<article><p>Southeast Asia&#8217;s startup ecosystem has stepped into the global battle to control the COVID-19 outbreak, repurposing a variety of technologies.</p></article>

<p>Southeast Asia&#8217;s startup ecosystem has stepped into the global battle to control the COVID-19 outbreak, repurposing a variety of technologies.</p>
<p>The economic turmoil caused by the pandemic has spurred companies globally to find new uses for their products, sometimes not only out of a desire to help but also as a necessity as lockdowns impact consumer and corporate behaviour.</p>
<p>Singapore state-owned investment company Temasek Holdings even highlighted the pivots of some of its portfolio companies when it reported preliminary results Tuesday.</p>
<p>These included UK-based BenevolentAI using its technology to help develop new drugs against the virus, US-based drone-delivery company Zipline providing drone delivery of essential medical supplies in rural Ghana, and Singapore-based Tychan developing antibody treatments for COVID-19.</p>
<p>Singapore mass-transit operator SMRT and Singapore-based engineering company Hope Technik have worked with other transportation companies to engineer negative-pressure vehicles, called COMETs, to transport COVID patients without transmitting the virus to others, Temasek CEO Dilhan Pillay said in a video statement.</p>
<p>Several startups have also set up new plans to battle the coronavirus.</p>
<h3><strong>Emergex</strong></h3>
<p>Earlier this year, UK-based Emergex diverted resources from other projects, including the development of a dengue vaccine, to work on a potential vaccine for COVID-19.</p>
<p>The company&#8217;s technology creates small protein segments called peptides, which are essentially the viral code, and places them on gold nanoparticles to carry them to cells. That approach is aimed at stimulating the body&#8217;s T-cells to act against the virus.</p>
<p>Instead of a syringe, Emergex&#8217;s vaccines can be administered using patches with microneedles, Dr Lim Xinhong, director and analyst at Singapore-based venture capital (VC) firm Vickers Venture Partners, has previously told DealStreetAsia. Vickers Venture is an investor in Emergex.</p>
<p>The vaccine candidate will be in clinical trials within the next couple of months, an Emergex spokesperson told DealStreetAsia in an email.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our strategy for corporate and business development is on track, bringing in house critical capabilities, and further strengthening Emergex&#8217;s business via important acquisition arrangements,&#8221; the spokesperson said. He added Emergex has a series of asset acquisitions in negotiations and the company is looking to acquire another entity within a few months.</p>
<h3><strong>Sqreem Technologies</strong></h3>
<p>Sqreem Technologies has developed artificial intelligence (AI) technology to track consumers&#8217; behaviour online for marketing purposes. Now, it&#8217;s turning its attention to contact tracing, launching Channel SQREEM, a product only available to governments.</p>
<p>Ian Chapman-Banks, the company&#8217;s CEO, said the technology was repurposed while he was under a two-week self-imposed quarantine after flying home from the US.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is a need for a proven AI technology to help authorities contain this virus,&#8221; he said in an email to DealStreetAsia. &#8220;This process did not require us to &#8216;reprogram&#8217; the solution, but rather to extend the use of the AI for contact tracing.&#8221;</p>
<p>After patients test positive for COVID-19, authorities can put their home and work addresses into Channel SQREEM, which determines how many devices had meaningful risky contact or a cluster over 14 days. A country&#8217;s health authorities can then send targeted messages to each device without identifying its owner or requiring an app to be downloaded.</p>
<p>If necessary, authorities can also work with telcos to match the device to a phone number and contact the owner directly, Chapman-Banks said.</p>
<p>In addition, the product can check other online data points – such as whether multiple people in the same apartment building search online for COVID-related symptoms – and flag the location to health authorities as a potential cluster, he said.</p>
<p>Chapman-Banks declined to identify which countries and governments Sqreem is working with but said its product has either been implemented or is in discussions for implementation in countries in Asia, Europe and the Middle East as well as the US.</p>
<p>Sqreem plans to launch a Series B funding round soon to raise around $100 million to expand into Latin America, the EU and the US.</p>
<p>&#8220;We believe we are on track to being Singapore&#8217;s first pure-play unicorn within the next 12 to 18 months,&#8221; he said.</p>
<h3><strong>Biofourmis</strong></h3>
<p>Singapore-founded Biofourmis customised its remote monitoring devices for the COVID-19 pandemic. As DealStreetAsia <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/biofourmis-takeda-184622/">reported in April</a>, the devices have been deployed in Hong Kong, Australia and the UK, to track the progression of the disease in COVID-19 patients, as well as monitor those under quarantine for symptoms.</p>
