Data Vantage | Healthcare deals in focus, Zenius acquires Primagama, and other updates
Edition #151, 22 Feb 2022
Dear Reader,
The third week of February saw a number of deals in the healthcare sector involving Singapore-based companies and investors.
Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte acquired a 40% stake in Asia Healthcare Holdings, South Asia’s largest single-specialty healthcare firm, from private equity firm TPG in a transaction worth $170 million.
Asia Healthcare Holdings also issued new shares worth $29.6 million to TPG last week to repay loans taken earlier.
In another transaction, Singapore-based biotech startup Cargene Therapeutics received an additional $3.9 million last week from its US-based parent following a $13 million capital injection in the first week of February.
The firm, which has offices in Singapore, Shanghai and Boston, announced in December that it had raised $19.2 million in funding from a group of investors led by China-based venture capital firm BioTrack Capital.
Separately, Singapore-based ConnectedLife, which produces AI-enabled sensors for patients with Parkinson’s and heart conditions, issued new shares worth $1.5 million to new shareholders, which include Simba Investments, Tavares Investments and Denmark-based Blue Marlin.
Doubling down on healthcare
With COVID-19 transforming healthcare as we know it, investors are on the lookout for startups offering new technology solutions.
Healthtech, a portmanteau of healthcare and technology, was one of the top emerging business verticals during the pandemic in Southeast Asia. Equity funding into homegrown startups in the vertical reached $777 million last year, more than double that in 2020, our latest quarterly review finds.
The growth was driven by telemedicine startups such as Indonesia’s Halodoc, which raised $80 million Series C in April, and Singapore’s Doctor Anywhere with its $65 million Series C round in August.
Other emerging verticals in 2021 include edtech, gaming and media & entertainment, which collected $929 million, $293 million and $849 million, respectively, last year.
Source: SE Asia Deal Review: Q4 2021
Other updates from DATA VANTAGE
Indonesian edtech firm Zenius has acquired Primagama, one of the household names in the country’s primary school tutoring industry, in a cash and stock deal. Zenius has allotted shares worth $2 million to Primagama shareholders: PT Prima Sentral Edukasi and PT Arsynergy Investment.
Silent Eight, a Singapore-based startup that uses artificial intelligence to combat financial crimes, received $14 million from a group of investors last week, bringing its Series B proceeds to $40 million. The latest round was backed by existing investors such as Wavemaker Partners and SC Ventures, the venture arm of Standard Chartered.
Vietnamese social commerce platform Mio has issued new shares worth $4 million as part of its Series A round, the company’s latest filing shows. Mio announced last month that it had completed its Series A fundraising with $8 million in total proceeds. Singapore-based Jungle Ventures led the round with participation from Patamar Capital and angel investor Oliver Jung.
Scorpio Electric, a Singapore-based developer of next-generation electric motorcycles, has raised $3 million from Su Lin Investment Corporation. The company’s parent, EuroSports Global, is the sole authorised dealer for Lamborghini in Singapore since 2002 and in Indonesia since 2018.
Indonesia-focused venture capital firm East Ventures has invested an additional $1 million in Advotics, a startup specialising in data-driven supply chain solutions. The company, which counts multinational companies such as ExxonMobil, Danone and Reckitt Benckiser as clients, has raised more than $6 million to date, according to DATA VANTAGE.
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