<article>As healthcare authorities across the globe fight to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and the medical community races to understand the disease, a Singapore startup has stepped into the fray.</article>

As healthcare authorities across the globe fight to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and the medical community races to understand the disease, a Singapore startup has stepped into the fray.
Digital therapeutics startup Biofourmis has put its artificial intelligence-powered technology to work in a remote monitoring and disease surveillance programme in Hong Kong. Its technology could be rolled out in at least six other countries, including Singapore, in the weeks to come. 
Currently, some 500 people &#8211; coronavirus patients as well as suspected cases under quarantine &#8211; at the University of Hong Kong-run programme have a Biofourmis biosensor strapped onto their arm. The device monitors whether those under quarantine develop symptoms of the virus, as well as tracks the progression of COVID-19 in those who have been diagnosed with the disease.
As such, the remote monitoring device could help cut the risk of infections among healthcare workers. The data it collects would also help clinicians understand the disease better, the company says.
The startup’s platform, Biovitals, was originally developed to track and improve treatment for patients who have had heart failure, such as monitoring for arrhythmia and giving physicians information to adjust prescriptions, where needed.
But the system was designed to be modularised, and can be applied in other therapies, Biofourmis co-founder Kuldeep Singh Rajput told DealStreetAsia. 
Speaking on the phone from Boston, where the company moved its headquarters to last year, Kuldeep explained that the team was able to customise the platform “in a matter of weeks” as “the immediate need is huge.”
“The [virus] pandemic serves as a catalyst for growth in online care,” says Vikram Kapur, APAC Lead Partner at Healthcare Practice at advisory firm Bain &amp; Co. “There’s a need for care to move outside of hospitals over time.” 
In a survey of 1,800 consumers and 250 physicians across the Asia Pacific, advisory firm Bain &amp; Co found that the region is primed for transformational change in the delivery of healthcare. 
Among the shifts that are set to take place in the next five years is the rise of digital healthcare delivery models; half of those surveyed said they are ready to adopt telemedicine and remote care. This comes as nearly half of the doctors surveyed expressed that it would be more difficult to deliver high-quality care in time to come. 
Half of the consumers and more than 80 per cent of physicians surveyed expect non-emergency healthcare to take place outside of hospitals. 
Indeed, as access to healthcare remains a challenge in many parts of Asia, owing to the limitations of physical infrastructure, “a propensity for digital adoption throughout Asian countries has allowed digital platforms to help address those needs, often with the participation of PE investors,” notes global advisory Bain &amp; Co in a recent industry report.
Among significant deals in the space was the $100 million funding raised by Indonesian telemedicine platform Halodoc, which provides physician consultations and pharmacy services, from the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation, Allianz, Prudential, and venture capitalists. 
In China, JD Health, an online pharmacy that is expanding into online appointments and diagnoses patients in rural areas, secured $1 billion in investment from CITIC Private Equity Funds Management, CICC Capital, and Baring Private Equity Asia. 
In the case of Biofourmis, investor SGInnovate said the startup’s vision of developing a solution to ‘predict disease before it happens’ is aligned with the agency’s belief in medtech’s potential to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues. 
“Beyond the technology, we strongly value qualities such as far-sightedness, tenacity, flexibility in founders,” SGInnovate&#8217;s head of venture investing Tong Hsien-Hui said in an emailed comment, noting Biofourmis’s deployment of its system to provide disease surveillance in the case of the COVID-19 outbreak. 
Biofourmis was founded in Singapore in 2016 and had been part of NUS Enterprises’s accelerator. Since receiving $1 million in angel funding in a round led by South Africa&#8217;s SpesNet and Eden Strategy Institute, it has raised roughly $45 million in total, including a $35 million Series B round in May last year led by Sequoia India. Other investors in the company include Openspace Ventures, Aviva, and MassMutual Ventures. 
According to Rajput, the company has secured three US Food and Drug Administration approvals for its systems. It has also secured approval from the Health Sciences Authority in Singapore, and from the Thai authorities. The company also acquired two companies last year, Swiss-based Biovotion, which makes the wearable sensors that Biovitals runs on, and Bangalore-based software development partner Haashtag.
DealStreetAsia understands that Biofourmis as a whole is valued at roughly $500 million.

Biofourmis has put its artificial intelligence-powered technology to work in a remote monitoring and disease surveillance programme in Hong Kong.

SG startup Biofourmis deploys tech at frontline of COVID-19 battle

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SG startup Biofourmis deploys tech at frontline of COVID-19 battle

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