<p>DealStreetAsia also learnt at that time that the startup, now based in Boston, was in advanced discussions to deploy the device in more countries, including Thailand and the US.</p>
<p>The company secured approvals from the US Food and Drug Administration, as well as authorities in other jurisdictions, including Thailand.</p>
<p>Biofourmis was part of NUS Enterprises&#8217;s accelerator and 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.</p>
<h3><strong>Startups and their investors tackling COVID-19</strong></h3>
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<thead>
<tr class="row-1 odd">
	<th class="column-1">Startup</th><th class="column-2">Location</th><th class="column-3">Industry</th><th class="column-4">Area of expertise</th><th class="column-5">Investors</th><th class="column-6">&nbsp;</th>
</tr>
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<tbody class="row-hover">
<tr class="row-2 even">
	<td class="column-1">BioNTech</td><td class="column-2">Germany</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Developing COVID vaccine with Pfizer</td><td class="column-5">Temasek</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-3 odd">
	<td class="column-1">Emergex</td><td class="column-2">UK</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Developing COVID vaccine</td><td class="column-5">Vertex Venture; Vickers Ventures</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-4 even">
	<td class="column-1">Lucence</td><td class="column-2">California and Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Developing saliva test for COVID</td><td class="column-5">SG Innovate; EDBI</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-5 odd">
	<td class="column-1">Biofourmis</td><td class="column-2">US; Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Monitoring patients remotely; identifying COVID-related biomarkers showing patient deterioration</td><td class="column-5">SG Innovate; EDBI</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-6 even">
	<td class="column-1">Medo.AI</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Diagnosing COVID-related lung conditions</td><td class="column-5">SG Innovate</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-7 odd">
	<td class="column-1">Starship Technologies</td><td class="column-2">US</td><td class="column-3">Industrials; consumer discretionary</td><td class="column-4">Deploying UV disinfecting mobile robots</td><td class="column-5">SG Innovate</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-8 even">
	<td class="column-1">DiMuto</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">blockchain applied to supply chain</td><td class="column-4">Helping with food supply chain and logistics</td><td class="column-5">SG Innovate</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-9 odd">
	<td class="column-1">Moderna</td><td class="column-2">US</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Developing COVID vaccine</td><td class="column-5">EDBI</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-10 even">
	<td class="column-1">Proteona</td><td class="column-2">Singapore, Germany and US</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Developing COVID neutralizing anitbodies</td><td class="column-5">A*STAR/NUS spinoff</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-11 odd">
	<td class="column-1">BotMD</td><td class="column-2">US</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare; Information Technology</td><td class="column-4">Answers doctors' COVID questions</td><td class="column-5">Y Combinator</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-12 even">
	<td class="column-1">Sqreem Technologies</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Information Technology</td><td class="column-4">Contact tracing of COVID patients</td><td class="column-5"></td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-13 odd">
	<td class="column-1">KroniKare</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare; Information Technology</td><td class="column-4">Developed iThermo to spot people with fevers in a crowd</td><td class="column-5">SG Innovate</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-14 even">
	<td class="column-1">ImmunoSCAPE</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Tracks immune reaction to COVID</td><td class="column-5">A*STAR spinoff</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-15 odd">
	<td class="column-1">6Estates</td><td class="column-2">Signapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare; Information Technology</td><td class="column-4">Adapted product to recognise signs of infection in lungs</td><td class="column-5">Spun off from NExT, a joint venture of NUS and Tsinghua University</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-16 even">
	<td class="column-1">Mirxes</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Mass-producing diagnostic test kits</td><td class="column-5">VentureCraft</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-17 odd">
	<td class="column-1">Esco Aster</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Co-developing COVID vaccine</td><td class="column-5"></td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-18 even">
