Sequoia, MassMutual lead Series B for Singapore's Biofourmis

EDBI, a strategic investor controlled by the Singapore government, and Jianke, a private equity-backed Chinese online pharmacy business, also contributed capital. They were joined by existing investors Openspace Ventures, Aviva Ventures and SGInnovate. Openspace and Aviva led the company’s Series A in late 2017.

The Biofourmis platform uses data from clinical grade wearable devices to detect deterioration in a patient’s health. This allows medical professionals to intervene days before a critical event. The company has thus far primarily focused on patients recovering from heart surgery, for whom hospital readmission rates globally are as high as 35% in the first 90 days after discharge.

The platform builds a customized profile based on a patient’s physiology and background. It then takes information from US Food & Drug Administration-approved devices and tracks the patient’s health against that baseline. Once activated, an artificial intelligence-enabled treatment algorithm prescribes optimal guideline-directed therapies while a smart phone app helps the patient stick to the care plan.

The new capital will be used to advance the platform with a view to treating and managing a range of complex chronic conditions. There are also plans to expand commercialization efforts in the US and Asia and add head count across data science, clinical and regulatory, and sales and operations functions. Biofourmis want to have more than 100 employees in the US and Singapore by the end of the year.

“Digital therapeutics are redefining the healthcare value chain by using technology to target specific diseases and generating clinically proven outcomes – and Biofourmis is on a path to become a leader in this space,” said Anvesh Ramineni, a managing director with MassMutual Ventures in Southeast Asia. “We look forward to supporting Biofourmis on their mission to improve patient outcomes through the efficient and effective delivery of treatments.”

MassMutual Ventures was established in 2014 as the corporate venture fund of US-based Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance. It entered Southeast Asia last year with a $50 million fund that will make 10-12 investments across financial services, healthcare and enterprise software. While the VC arms of other insurers – including Aviva Ventures – have a strategic remit to target businesses with the potential to transform the insurance industry, MassMutual Ventures is returns-driven.

The firm will participate mainly in Series B rounds, putting it among the growing band of investors seeking to address Southeast Asia’s later-stage funding gap. Sequoia India operates in this space, while several local VC firms are in the process of raising larger funds.

It isn’t unusual for financial and strategic investors to participate in post-Series A rounds for healthcare start-ups. Another Openspace portfolio company, CXA Group, brought B Capital Group, EDBI, Philips and Reinsurance Group of America into its Series B in 2017. Earlier this year, a string of strategic players, including HSBC and the Asia investment arms of Singtel and Sumitomo Corporation, provided a further $25 million.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Healthcare
• Technology
• Early-stage
• Singapore
• Openspace Ventures
• Sequoia Capital
• EDBI
• MassMutual Ventures
• Aviva Ventures
• TMT