HK: Good Parents closes $2m seed in round led by Jungle Ventures

A visual network of the Internet of Things (IoT)

By Shiwen Yap

October 18, 2016

Good Parents Inc., a startup launched in October 2015 focused on children’s health and wellness has closed a $2 million seed investment in a round led by senior partners at Singapore’s Jungle Ventures, and with participation from Fireside Ventures, Biosensors International and Gaja Ventures.

Several marquee angel investors across Asia and the US are also participating in this seed round.

With a corporate mission to improve child development and growth metrics through its first product line Kiddo, the company, that is based out of San Francisco and Hong Kong, claims its products is the first health and wellness wearable for children aged 4-10 years worldwide.

The IoT device tracks key biometrics for children and feeding real-time data regarding health, wellbeing, stress and development of the child, translating this  data into insights presented on a mobile app.

“We’re building a tool that will make it easy for parents to understand their children’s health and ensure they never miss important issues. We’re working hard to create that ecosystem and this capital helps get us there faster,” said Jaganath Swamy, CEO and co-founder of Good Parents. Swamy is a serial entrepreneur and was previously an investor with HarbourVest and at Northgate Capital.

The financing will be used to fund the company’s continued expansion and further investment into developing the Kiddo.  The company has partnered with Samsung and key advisers at the Foods for Health Institute based at University of California Davis for enhancing product capability, validation and functionality.

Incepted in 2015, Good Parents has 10 employees across two offices in San Francisco and Hong Kong, with its other leaders beng Chief of Product Jean Rintoul, an early employee at Basis who worked on algorithms and hardware for the Basis B1 and co-authored several patents and CTO/co-founder Bogart Vargas, who served as CTO of blood pressure tracking company Quanttus, which was backed by Khosla Ventures and Matrix Partners.

Kiddo is slated to go live on Kickstarter in January 2017 following its launch at CES 2017. The company is currently targeting a beta run with over 400 users across key cities in the US in December 2016.

While the management team possesses a depth of expertise in the area, elements of the product such as its durability (i.e. resistance to water), battery life, and material safety upon ingestion also remain, given its targeted demographic of children starting from 3 years upwards.

Also Read: 

India: B2B marketplace Moglix raises $4.2m from Accel, Jungle Ventures, Seedplus

South-East Asia is under-penetrated by VCs compared to India: David Gowdey, Jungle Ventures

Singapore: Appknox closes $652k pre-Series A investment from SeedPlus

Singapore: Jungle Ventures, IIPL, Accel Partners, RNT Associates launch VC firm SeedPlus

Mid-career and itching to lead a startup? Singapore VC Jungle Ventures will bet on you

 

Singapore Reporter/s

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Singapore Reporter/s

In Singapore, we are looking to double our reporting team by this year-end to comprehensively cover the fast-moving world of funded startups and VC, PE & M&A deals. We want reporters who can tell our readers what is really happening in these sectors and why it matters to markets, companies and consumers. The ability to write precisely and urgently is crucial for these roles. Ideal candidates must have to ability to work in a collaborative, dynamic, and fast-changing environment. We want our new hires to be digitally savvy and ready to experiment with new forms of storytelling. Most importantly, we are looking for hard-hitting reporters who work well in a team. Collaboration and collegiality are a must.

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).   

  • A reporter to track companies/startups that have raised private capital, and have the potential to become unicorns. SEA currently has over 40 companies with a valuation of over $100 million and under $1 billion.
  • A reporter who can get behind the scenes and reveal how funding rounds are put together, or why they’ve failed to materialise. She/he in this role will largely focus on long-format stories. 
  • A journalist to track special situations funds, distressed debt and private credit (from the PE angle) across Asia.
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