Affordable & accessible healthcare
- On the back of the pandemic, Southeast Asia is seeing an epidemic of chronic non-communicable diseases which is responsible for 60% of deaths in the region, according to 500-backed digital health service provider Naluri.
- The team secured a US$7M Pre-Series B, led by Pruksa Group, Thailand’s leading real estate development group, to deliver integrated person-centered care to transform the lives of people at risk of, or managing, the most pervasive chronic and mental health conditions.
- The fresh funds will be used for expansion in Thailand and further bolster its operations in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Naluri also plans to expand to the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Australia.
- They empower their team of health and wellness experts with data; the company also shared that its proprietary AI-augmented coaching platform, decision support systems, and self-help digital tools deliver significant health outcomes at a lower cost.
- “We must do more to not only manage chronic health and mental health conditions, but we must also prevent them as well. We must do so quickly and effectively,” said Co-founder & CEO Azran Osman-Rani.
- To date, Naluri has served more than 75 of the region’s leading companies across financial services, oil and gas, property development, telecommunications, tertiary education, and aviation.
- Congratulations to the Naluri team!
- Read the full story on Digital News Asia.
Numbers don’t lie
- “Supply chains can’t be trusted,” said Robert Lang, the CTO of 500-backed agritech startup Escavox. “What I mean…is what you’re being told is happening to your product as it moves from production through to, let’s say, retail – there are nuances in there the producer, for example, isn’t aware of.”
- So what can food producers do about this? Digitize the agriculture industry. Escavox offers accurate and real-time tracking of food from production all the way through to retail. The data that it harvests is fed back to customers.
- “They don’t have to rely on what they’re being told, they can let the data tell the story,” Robert explained. Escavox’s small blue boxes are placed into pallets of fruits and vegetables, and they transmit data about air temperature, humidity, and location.
- “We can then further apply that expertise to algorithms and systems that can report back on what is the impact of the events that are happening in the supply chain. From the quality of the food and how much shelf life, for example, is remaining on the food when it arrives at a destination,” he added.
- Read the full article here.
Ringing in a new era of insurance
- Insurance gets a bad rep. It’s easy to see why — customers get charged upfront and yet, they almost have to “beg” to get a claim approved.
- “We don’t ask our customers for any money up front, because we can’t predict the future and can’t possibly know how many claims we might have in a month,” said Co-founder & CEO Tobias Taupitz of 500-backed insurtech startup Laka.
- What it does is settle claims, and at the end of the month, asks all its customers, the Laka Collective, to split the costs. And speaking of transparency — Laka sends a monthly newsletter with all its billing information.
- The company also shared tips on risk prevention based on the claims seen that month, because being part of the collective means looking out for others, as well as yourself.
- Read the full story here.
