- HD, a Thailand-based healthtech firm, secures $5.6M Series A funding.
- The chatbot aims to streamline operations.
- HD plans to launch the service within three months and offer it to third parties by year-end.
HD, a Thailand-based healthtech firm known as the “Airbnb for surgeries,” has secured US$5.6 million in a series A funding round led by SBI Ven Capital, a subsidiary of Japanese financial services major SBI Group, through its joint fund with Kyobo Securities from South Korea and NTU Singapore’s NTUitive.
The company plans to develop an AI-powered conversational chatbot focused on the healthcare space.
Streamlining and enhancing patient outcomes
Co-founder Sheji Ho, previously a co-founder and CMO at ecommerce enabler aCommerce, emphasized that the real opportunity for healthcare AI in emerging Southeast Asian markets lies in enhancing patient outcomes by streamlining operational and administrative tasks for providers and payers.
The chatbot will handle regular customer questions, freeing up human staff for complex issues and ensuring round-the-clock customer service availability. HD plans to train the chatbot using its wealth of anonymized data from healthcare products, transactions, and chat commerce.
Making the best of current budget
The company aims to launch the service within three months for its HDmall marketplace and eventually offer the chatbot to third parties, such as hospitals and clinics, by year-end.
Despite being on pace to hit profitability after the pandemic, HD decided to raise funds now to take advantage of lower rates in customer and talent acquisition following recent layoffs and decreased advertising budgets of other companies.
To read the original article: https://www.techinasia.com/thaibased-hd-secures-56m-funding-healthcare-chatbots
