According to the ESG, investments have increased more than five times when compared to the $464 million raised in 2020. In 2016, the funds raised stood at $86 million. The increase in investments in biomedical firms in Singapore is mainly due to the increase in demand since the pandemic.

Ms. Audrey Lok, health and biomedical director at ESG told the media, “This success can be attributed to our maturing ecosystem as well as our ability to attract experienced accelerators and venture capital firms to Singapore, and connect local companies to innovation nodes around the world.”

She further revealed that the innovation ecosystem has grown nearly six times over the last decade. To date, Singapore has recorded around 360 biomedical firms and small and medium-sized enterprises.

Earlier this year, Singaporean biotechnology startup Mirxes Pte secured around $77 million in its Series C funding round. The round was led by CR-CP Life Science Fund to deliver early detection tests for cancer and other diseases.

Other investors that participated in the funding round for Mirxes include Rock Springs Capital, EDBI, CCB International Holdings Ltd. and Keytone Ventures.

It was also reported that Mirxes is in early talks to go public via a blank-cheque company. The biotech startup is planning to list its shares in the US and is in talks with Summit Healthcare Acquisition.

The post Singapore’s biomedical firms raises $600 mn in the first 9 months of 2021 appeared first on International Finance.

The deal to acquire Doctor Raksa is set to make Doctor Anywhere the largest telemedicine platform in Thailand. The company is expected to grow its revenue in the country by over 5x in the next two years. Doctor Anywhere’s medication delivery services is expected to be available in 38 provinces by the end of March 2022.

Doctor Anywhere founder Lim Wai Mun said in a statement, “Doctor Raksa is an established brand in Thailand, and the acquisition is a strategic move by DA as it will enable us to combine our strengths to meet the growing demand for telehealth in Thailand.”

“For telehealth to sustain momentum beyond the pandemic, it is critical to establish a robust ecosystem where payers, providers and patients can seamlessly adopt the service.”

Doctor Raksa CEO Jaren Siew said that the regional exposure of Doctor Anywhere will bring immediate scale, strong B2B relationships, and tech capabilities to Doctor Raksa. This will help the Thailand-based healthtech firm to provide better product offerings to patients, doctors and employees.

Earlier this year, Indonesia-based healthtech firm Halodoc raised around $80 million in a fresh funding round to expand its services in key healthcare verticals. Investors such as Temasek, Bangkok Bank, Novo Holdings and Telkomsel’s venture arm TMI participated in the funding round for Halodoc.

The post Singapore’s Doctor Anywhere acquires Thai telemed firm Doctor Raksa appeared first on International Finance.

Apart from the recent $60 million investment, the healthcare startup also received $30 million in funding from IFC in December. This amount was also raised to fund MiCare’s $100 million expansion plans into Southeast Asian regions by potential acquisitions of TPA providers. The money will also be used for capital expenditures and IT infrastructure development in countries where the company is already operating. IFC currently has 600 employees operating in Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines.

At present, the company is in charge of processing over $400 million worth of mediclaims annually. MiCare has more than 13 million members that represent insurance companies and corporate clients in Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Presently, the company serves 45 insurers and 6,500 clients in the same region. The company also helps build connectivity applications and infrastructure that aids the healthcare sector to exchange transaction information online. Founded in 2006, MiCare started with just 200 members as a third-party administrator of medical claims.

The post Singapore’s MiCare secures $60 mn for SE Asia expansion appeared first on International Finance.

The funding round was led by led by Novo Holdings. Existing investors including SK Inc, Heritas Capital, and Mirae Asset Venture Capital also participated. The funding round for Hummingbird Bioscience also saw participation from new investors such as Frazier Healthcare Partners, Octagon Capital, EDBI, AMGEN Ventures, DROIA Ventures, Morningside Ventures, Pureos Bioventures, Polaris Partners, Affinity Asset Advisors, Ally Bridge Group and Altrium Capital Management.

Piers Ingram, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, Hummingbird Bioscience told the media, “We are delighted to have the support and confidence of leading global healthcare investors to advance the development of our unique pipeline of precision therapies against important, yet hard-to-drug targets. We have made tremendous progress since closing our Series B in 2019 and this financing reflects strong support for our platform, people, and development strategy.

