APAC healthtech funding to exceed US$5.5B in 2018, says B Capital’s Gavin Teo
Halodoc, an Indonesia startup that delivers medicines in less than one hour via Go-Jek, won the Galen Growth Asia’s 2018 Most Innovative HealthTech Startup award
Asia Pacific’s healthtech funding in 2018 will reach the US$5.5-billion mark by the year end, almost four times the funding deployed in 2015, according to Gavin Teo, General Partner at B Capital Group, an Eduardo Saverin-backed VC fund in Singapore.
China, India, and Southeast Asia lead in terms of signing healthtech in APAC, totalling more than US$5.1 billion in Q3 2018, with China raising more than US$1.1 billion in the third quarter.
“Healthtech funding in 2018 will reach US$5.5 billion by year end, almost four times the funding deployed in 2015. Digital health funding will continue to rise, especially with Chinese investors actively seeking HealthTech businesses to invest in,” Teo said while delivering a keynote speech on the first day of the third HealthTech Investor and CEO Summit in Singapore.
Additionally, Halodoc, an Indonesian startup delivering medicines in less than one hour via its partner Go-Jek, was announced the winner of Galen Growth Asia’s 2018 Most Innovative HealthTech Startup. Halodoc’s mission is to improve the access to healthcare in Indonesia through a powerful network of private and public hospitals, as well as government institutions.
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More than 250 healthtech investors, influencers, and startup innovators across Asia gathered for the summit, organised by Galen Growth Asia.
The two-day event concluded on November 13.
The summit was attended by thought leaders from across Asia, including billion dollar-funded China’s disruptor We Doctor, one of India’s largest pharmacy aggregators 1mg and Japan’s Wellness One-Stop FiNC Technology. The summit discussed some of the opportunities and shared challenges in bringing go-to-market products, especially in a region where two different worlds with very different needs coexist — the developed economy with high GDP and developing economy with untapped opportunities.
The summit featured four interactive panel discussions with thought leaders sharing valuable insights on new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and blockchain and their impact on today’s healthcare landscape, to other important topics such as government policies and regulations for new business venturing into new territories, cybersecurity and IP protection for technologies.
Luis Fernando Gonzalez, Head of ASEAN & Global Manufacturing Leader, Element AI, said that the potential for AI in robotics and healthcare is immense. “In many industries, we see how the early AI adopters with proactive strategy are already beginning to outperform their peers. AI’s potential benefits are far-reaching and in Healthcare it could help people to stay healthy via applications that put them in control of their health and wellbeing to medical diagnostics and drug discovery, AI applied research and applications are already taking hold in healthcare.”
Founded in late 2015 by five healthtech innovators, Galen Growth Asia has built a portfolio of solutions which acts as a catalyst of direct collaboration between enterprises, startups and investors to prototype, evaluate and implement healthtech solutions to solve healthcare system pain points and create significant financial and social value in the region.
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