Shadine Taufik · · 2 min readThai mental health startup closes series A fundraise
Photo credit: Ooca
Ooca, a Thailand-based mental health telemedicine firm, has raised an undisclosed series A round from Bangkok Dusit Medical Services (BDMS), the country’s largest private healthcare group.
The startup will collaborate with BDMS on creating and promoting initiatives with the goal of making mental health care more accessible. The partnership aims to transform Ooca into Thailand’s largest provider of online and offline mental health services.
Founded by Dr. Kanpassorn Suriyasangpetch in 2017, Ooca lets users arrange video consultations with psychologists and psychiatrists. It also offers corporate packages for business clients.
The startup says it has onboarded over 180,000 users on its platform.
“It was a challenging time to raise funds,” Suriyasangpetch told Tech in Asia. She pointed out that healthtech startups in Thailand found it hard to fundraise due to the country being a smaller market compared to Indonesia.
She added that investors have shown interest in mental health but often look for “something scalable, such as AI-powered tools.” That, according to Suriyasangpetch, shouldn’t overshadow the actual innovation needed in mental wellness.
“Human empathy can never be replaced by any machine, unless artificial intelligence relationships become as satisfying as those between humans,” she said.
Ooca last raised US$320,000 in 2018 in a seed funding round led by Expara Thailand.
See also: This Indonesian healthtech firm checked out of hospitals to run clinics
Editing by Thu Huong Le and Lorenzo Kyle Subido
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