7.8 million in net capital funds to improve his market and further invest in his technology. The latest funding marks the first US giant’s investment Pharma Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) at a Healthtech start in Asia Pacific. (MSD is the brand that Merck uses to operate outside JSC and Canada, and it launched an accelerators called Idea Studios last June.) Other participants in HD funds included SBI Ven Capital, M Venture Partners, Febe Venture and Partech Partners also participated in the latest funding.
“MSD, which produces HPV vaccines, arrived at (eg in an exclusive interview with Techcrunch.” And if you look at the numbers, we (we offer) the largest number for online market vaccines. “
The five-year starting market has over 30,000 shares holding units from more than 2,500 hospitals and clinics and a small portion of pharmaceutical partners and 400,000 customers paying throughout Thailand and Indonesia, generating $ 100 million In the annual volume of gross transaction, Ho noted. It aims to reach 5,000 healthcare providers and 600,000 patients in 2025.
The latest funding, which brings HD total funds to $ 18 million, comes less than a year after it raised a round of $ 5.6 million.
At the beginning of 2024, HD began to build a chatbot he, Jib AI, who was trained in anonymous health care products, transactions data and conversation trade data groups using advanced models of large languages. After the implementation of the generating technology in its market, almost 60% of customer interactions are managed by the agents of he, who provide “immediate, immediate 24/7 response to clients,” Ho said.
JIB He helps health care professionals as nurses, doctors and surgeons to focus on providing the patient’s quality care by treating most of the initial triging tasks and navigation care.
Over the next 12 months, the company aims to improve its skills of it by increasing the order and processing of the refund, assisted cash register, electronic control of health registers and obtaining medical information with JIB Health Assistant and through He’s virtual asinchronous care with expert doctors.
The start also says it plans to expand its network of external partners over the next two years, focusing on insurance and pharmaceutical companies, as well as employers and educational institutions.
“While US healthcare companies as Transcarent and Accolade began directly with B2B care navigation, we see a unique opportunity in Southeast Asia to adopt a” B2C2B “strategy as defined by Andereessen Horowitz,” Ho Techcrunch told. “This approach exploits our existing B2C success in switching to B2B, effectively following the enterprise money from the beginning.”
Health in Southeast Asia
Most of the beginnings of health care backed by enterprise in Southeast Asia, including Singapore’s everywhere, Halodoc and alodokter in Indonesia, mainly focus on telehealth and virtual health services. But Ho says access is not stable in Southeast Asia. “Post-Pandemic, Telehealth as a sea business model has encountered significant challenges and is rapidly losing the favor between customers and investors.”
The company is now positioned as a mix of Amazon One Medical in the US, Chinese outpatient health care platforms such as JD Health and Alibaba Health, and Indian Hospital Health Care Platform Pristyn Care.
The health care industry is quite different in the developing markets of Southeast Asia such as Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. Without a family doctor system as in Western countries, patients often go directly to hospitals or clinics. This makes it difficult for patients to find the right health care services, know where to go and understand how to treat costs, Ho Techcrunch told.
Due to 40% of the costs of health care paid by individuals and low levels of private health insurance coverage, people are more priced and feel more pressure when making decisions. This leads to a growing demand for platforms that provide clarity, transparency and ease of comparison among different providers, Ho continued.
The HD platform works more as “Amazon of Healthcare”. Instead of ordering individual GPS or providing the appointment of doctors, it enables health care providers to sell produced services. “Our offers range from health checks, cancer manifestations and IVF procedures to rooted canal treatments, HPV vaccinations and operations such as thyroid and hemorrhoids. This approach coincides with how most people in the region begin their health care trips – seeking specific services than individual doctors, ”Ho said.
HD offers its services in Thailand and Indonesia, and plans to enter Vietnam and Myanmar Eye because of their similar health care systems.
“Their health care model is very similar in some ways to continental China. So it’s a high cash payment, about 40%. There is no family doctor system, so people go directly to hospitals or clinics; After that, the governmental coverage of social security enters the game, “Ho Techcrunch told.” But those budgets are becoming smaller and smaller. This means that more pressure to cover health care is moving to the private sector, whether through cash or private insurance. That is why the insurance that goes ahead is a great opportunity for us. “
Moreover, there is an increasing tendency towards self-emphasis on the behavior of the user in these markets. They are getting used to using tools such as Google or Chatgpt searching to seek related health care. This is well matched with what HD offers, as it empowers individuals to make their health care choices, according to Ho.