“With our world-class team of researchers and proprietary technologies, Hummingbird is at the cutting-edge of scientific discovery. These new funds give us further resources to invest in our early stage pipeline, as well as supporting the clinical development of our two lead programs that we believe can deliver very meaningful benefit for patients.”

The post Hummingbird Bioscience secures funding to advance clinical development of its assets appeared first on International Finance.

TeleMedC provides low-cost diagnostic solutions for point-of-care screening and virtual management of eye and chronic diseases. This partnership was enabled and facilitated by Scaler8, a market expansion partner specialised in positioning Asian startups in Germany.

Dr Martin Spitzer, a professor of Ophthalmology and Head of Department at the UK told the media, “This cutting-edge project has the potential to cover a wider scope as it combines the detection and grading of cataracts – the globally leading cause of blindness – as well as the automated diagnosis of glaucoma and other common retinal diseases. It will cover most diseases that could lead to blindness and could even support the non-invasive detection of other non-eye diseases. We wholeheartedly support this exciting cooperative R&D project with TeleMedC and reiterate our commitment to contributing our expertise.”

Recently, it was reported that Singapore-based healthtech startup Mesh Bio raised around $1.8 million in a funding round. The funding round for the startup was led by deeptech investor Elev8.vc and SEEDS Capital, the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore. Other investors that also participated in the funding round for Mesh Bio includes Wealth management firm Citrine Capital as well as Singaporean VC firm Tael Partners.

The post TeleMedC enters into partnership with Hamburg-based medical centre appeared first on International Finance.

With regard to the funding in Mesh Bio, Aditya Mathur, founder of Elev8.vc told the media, “Rapidly ageing populations across the world deserve far better healthcare. Mesh Bio’s predictive analytics offers a clinically validated technology to detect and support chronic diseases before they even occur.”

Established in 2018 by Andrew Wu (former COO of Clearbridge Biomedics), Arsen Batagov (former bioinformatics scientist), and Melvin Heng (physician and hospital administrator) , Mesh Bio develops clinical decision support analytics and automation solutions for the management of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular illnesses.

In November, Japan-based medical equipment manufacturer and healthtech startup HeartVoice launched a health programme called ‘Back on Track’ in Singapore. The programme is designed to help its users engage with their own health through regular participation. To launch the programme in Singapore, Omron and HeartVoice are teaming up with local insurer Great Eastern.

In this regard, Daisuke Nozaki, Managing Director of HeartVoice told the media, “Back On Track! users will be also receiving health tips as a reminder to make healthier choices on a daily basis via HeartVoice App. Friendly nudges to stay healthier can make a great behavioral change in the long run.”

The post Singapore-based healthtech Mesh Bio secures $1.8 mn funding appeared first on International Finance.

The funding round for Biofourmis was led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2.

Existing investors such as Openspace Ventures, MassMutual Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and EDBI also participated in the funding round.

Biofourmis’ platform combines AI-based health analytics and wearable sensors to help healthcare providers gauge patient progress and the effectiveness of drugs and other treatments.

Biofourmis chief executive officer Kuldeep Singh Rajput told the media, “With this new funding, we will accelerate our global expansion, advance our digital therapeutics pipeline, develop additional care pathways and drive deeper integration with our health system, hospital, pharmaceutical and clinical research clients and partners.”

According to the company, it will use the funds to bring new digital therapeutic solutions for cardiology, respiratory, oncology and pain treatments to the market.

The funding will also be used by Biofourmis to expand its business around the world.

Last month, Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat announced a new injection of S$8 billion stimulus package. This could potentially lead to the creation of around 4000 new jobs in Singapore’s healthcare sector.

As a part of its efforts to deal with the pandemic as well as boost the healthcare sector, the government in Singapore is urging companies in sectors such as healthcare and fintech to hire more in the next six months.

According to reports, under a new S$1 billion initiative, the government will co-pay 25 percent of salaries for new local hires for up to a year.

The post Singapore’s health analytics platform Biofourmis secures $100 mn funding appeared first on International Finance.

The funding round for Gero was led by venture capital firm Bulba Ventures.

Other existing investors of Gero also participated in its funding round.

