Could hospital be a thing of the past one day? Could patients be able to never go to the hospital? In Asia, this vision is moving closer to reality.
Due to the lack of hospitals and quality general practitioners in Asia, especially in remote areas, the region has taken telemedicine way further than in Europe. Not everyone can access to healthcare but most of the population in these countries have a smartphone. That’s how new diagnostic or prescriptive platforms have emerged, with some of them leveraging on very advanced technologies such as IoT, artificial intelligence, biometrics and genomics.
At Innovation Is Everywhere, we monitor new technologies and solutions in Asia to help our clients identify opportunities and challenges. Here are the 5 healthtech startups from the region you should know about.
1. Ping An Good Doctor: on-demand doctor consultation
Ping An Good Doctor is a Chinese mobile platform that offer online consultation where patients are connected with doctors through video chats. The consultations are generally free and given by first-level doctors. Users can also schedule appointments through the app, pay for private online consulting, purchase medicine, receive healthcare advice, track the nearest pharmacies and hospitals. With the booking service, the waiting line in some hospitals is reduced by 20%.
The startup raised $1.1 billion in a Hong Kong IPO recently and has around 30 millions monthly active users.
Ping An Good Doctor application
Its main competitor is We Doctor, backed by Tencent, China’s largest Internet company. In India, numerous medical O2O startups have also emerged. The leaders are MFine and Curefit, also offering online consultations to remote communities.
Although this online solution is the best way to reach remote areas, the companies struggle to make profits since patients have a low willingness to pay. Shares of Ping An Good Doctor have been trading below IPO prices, as the company reported mounting losses that stood at $158 million last year. Thus, medical startups will have to fix their business model to turn a profit.
2. iCarbonX : a personalized care platform powered by AI and genomics
The Chinese startup iCarbonX is building a highly individualized care platform through artificial intelligence, biotechnology and massive data sets. The ambition is both diagnostic and prescriptive. The platform called Meum will be a “one stop shop” for all things health and wellness – able to identify current medical conditions but also ones that the patient might succumb to in future on the basis of lifestyle and genetic factors. Users are prompted to take genetic questionnaires, send samples of saliva and urine and take other tests in order to gain access to treatments, fully customized workouts and fitness data tracking.
Launched in 2015 and backed by $100 million funding with Tencent among the main investors, the startup is building a large healthcare ecosystem. It is following an aggressive private market investment strategy, forming a digital health alliance with startups across the globe.
At the same time, the firm plans to develop a new generation of smart home appliances such as “toilets” that analyze urine, toothbrushes that analyze saliva, and mirrors that scan the user’s skin to provide the best and most accurate health information.
China is taking a leading role in Asia’s genomics space. Its government recently launched a major Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) that could amount to as much as $9 billion in spending over the next 15 years.
Precision Nutrition: a service provided by Meum
Precision Nutrition is one of the services in Meum : a personal dietary guide for health, providing dietary assessment, recording, and consultation services along with personalized nutrition packages.
3. Huami: a wearable way to connect biomechanical signals and daily activities with smart data services
Huami is a biometric and activity data-driven company founded in 2013 and headquartered in Beijing and Mountain View, California. Sequoia Capital, Shunwei Capital Partners, Banyan Capital, Morningside Ventures and Xiaomi invested $35 million, making them the main investors of the company.
The company offers a large range of wearable fitness-tracking devices, allowing users to track their running with the GPS, monitor their sleeping, control their heart rate, send notifications for sms, emails and incoming calls, and many other options. Huami developed its own brand, Amazfit, and is the exclusive provider of wearables for Xiaomi and manufacturer of Mi Band.
It is the largest wearable technology company in the world, with over 50 million units sold. It works with both Apple and Android phones, whereas Apple watch works only with Apple’s devices. FitBit, the first company in this field, was known for its battery life. Huami’s last Amazfit Bip last 9 times longer (up to 45 days). Huami’s mission is “to make the world more connected as transforming the way individuals connect with the Internet and with each other through smart wearable technology and data-driven innovations”.
Xiaomi’s Amazfit Bip
4. Forus Health: an affordable eye-screening device connected to the Cloud to prevent blindness
Forus Health is a startup founded in 2010 in Bangalore, with a proven business model. They are trying to save people from blindness. There are 15 million blind individuals in India alone, mostly due to limited access to eye care facilities, high cost of treatment/surgery and lack of awareness. According to data provided by the company, 80% of blindness in the world could be saved if screened and treated early.
Forus Health invented an affordable eye-screening device called 3nethra. It detects 5 common eye problems: cataract, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, corneal defects, and refractive errors. IoT helps in conducting remote diagnosis to increase the access of eye care: the images are screened in remote places and doctors grade them to give a report to the patient. Neither the patient nor the doctor has to move. 1,700 devices have already been installed across 26 countries, and they have touched more than 2 million lives in more than 300,000 remote cases.
The compact nature of its product 3nethra allows the device to be transported by an operator on motorcycles to rural and urban slums for regular eye checkups. (Photo by Forus Health)
The compact nature of its product 3nethra allows the device to be transported by an operator on motorcycles to rural and urban slums for regular eye checkups. (Photo by Forus Health)
Due to the lack of hospitals and practitioners, the number of startups providing “point of care” diagnostics through cloud-based equipment has increased. Another one is ReMeDi, which empowers over 8,000 health technicians (with little or no college education) to act as a proxy for doctors in rural areas by taking vital signs and conducting basic diagnostics tests. The patient summary is sent to an offsite doctor. ReMeDi operates in 2,000 villages across India. Tricog Health raised 4 millions dollars in February.
4. Practo: a mobile platform simplifying the healthcare system
Practo is India’s largest doctor discovery startup. Based in Bangalore, the company is active in 38 indian cities, in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Brazil with a team of over 2,300 people. It has raised over $US 234 million and, is considered as the most well-funded healthcare startup. Among the investors, there are the Chinese giant Tencent, the Belgian firm Sofina, Google Capital and Sequoia Capital.
It started in 2008 as a Saas platform for doctors and has now evolved into a multifunctional platform where users can schedule appointments, have an online consultation, reach their health records, and order medicines online. Its activities do not only consist in providing medical services, but has also a network of wellness and fitness centres. In first quarter of 2018, Practo has developed a paperless healthcare insurance solution, Practo Trinity. The technology connects insurance providers and patients in a totally cashless and transparent manner. Digital prescriptions from doctors are directly transferred to the insurer, who can identify prescribed tests and treatments.
Practo has a sound business model. It generates revenues through 3 ways:
1- Subscription fees for doctors, hospitals and clinics
2- Charging for the advertisement banners
3- Collection of commissions from users of the portal
Practo has a portfolio of several companies: Enlightiks, Qikwell, Insta, FitHot and Genii. These acquisitions have helped the company to generate additional revenue streams, even though it did not help to enter the medical segment.
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