US Pharma giant Merck supports the health market HD in Southeast -zsia ncvrs.com

Large technology and pharmaceutical companies accelerate the implementation of artificial intelligence in the health sector. Only last month AWS and General Catalyst announced their partnership to accelerate Development and installation of health AI devices– GE Healthcare got together with AWS to build Generative AI for medical use in 2024Or

Now a health start -up of a Thai -based health, HDHe built a market, HDMall, to digitize by the Southeast -Lasian fragmented medical industry. Starting helps users find health care providers such as hospitals and clinics. It helps people find specific surgeries and health checks, summarize services to lower costs, and provide users with installment options.

The start -up company received $ 7.8 million in capital financing to improve the market and invest into AI technology. Recent funding indicates the first investment of the US Pharma Giant Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) to launch in the Asian -Pacific -Ocean Healthtech. (MSD is the brand used by Merck in the United States and Canada and outside of IT Launched an accelerator called Idea Studios In June last year.

“The MSD, which manufactures HPV vaccines, has contacted the (USA) because we have already sold many HPV vaccines that have been submitted in hospitals and clinics we work with,” said co-founder and CEO of HD Sheji HO. In an exclusive interview with Techcrunch. “And if we look at the numbers, we offer the largest number for vaccinations on the Internet on the markets.”

The five -year startup market is more than 30,000 stock maintenance units (SKU) from more than 2,500 hospitals and clinics, as well as a handful of pharmaceutical partners and 400,000 paying customers in Thailand and Indonesia, generating $ 100 million in annual gross transaction. Its purpose is to reach 5,000 health care providers and 600,000 patients in 2025.

The latest funding, which brings full funding for HD to $ 18 million, arrives less than a year after raising $ 5.6 million.

At the beginning of 2024, the HD began to build an AI ChatBot, Jib AI, which was prepared to train data, transaction data and chats for anonymous health products using advanced large -language models. After generative AI technology has been implemented on the market, almost 60% of customer interactions are managed by AI agents, which “give a high -quality, immediate 24 -hour answer to customers,” Ho said.

Jib AI helps health professionals such as nurses, doctors and surgeons to treat most initial triple and nursing navigation tasks to provide quality patient care.

Over the next 12 months, the company aims to improve the AI ​​agents capabilities to process your order and refund, to check the help, schedule, electronic health records and retrieve medical information with Jib AI Health Assistant, and AI-based asynchronous care through. expert doctors.

The launch also states that it plans to expand the network of external partners over the next two years, focusing on insurance and pharmaceutical companies, employers and educational institutions.

“While US healthcare companies such as Transcarent and Accolade started directly with B2B care navigation, we see a unique opportunity for acceptance in Southeast. The ‘B2C2B Strategy’ defined by Andreessen HorowitzHo told Techcrunch. “This approach takes advantage of our existing B2C success to switch to B2B, which actually continues to generate corporate income from the beginning.”

Health Care Southeast -zia

Most enterprises supported health start-ups in Southeast Asia, including Singapore doctors, Halodoc and Alodokter in Indonesia, primarily on Telehealth and virtual health services. But Ho says that the approach is not sustainable in Southeast -zsia. “Post -Pandemia, Telehealth as a sea model of the sea, has faced significant challenges and quickly loses the favor among consumers and investors.”

The company is now located as a mixture of Amazon One Medical in the United States, Chinese outpatient health platforms such as Jd health and Alibaba healthand the Indian Inpatient Platform Pristyn careOr

The health sector is quite different in emerging southeast -level markets such as Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. Without a family medical system like Western countries, patients often go straight to hospitals or clinics. This makes it difficult for patients to find the right health services, knew where to go and understand how to manage the costs, Ho told Techcrunch.

Because 40% of health costs are paid by individuals and low -level private health insurance coverage, people are more sensitive to prices and feel more pressure when decisions are made. This results in increasing demand for platforms, which offer clarity, transparency and easy comparison between various service providers, Ho continued.

The HD platform is more like “Amazon of Healthcare”. Instead of listing each GP or offering the appointment schedule of doctors, it allows health care providers to produce services. “Our offers range from health checks, cancer filters and IVF procedures to root channels, HPV vaccinations and surgery, such as thyroid and hemorrhoid surgery. This approach is in line with how most people in the region start their health trips – by looking for specific services instead of individual doctors, ”said Ho.

It provides HD services in Thailand and Indonesia and plans to enter Vietnam and the eye due to their similar health system.

“In a sense, their health model is quite similar to China’s land. So it’s a high cash payment, about 40%. There is no family medical system, so people go straight to hospitals or clinics; After that, the government’s social security coverage plays a role, ”Ho told Techcrunch. “But these budgets are getting smaller. This means that greater pressure to cover health care turns to the private sector, either through cash or private insurance. This is the reason why the move on insurance offers us a great opportunity for us. ”

In addition, there is an increasing trend in self -filling in terms of user behavior in these markets. They are increasingly used to using devices such as Google Search or Chatgpt to seek health care topics. This fits well with what HD provides as it authorizes individuals to make their own health decisions.