Temasek’s Sheares Healthcare backs Asia-focused psychological well being startup Thoughtfull
Southeast Asia’s psychological well being startups are getting extra investor consideration. Final week, Intellect announced a strategic investment from IHH Healthcare, Asia’s largest personal healthcare group. Now Thoughtfull, one other digital psychological well being platform targeted on Asia, has raised $4 million in a pre-Collection A spherical led by Sheares Healthcare Group. Sheares is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek.
The spherical, which Thoughtfull mentioned was oversubscribed, additionally included participation from returning traders Vulpes Funding Administration, The Hive Southeast Asia, international household places of work and founding members of corporations like Seize and Zalora. TechCrunch final lined Thoughtfull in October 2021 when it raised its seed round.
Thoughtfull marks Sheares’ first funding in psychological healthcare in Asia. Sheares’ different investments embody its newest exit, a U.S.-based senior care firm known as Iora Well being that was acquired by One Medical.
Known as ThoughtfullChat, the startup’s platform contains customized self-guided content material and progress monitoring, and entry to psychological well being professionals via video calls and text-based teaching.
Thoughtfull claims that since its launch in 2019, its income has grown 30x in complete. Over the previous yr, income grew 10x year-over-year regardless of financial downturns. Its psychological well being skilled community now contains 57 places in Asia and it has customers in 95 places world wide. Its app is offered in 11 languages.
The startup tackles challenges like fragmented psychological healthcare programs and the dearth of protection in insurance coverage insurance policies, which makes it troublesome for employers to incorporate psychological well-being packages of their advantages packages.
Thoughtfull says in 2022, it turned the primary psychological well being startup within the area to associate with insurers like AIA Malaysia to provide company clients entry to psychological well being assist via AIA’s Company Options portfolio. It additionally launched an analogous partnership with FWD, one other insurer, to offer entry to inexpensive psychological healthcare in Hong Kong and Thailand. One of many causes it really works with insurers is to make psychological healthcare extra inexpensive for each company employers and people.
In a ready assertion, Sheares Healthcare chief company growth officer Khoo Ee Ping mentioned, “Thoughtfull’s strategy to scaling seamless, end-to-end psychological healthcare aligns with Sheares’ mission to spend money on corporations which can be shaping the way forward for healthcare via modern and patient-focused care. Their successive payor partnerships clearly point out the demand for his or her proposition and attest to the energy of their workforce.”
Along with Mind and Thoughtfull, Southeast Asia’s nascent psychological healthcare startup ecosystem includes MindFi, a company psychological well being and wellness platform backed by Canva, International Founders Capital and M Enterprise Companions.