Singapore-based digital health company Mobio Interactive (MI) has raised $2 million in a seed funding round led by Verge HealthTech Fund. Singapore’s Atlas Asset Management, US-based Creative Ventures, and US-based VC firm SOSV also participated in the fundraising, Mobio said in a statement on Tuesday.
The funds will be allocated for advancing the deep tech and clinical validation behind Mobio’s Am Mindfulness app, which has proved to be more effective in pain reduction than placebo, in clinical trials.
Founded in 2015, Mobio is a digital therapeutics company that develops and commercialises clinically-quantified software to prevent, measure, and treat mental illnesses.
“Am focuses on personal growth, or those personal improvements according to our own personal definitions. In this way, Am strives to be a universal tool for everyone. We are in the business of making this…digital therapeutic [app], the most effective form of psychotherapy anywhere,” said Bechara Saab, CEO, Mobio Interactive, who is also a neuroscientist.
The firm had secured $550,000 in pre-seed funding in August 2017 from SOSV and Chinaaccelerator. Mobio then closed an undisclosed seed funding round in May last year, according to Crunchbase.
Established in 2018, Singapore-based Verge HealthTech looks at early-stage investments in companies that are engaged in disease prevention and management. So far, it has invested in nine startups that are based in Singapore, Taiwan, Estonia, Canada, and the USA.
SOSV has at least 17 startups focused on digital health in its portfolio, which are spread across Shanghai, Chicago, Doha, Hong Kong, Toronto, and Kolkata.
The US-based venture capital firm Creative Ventures, established by the Thai entrepreneur Champ Suthipongchai, is planning to close its second fund at $50 million by end-2020. It is focused on deep tech investments in non-internet sectors. The firm has raised over 50 per cent of the total corpus from Asian investors that are based in Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