	<td class="column-1">uHoo</td><td class="column-2">Hong Kong</td><td class="column-3">Industrial</td><td class="column-4">Developing service to help deactivate viruses indoors</td><td class="column-5">Wavemaker Partners</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-19 odd">
	<td class="column-1">Mobio interactive</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Remote mental health app</td><td class="column-5">Verge Healthtech</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-20 even">
	<td class="column-1">Lifetrack Medical Systems</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">COVID remote triaging via CT scans</td><td class="column-5">UOB Venture</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-21 odd">
	<td class="column-1">Acumen Research Laboratories</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Diagnotic test prototype</td><td class="column-5"></td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-22 even">
	<td class="column-1">Camtech</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Test kits</td><td class="column-5"></td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-23 odd">
	<td class="column-1">JN Medsys</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Test kits</td><td class="column-5">Camtech</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-24 even">
	<td class="column-1">Veredus Labortories</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Test kits</td><td class="column-5">Subsidiary of Temasek-owned Accuron Technologies</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-25 odd">
	<td class="column-1">Spyder ECG</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Remote cardiac monitoring for high-risk COVID patients</td><td class="column-5">SG Innovate</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-26 even">
	<td class="column-1">Health Beacon</td><td class="column-2">Ireland</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Extra support via its medication-adherence products during COVID</td><td class="column-5">SG Innovate</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-27 odd">
	<td class="column-1">Curiox</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Technology to prep COVID samples for vaccine research</td><td class="column-5">A*STAR spinoff</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-28 even">
	<td class="column-1">Structo</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Making 3D printed nasal swabs</td><td class="column-5">NUS spinoff</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-29 odd">
	<td class="column-1">Qritive</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare; Information Technology</td><td class="column-4">Enabling work-from-home (WFH) for pathologists</td><td class="column-5">SG Innovate</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-30 even">
	<td class="column-1">Whitecoat</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare; Information Technology</td><td class="column-4">Telehealth</td><td class="column-5"></td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-31 odd">
	<td class="column-1">Speedoc</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare; Information Technology</td><td class="column-4">Telehealth</td><td class="column-5"></td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-32 even">
	<td class="column-1">mydoc</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare; Information Technology</td><td class="column-4">Telehealth</td><td class="column-5">Spring SEEDS Capital</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-33 odd">
	<td class="column-1">DoctorxDentist</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare; Information Technology</td><td class="column-4">Telehealth</td><td class="column-5"></td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-34 even">
	<td class="column-1">Doctor Anywhere</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare; Information Technology</td><td class="column-4">Telehealth</td><td class="column-5">EDBI, Pavilion Capital</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-35 odd">
	<td class="column-1">AskDr</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare; Information Technology</td><td class="column-4">Telehealth</td><td class="column-5"></td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-36 even">
	<td class="column-1">Gill Lab</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Developed a reusable face mask as first product</td><td class="column-5"></td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-37 odd">
	<td class="column-1">Star Array</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Optimised genetic-testing products for disease detection; the test might be suitable for using on-site at borders</td><td class="column-5"></td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-38 even">
	<td class="column-1">Lion TCR</td><td class="column-2">Singapore</td><td class="column-3">Healthcare</td><td class="column-4">Using its technology to "train" T-cells to respond to COVID for longer immunity</td><td class="column-5">Westlake Venture Partners, Yashang Capital</td><td class="column-6"></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

<p><em><strong>Editor&#8217;s note: A previous version of this article misspelled the name of Hope Technik.</strong></em></p>


Southeast Asian startups, investors pivot to battle COVID

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