🧑‍💻🩺 I thought Telehealth Couldn't Work in SEA but This Company Proved Me Wrong

GM. This is micro digest. The daily newsletter that helps you when you get lost at SEA.

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Here's what we got for you:

• 🌊 The SEA - WhiteCoat - The telehealth startup that is expanding across the region

• 📈 Special - Why Tiger Global is bullish in India

• 💰 SEA Deals  

• 🖼️ AI Image of the day

• 🐣 Tweet of the day

Markets 📈

Do you remember how last week I made fun of telehealth?

In the West, you Zoom call a general physician, they give you a prescription and you go to the nearby CVS to get your antibiotics while we, Asians just sucked it up?

Well, joke's on me because this telehealth company made over USD $7 million in revenue last year and plans to double that amount this year.

I'm talking about WhiteCoat.

Ok I don't know about you but there's something wrong with this photo. Why do I get a sleazy vibe and not an "I wanna save your life" vibe

🤷‍♂️ Who is WhiteCoat?

• Founded in 2018 by Bryan Koh, WhiteCoat is a one-stop platform that provides on-demand telemedicine services to patients in Singapore

• It also partnered with AIA, one of the largest publicly-listed pan-Asian life insurance companies, to leverage its insurer integration expertise in new markets across the Southeast Asian market

• WhiteCoat currently services homebased personal patients and enterprise clients

🚗 The Expansion

• In 2022, the firm expanded to Indonesia and Vietnam which it targets to become profitable in 4 years

• Right now it is looking at expanding its insurer- and corporate-focused B2B model into Malaysia and Thailand

Well good luck in those markets because like I said, we just sucked it up. Jk

Special

India returns have sucked but Tiger Global remain bullish

Recently I've been seeing a lot of news about India. Both good and bad.

The bad:

The Good:

Jokes aside, there's this article explaining why Tiger Global is still bullish on India despite returns "sucked historically"

Tiger Global's track record in Indian companies:

• Bought 16-17% of Flipkart for USD $8 miilion in 2010 which is currently valued at over $37 billion

• Bought 10% of InfraMarket for USD $8 million

• Bought 1/3 of Upstox for USD $50 million

• Investor of over 20 of 47 of Indian unicorns

And they are just getting started.

Unlike the US where internet companies like Google, Facebook, Alibaba or Tencent had a great run over the last 17-18 years and returns for investors have been really high, India didn't have that.

But that might be changing soon. India has now reached an inflection point.

Why India is attractive?

• Smartphone and internet penetration 📈 Till 2005 less than 15% of Indians had a phone vs 85% now; 700 million plus people have internet access now

• Infrastructure are built out; all inhabitants are connected now by roads; all households are electrified now

• India financial innovation is accelerating

• With such a large population, the talent pool is just enormous. India now has a competitive advantage over global peers in several sectors like IT and biotech

Time to invest in India.

SEA Deals 💰

1. Based in Bangladesh, ShopUp announced it has secured USD $30 million in debt financing from Lendable, the global provider of debt to fintech companies in emerging markets and The City Bank, a commercial bank in Bangladesh. The company is the largest B2B commerce platform in Bangladesh and the proceeds will be used to improve its supply chain across the country.

2. WeMo Corp, an e-scooter rental company based in Taiwan has raised USD $15 million in a Series A+ funding round led by AppWorks. The money will be used to expand into Southeast Asia, mainly in Indonesia and Thailand.

3. Indonesian Whitehat or cybersecurity-as-a-service startup, Peris.ai has raised an undisclosed sum in funding led by East Ventures, with participation from Magic Fund. The company will use the money to strengthen its cybersecurity platform, train ML and AI capabilities and nurture the Whitehat community.

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AI image of the day 🖼️

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Tweet of the day 🐣

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That's a wrap for today. See you all tomorrow! 👋