Thailand’s HD is building chatbots aimed at one such industry: healthcare.
The company started as a marketplace for third-party healthcare and surgery services, and sees a strong case for developing conversational AI for the healthcare customer journey.
Even though each product has a description on HD’s marketplace HD Mall, Ho says people still prefer to ask first.
M Venture Partners, FEBE Ventures, Partech Partners, Ratio Ventures, Orvel Ventures, and TA Ventures also participated in the round.
AI for Southeast AsiaHo says HD is working on building the “Sierra AI of the Southeast Asian healthcare industry.”Over five years, Ho and his team saw that the faster HD’s representatives responded to inquiries, the higher the conversion rate.
Peak XV, the venture firm formerly known as India and Southeast Asia arm of Sequoia, didn’t disclose the size of the new fund.
The new fund, called Peak XV Anchor Fund, will be funded by an internal balance sheet, the source said, requesting anonymity as the matter is private.
The fund will enable Peak XV to “create a global network for learning and collaboration,” the venture firm said, according to the LP source.
The fund will enable Peak XV Partners to have broader skin in the game with its own fund and also explore investment in newer areas, the source said.
With Peak XV Anchor Fund, the venture firm plans to partner with other “managers across regions, strategies and sectors.”Peak XV didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
A growing roster of vertical AI startups is emerging in Southeast Asia to serve sectors ranging from seafood to finance.
Within verticalized AI, different trends are emerging in each country.
Since funding structures are different in Southeast Asia than the rest of the world, BorderDollar used their own training data to build a credit scoring system.
Building a vertical AI startup comes with its own challenges.
But once a vertical AI startup comes together, Salovaara says they can build a very deep competitive moat.
AC Ventures has already started investing from Fund V in startups like Indonesian electric vehicle maker MAKA Motors and sustainable farming startup Koltiva.
Fund V will add around 25 companies to AC Ventures’ current portfolio of 120 startups.
One of AC Ventures’ priorities is investing in firms that have high environmental and social impacts.
It says that its third fund, Fund III, had an overall impact ratio of +37% as measured by Finland’s The Upright Project, putting it above the Nasdaq Small Cap Index average of +29%.
Wong says AC Ventures is a signatory of the UN’s Women’s Empowerment Principles and IFC’s Invest2Equal program.
With Tazapay, businesses can transact with their customers in a faster and more cost-effective way – without having to carry multiple payment platforms. And as the number of open banking…
Secai Marche is a farm-to-table fulfillment platform that serves farmers in Japan and Southeast Asia. With this new round of funding, Secai Marche plans to expand its reach even further…
Eazy Digital is an insurance technology company that specializes in helping small insurance companies in Southeast Asia to scale up more efficiently. Their SaaS platform enables insurers to digitize many…
Constantin Robertz’s experience moving warehouses for Zalora showed him that being an omnichannel e-commerce company requires a dedicated logistics infrastructure. With Locad, he was able to create a cloud-based platform…
Ten years ago, Donghwan Kim assisted his ceramist cousin in the search for sales outlets, like flea markets. Finding it difficult to locate a suitable platform, he decided to create…
Southeast Asia’s e-commerce is fragmented, with many marketplaces, e-commerce sites and social commerce available to customers. FLIK co-founder Ahmad Gadi notes that consumers often prefer large marketplaces due to promotions…
