A magnet to attract foreign capital
At the beginning of 2022, EastBridge Partners, a large Korean investment group with a capital size of 1 billion USD, completed a 30 million USD investment deal in USM Healthcare (Vietnam). USM Healthcare is the only developer and manufacturer of coronary stents in Vietnam, along with balloon catheters and medical supplies . USM Healthcare said it will use the proceeds to expand production capacity and research and development.
In February 2022, Quadria Capital Private Investment Fund invested 90 million USD in Con Cung's mother and baby supermarket chain. Quadria said that the investment will help Con Cung expand its network, product portfolio and upgrade its "All-in-One" integrated AI technology application platform to provide personalized products and services. for more than 5 million Vietnamese mothers and children. In particular, Quadria will cooperate, leveraging the network of companies in its portfolio such as FV Hospital, to help Con Cung penetrate the health and nutrition segment, as well as further develop products and services. mother- and child-centered services.
In early March 2022, Jio Health, a start-up in the Vietnamese healthcare sector, announced the completion of a Series B capital call worth 20 million USD led by Heritas Capital investment fund, headquartered in Singapore. and investors Fuchsia Ventures, Kasikorn Bank Group, Monk's Hill Ventures. This is a start-up that uses modern technology to provide on-demand health care services at an affordable cost. Through smartphone applications, this platform helps support doctors and nurses to examine and care for patients anytime, anywhere more conveniently. With this investment, Jio Health will expand its smart clinic system and multi-channel ecosystem to key markets in Vietnam, planning to move into regional markets in the coming years.
At the same time, POC Pharma raised 10.3 million USD in Series A round led by Alven fund, along with Picus Capital, FEBE Ventures and FJ Labs. The new capital will be used by POC Pharma to accelerate the implementation of digital marketing solutions for the pharmaceutical industry, while expanding the market to countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East. and Africa.
It can be seen that the field of medical technology - pharmaceuticals is receiving special attention from domestic and foreign investors, besides Fintech and e-commerce. That is a big opportunity for Vietnamese start-ups, because according to forecasts, by 2022, Vietnam will spend about 22.7 billion USD on medicine and health care. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, the number of start-ups in this field accounts for only 2% of the total of more than 4,000 medical technology start-ups in Asia. That shows great opportunity and potential in starting a business in this field.
Rich in potential, but many challenges
Great potential and opportunities, but starting a business in the field of medicine, pharmaceuticals, and health care has never been easy, because it is intertwined with many fields such as technology, health - pharmaceuticals, services, business administration, transportation...
Mr. Vu Thanh Long, CEO of eDoctor shared that at first he thought that making a medical start-up, which means applying technology to the medical field, was not difficult, but the reality is different. The deeper we go, the more we see that technology only plays a very modest role. To contribute to improving health services in Vietnam, a comprehensive solution is needed. To change, you must start by changing your way of thinking.
In terms of raising capital, Mr. Long said that raising capital in a specific industry like this is extremely difficult. Investment funds often have to adjust, have their own mechanisms and be truly dedicated. Besides, this is a difficult industry to make a quick profit, and it takes a long process. Medical start-ups face many challenges and it is difficult to become a unicorn.
As for Mr. Nguyen Tran Dong, CEO of iSofH Technology Joint Stock Company, the challenges and difficulties of young people who want to start a business to bring technology to serve medical and health care include: no knowledge. professional knowledge and understanding of the industry; have not had the opportunity to approach the core problems, leading to the product not being able to create the root of the problem; Can't find a suitable market. From there, the products of start-ups entering the market may not meet the needs or cannot find the necessary customers.
From another perspective, according to Mr. Le Ngoc Hai, CEO of Doctor Anywhere, in addition to start-ups, Vietnamese hospitals and medical facilities have also focused and invested more in applying technology to health care services. health care. Therefore, competition will be greater, the market pie will be smaller, but this will be the driving force for businesses to develop, while promoting market confidence in remote medical examination services.
According to Mr. Luke Treloar, Director of Strategic Consulting and in charge of health and lifestyle at KPMG Vietnam, in the long term, telemedicine will become a game-changing factor. , especially after Covid-19 changed the view of every unit in Vietnam's digital health ecosystem about the importance of this service. The state needs to digitize all people's medical data, then expand the information warehouse for the digital health ecosystem to access. This needs to be accompanied by a complete medical legal and information security corridor to protect the rights of users.
