Naluri Hidup to expand AI-augmented health coaching business overseas

By Anas Abu Hassan

KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 -- Naluri Hidup Sdn Bhd, a local digital health technology service provider, aims to expand its artificial intelligence (AI)-augmented health coaching business into Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. 

Co-founder and chief executive officer Azran Osman Rani said with the new Series A fund secured by the startup recently, it also plans to improve its product technology and deepen clinical research in the areas of mental health, obesity, diabetes and heart diseases in an effort to get digital therapeutics certifications.

"Naluri works by connecting users in need of help with a team of multi-disciplinary health coaches for holistic care, both physical and mental, via AI-augmented coaching. 

"We are pioneering this new model so that the human healthcare professionals do not need to have real-time conversations but can serve 10 times the number of users using various AI tools to help them process and make decisions much faster.

"We give coaches AI-assisted tools to drastically improve their productivity by using proprietary technology that provides our coaches with decision-support tools to help them analyse the health profile trends of individuals," he told Bernama in an interview here.

Last week, it was reported that Naluri has secured a US$5 million (US$1=RM4.14) funding in a Series A round which allows startups to get financing to grow their business.

The Series A round was led by Singapore’s Integra Partners, which joined returning strategic investors, Duopharma Biotech Bhd and Pathology Asia, as well as venture capital firm M Venture Partners.

Naluri also welcomes new strategic investors, Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia, Palm Drive Capital from New York and INP Capital from Vancouver, to its shareholder register. It has also gained support from the Hibiscus Fund, a venture capital fund managed by Malaysia’s RHL Ventures and Korea’s KB Investment that forms part of the Dana Penjana National Programme. 

According to Azran, the company is also planning to do clinical research in Europe to get digital therapeutics certifications and standards that can be used to help shape the digital therapeutics landscape in Southeast Asia.

"We will continue to serve our growing list of clients, many of which are the region’s leading corporations, which fully understand and appreciate the scale of impact health-related issues have on their employees’ productivity and engagement, particularly in the time of COVID-19.

"We are incredibly proud of the support and affirmation we received from esteemed local and international investors, who saw promise in Naluri’s business model and growth prospects," he added.

-- BERNAMA