Ease co-founders Rio Hoe (L) and Guadalupe Lazaro
Singapore-based women-focused healthcare services startup, Ease Healthcare, has attracted a US$1.3M seed financing round led by Insignia Ventures Partners.
Several high-profile members from the XA Network also joined.
Additionally, Ease Healthcare launched a mobile app that enables users to book doctor appointments and preventive tests on the go, make purchases, and run comprehensive contraception tracking. In addition, it allows users to manage critical sexual and reproductive health indicators through personalised guides and content and engage with the larger community of Ease users through a community forum.
Ease Healthcare will use the funds to introduce new features, expand its team, and continue scaling the reach of its services. A portion of the capital will go into launching its own line of products focused on preventing or improving women’s health conditions, including vaginal infections, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), and urinary tract issues.
Ease Healthcare was founded in 2020 by serial entrepreneur and sexual and reproductive health rights advocate Guadalupe Lazaro and lawyer-turned-entrepreneur Rio Hoe.
Their own experiences inspired the duo as a couple accessing sexual and reproductive healthcare in Singapore. Through market research, the founder-couple identified four main barriers to access sexual and reproductive health services. They were the cost of these services, the inconvenient experience of making appointments, booking tests, and getting prescriptions; the lack of education around this aspect of personal health; and the prevalent stigma of availing these services.
These issues are more prominent in Asia, where health education is not as prevalent. They point towards underserved sexual healthcare and women care market in APAC that is worth US$10 billion this year.
They launched Ease’s initial platform in 2020 to cater to these needs and the pain points they identified in the market. This platform enables consumers to consult with medical professionals, obtain and renew prescriptions conveniently and affordably, get medication discreetly delivered to their doorstep within four hours, and learn more about managing their reproductive health.
Ease Healthcare’s platform works hand-in-hand with its network of clinics, pharmacies, doctors, and laboratories across Singapore. The app now includes and expands beyond these existing features with new services such as contraception and symptom tracking, personalised insights, and a broad range of relevant products available for purchase.
Ease Healthcare claims its community grew 6x over the past year to 20,000 members.
The company regularly shares educational content with its community, ranging from using various contraceptives to early warning signals for infections.
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“Our new app brings us a step closer to becoming the go-to platform for all women’s health care needs. It will enable every Ease user to control their health and wellness by significantly reducing the impact of stigma, lack of education, inconvenience, and costs that burden traditional channels. The long-term goal is not just to tackle access to sexual and reproductive healthcare, but address the larger picture of women’s health through a truly comprehensive ecosystem of products and services,” said co-founder Lazaro.
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Image Credit: Ease Healthcare
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