<article>New Zealand-based MyBitcoinSaver and EpiSoft have secured early-stage funding while IntelliHR has raised a pre-IPO round prior to a public float on the ASX.</article>

New Zealand-based MyBitcoinSaver and EpiSoft have secured early-stage funding while IntelliHR has raised a pre-IPO round prior to a public float on the ASX.
<h3 dir="ltr">MyBitcoinSaver raises $276k seed round</h3>
<a href="https://mybitcoinsaver.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MyBitcoinSaver</a>, the New Zealand micro-savings platform for the <a class="tinymce-colortext" style="color: #000080;" href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/bitcoin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bitcoin</a> digital currency, has closed an NZ$400,000 ($276,362) seed investment. Launched by Sam Blackmore in November 2016, it permits New Zealanders to invest small ongoing amounts in the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, which has grown in value by almost ten times since January.
The startup plans to use the funding to continue driving growth in New Zealand while also expanding into the UK market with a soft launch in the next two months. This will see it extend its operations there with the recruitment of programmers, business development and marketing in the UK.
Investors in the seed round included Brian Cartmell, an investor in the billion-dollar US Bitcoin exchange Coinbase; David Smith, director of Caci Clinic; and Techemy, the parent company of Bitcoin analysis and news company Brave New Coin.
With a limit of $200 per week per user, MyBitcoinSaver aims to be a responsible and safe platform for buying Bitcoin, encouraging its users to use a Dollar Cost Average savings approach.
Blackmore explains: “Public interest in Bitcoin has exploded and people see buying it as a sensible addition to their savings plan. We take the stress and complication out of buying Bitcoin and help anyone — from millennials to grandparents — take part in this revolutionary financial technology.”
Blackmore has been investing in Bitcoin since 2013 and initially built the early prototype of MyBitcoinSaver — with a few lines of code — for himself, friends and family.
<h3>Episoft closes $803k seed round</h3>
Medical technology (medtech) startup venture <a href="http://www.carezone.com.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EpiSoft</a>, an alumnus of Springboard Enterprises Australia Accelerator, has closed an A$1.05 million ($803,486) backed by four private investors.
The accelerator is run by <a href="https://sbeaustralia.org/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en-GB&amp;q=https://sbeaustralia.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1510126406519000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGxhVzt56uToQ4G3B6r9zQKJtDcgQ">SBE Australia</a>, a not-for-profit organisation that supports female technology entrepreneurs in growing and scaling their businesses.
Investment proceeds will see it develop its sales and marketing departments as well as further develop its platform to support scalability.
This complements a previous A$250,000 grant that the cloud-based, medical record SaaS business secured in 2013. The venture caters to health specialists, hospitals and clinics. Its platform supports a vast array of chronic diseases, such as cancer as well as conditions such as hepatitis, addiction disorders, Crohn’s Disease and mental health problems.
The Sydney-based venture achieves this by delivering care coordination, management and treatment planning and works with healthcare organisations such as Healthscope, Sydney Adventist Hospital, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and St Vicent’s Hospital Melbourne.
Its founder, Jenny O’Neill, a health IT executive with 20+ years’ experience in senior roles, and the first female President of 100+ member Medical Software Industry Association (MSIA), believes there&#8217;s a gap in the current investment market in Australia. She said investors have an appetite for companies raising between A$500K or A$3 million but there is a reluctance to invest in growth-stage digital health companies due to a slower sales cycle, as well as the smaller sales and marketing focus.
<h3>IntelliHR raises $3m in pre-IPO round</h3>
Software firm IntelliHR has raised A$4 million ($3.06 million) in an oversubscribed pre-initial public offering from institutional and sophisticated investors ahead of its public float on the <a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/asx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)</a>. The company had initially sought to raise A$2.2 million.
Previous funding raised by the venture includes an A$2.1-million seed round. This latest round will see it use funds for aggressive expansion of its customer base and development of its technology platform. To date, it claims to have raised A$10 million in external investment.
Founded in 2013 by Robert Bromage in order to bring data analytics and collection to the human resources (HR) sector, its software permits corporate users to gauge elements such as employee sentiment and facilitate management automation.
The decision to list has been motivated by its global ambitions, though Bromage has warned that startup ventures in the early stages of their business lifecycle may wish to consider such a move carefully. Despite a public listing signalling greater stability in both business dynamics and governance, listing requires significant investment in both due diligence and preparatory work.
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New Zealand-based MyBitcoinSaver and EpiSoft have secured early-stage funding while IntelliHR has raised a pre-IPO round prior to a public float on the ASX. 

APAC Digest: MyBitcoinSaver & EpiSoft raise seed funding; IntelliHR's pre-IPO round

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APAC Digest: MyBitcoinSaver & EpiSoft raise seed funding; IntelliHR's pre-IPO round

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