The deal will see co-founder of Bulba Ventures Yury Melnichek joined Gero’s Board of Directors.

Gero’s founder Peter Fedichev said in the statement, “We are happy with the recognition and support from these strategic investors who themselves are acknowledged leaders in the fields of AI and biotechnology. This will help us attain the necessary knowledge at the junction of biological sciences and AI/ML technologies that is necessary for the radical acceleration of drug discovery.”

“We hope that the technology will soon lead to a meaningful healthspan extension and quality of life improvement,” he added.

The Singapore-based startup, which develops new drugs to combat aging and other disorders, has raised around $7.5 million in funding so far.

According to Gero, it will use the latest funds to further develop its AI platform for analysing clinical and genetic data to find treatments for “complicated” diseases, such as age-related chronic illnesses, mental illnesses and others.

Last month, Singapore-based healthtech startup Plano announced a strategic alliance with Japan’s Santen Pharmaceuticals, to tackle myopia.

Myopia is one of the most common health problems in the world, affecting an estimated 2 billion people, or about 28 percent of the world’s population. The number of people with myopia is expected to increase to 5 billion by the year 2050, which is about half of the world’s population.

The post Singapore-based biotech startup Gero raises 42.2 mn funding appeared first on International Finance.

The city-state’s market growth is largely attributed to the government healthcare spend. It is reported that the estimated spend for this year is at $18.4 billion and is expected to triple to $50 billion by 2029.

According to Fitch 2020 forecast, major infrastructure costs are involved. A new general and community hospital is underway and is slated for completion by 2030. This will help to ease workload on the Changi General Hospital (CGH).

Singapore Health Services, also known as SingHealth will run the new hospital in the east. The existing Alexandra Hospital will be redeveloped to run trials on new patient care models. The first phase of the hospital’s redevelopment is expected to be completed by 2030.

The national healthcare spend increased from $13 billion in 2012 to $22 billion in 2017, reflecting a 11 percent increase every year.

Health Minister Gan Kim Yong, told the media, “The healthcare demand has grown substantially as a result of population growth and ageing. This is partly the result of making care more accessible and affordable to all, and partly due to earlier diagnosis and closer monitoring and follow-ups for medical conditions. The range of treatment options has also expanded as the frontiers of medicine advance, increasing utilisation, but at the same time improving life spans and the quality of life.”

The post Singapore’s healthcare market to reach S$29.8 billion in 2020 appeared first on International Finance.

The funding round for Lucence Diagnostics was led by IHH Healthcare, Asia’s largest private healthcare group. Other participants in the funding round include SGInnovative, Heliconia Capital, as well as businessmen Lim Kaling and Koh Boon Hwee.

The genomic medicine startup focuses on personalising cancer care, through its advanced technology it provides early-stage screening to late-stage treatment selection with a special focus on Asia-prevalent cancers such as lung, breast, colorectal, pancreatic, nasopharyngeal and liver cancers. Lucence invents non-invasive blood tests for early cancer detection and improved treatment selection.

Lucence Diagnostics will use the proceeds from the funding round to upgrade its labs, support new clinical trials and reach more patients in Asia as well as in North America.

With regard to the funding for Lucence Diagnostics, Dr. Kelvin Loh, the CEO-designate of IHH Healthcare, said in a statement, “Liquid biopsy is a game-changer in our endeavor to provide cancer treatments with better, value-driven outcomes through precise treatment selections and more affordable care.”

He added, “Our investment in Lucence will provide IHH patients with better access to this advanced technology. IHH looks to drive greater synergies with Lucence and co-develop solutions for patients, as well as explore opportunities to sharpen our precision medicine capabilities with other like-minded partners across our 10-country network.”

Lucence Diagnostics was founded in 2016 by Oncologist Dr. Min-Han Tan as a spin-off from Singapore’s Agency of Science, Technology, and Research in 2016. So far, the startup has raised $29.2 in funding. Headquartered in Singapore, the startup has offices in San Francisco, Hong Kong, and Suzhou, China.

The startup invented the LiquidHALLMARK blood test, which detects 14 types of cancers, 50 genetic mutations, and two viruses.

The post Singapore healthtech Lucence to commericialise tech with funding appeared first on International Finance.