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mClinica is a Singapore-headquartered health-tech company which provides data, analytics, and patient engagement tools for healthcare organisations in Southeast Asia. In 2017, mClinica closed a USD$6.3million series A financing round, with Kindrik Partners advising the company.
Founder and CEO Farouk Meralli talked to us about mClinica’s journey to date and working with Kindrik Partners.
the mClinica story
Whilst working for multinational pharmaceutical companies, Farouk identified issues in the healthcare sector in emerging markets. Pharmaceutical companies and public sector entities (NGOs and governments) lack access to consolidated data that similar companies in developed markets have. This is particularly so in Southeast Asia where pharmacies are mainly independent owner-operated businesses rather than the large branded chains that you see in established markets.
This led Farouk to start mClinica to connect pharmacies on a common mobile platform. The company launched in the Philippines in 2013, and has since expanded to Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia. By the end of 2017, mClinica had connected over 60,000 pharmacy professionals and 12,000 pharmacies on a single digital platform. This platform now addresses several challenges in healthcare including education and engagement of pharmacy professionals, pharmacy-driven patient programs, and last-mile data.
Farouk recently received the Public Health Innovator Award from Harvard University for his work with mClinica, and was the youngest ever recipient of the award.
challenges
Due to the fragmented nature of the healthcare industry in Southeast Asia, developing mClinica’s products was no easy feat. Farouk had to recruit healthcare professionals who also had expertise in mobile technology, engage with lots of government agencies and regulators, and develop products that were flexible enough to work in different health contexts. However, Farouk’s patience and vision has paid off, with its pharmacy network now reaching approximately 80 million patients per month.
The business has also been through some financing rounds and other corporate transactions along the way, which Farouk admits can be a big distraction from the day job of growing the business – like all entrepreneurs, he just wants to focus on solving real problems for end users.
raising a series A round
mClinica’s series A round was led by Silicon Valley fund, Patamar Capital (formerly Unitus Impact), and joined by UK based Global Innovation Fund, MDI Ventures, and Endeavor Catalyst. Existing investors also took part in the investment round.
The cap raise was to help mClinica grow faster and enter more markets across Southeast Asia. By 2017, mClinica had a good profile in the regional tech and healthcare scene, and was known to investors. The company therefore had the luxury of picking investors that had knowledge of the healthcare space and would offer the best long-term strategic value.
In the end, mClinica was able to secure investment from well-known international investors, all of whom believed in the vision of transforming healthcare in Asia. A term sheet followed, and once a lead investor was committed, was agreed fairly quickly.
Farouk described an important aspect of the transaction was discussing the term sheet openly with all interested parties from the outset. This included existing seed investors who required careful management to avoid roadblocks later in the deal process.
working with Kindrik Partners
mClinica has worked with Lee Bagshaw since the incorporation of the business, including advising on seed funding deals with Kickstart Ventures, Spiral Ventures (formerly IMJ Investment Partners) and 500 Startups. Kindrik Partners has helped the company with other corporate and commercial matters, aside from the series A deal.
Farouk says: I believe mClinica was one of Lee’s first clients in Southeast Asia. Therefore to some extent we’ve been on the journey together in what is an exciting but challenging digital market. We feel like we’re in safe hands with Kindrik Partners. The team is very easy to work with and their VC transaction experience is second to none.
what’s next?
Since completing its series A financing, mClinica has continued to expand its pharmaceutical network, work on product development and grow its team. Right now, the focus is still on Southeast Asia, but mClinica’s products are also suited to many other developing countries worldwide.
As a transformative health-tech company operating in emerging economies, we’re proud to have been a part of Farouk’s journey to date. The digital economy in Southeast Asia will play a great role in improving healthcare delivery over the next decade and mClinica is leading the way.
[Note: The firm’s name was changed to Kindrik Partners in July 2020 and references to the firm’s previous name have been updated.]
about Singapore Tourism Accelerator
The Singapore Tourism Accelerator is an equity-free 6-month programme for promising technology companies that power the travel and tourism industry. The Accelerator is organised by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and is managed by its appointed Corporate Innovation partner, Found8.
The cohort companies undergo a three-month accelerator program where they participate in capacity- building workshops providing insights to the Singapore ecosystem and market as well as the tourism and hospitality industry. The program is tailored to support the startups in identifying and securing a pilot partner and project to testbed their solution with. This is followed by three months of pilot implementation and execution with one of the close to 30 industry partners participating in the programme – including Singapore Airlines, Changi Airport, Marina Bay Sands, and other prominent tourism brands.
The Accelerator provides founders with an opportunity to learn critical market entry skills, pilot design and implementation skills, and fundraising strategies. The programme also offers 1:1 mentoring, expert feedback, and access to industry events. The accelerator culminates in a Demo Day attended by investors and members of the tourism industry.
The Accelerator is currently running its second cohort of 10 companies and Kindrik Partners has worked with the program as an advisor for both. Particularly in the case of startups who have come from outside the region, that can include incorporation in Singapore with a view to getting investment.
pivoting to remote-first with COVID-19
With the second cohort set to begin just as the COVID-19 situation was escalating in Singapore, the decision was made to pivot from an onsite programme to a digital-first programme.
“The global health crisis put a lot of different challenges on top of everyone’s normal workload. Now that we’re split across seven different time-zones, it’s a big ask in terms of flexibility and adaptability for the people who run the workshops. We are all now masters of Zoom,” says Katrin Miller, program manager.
kindrik partners support
presentations and office hours
In line with the move to remote-first, Sarah Yen, senior solicitor at Kindrik Partners, presented to the second cohort via webinar, covering basic corporate and commercial topics such as seed rounds and other common legal issues for growth stage companies.
The startups were also able to book one-on-one Zoom legal consultations to address any queries not covered in the presentations.
“It was beneficial to the startups to know they had access to a lawyer to address more specific questions once they were further through the process”, says Katrin.
“Throughout the programme, Sarah has been stellar to deal with. She has always made herself available to our startups and the advice she gives to help the founders is always well structured and clear.”
online templates
Founder in each cohort also have access to over 30 free legal templates and guides for startups that have been tailored to building tech companies in Southeast Asia.
“Anytime one of the startups needed a template, I always consulted the Kindrik Partners database first to see if there was something they could start working from,” says Katrin.
The templates cover common corporate and commercial agreements and resolutions used by growth startups. These include founder agreements, NDAs, and sample term sheets.
support tailored for the programme
Given the industry connections that the Accelerator offers to industry heavyweights like Singapore Airlines, Changi Airport, and Marina Bay Sands, Kindrik Partners also provides targeted assistance on pilot agreements.
“Running a pilot programme is a great way to fine-tune a solution and to approach enterprise customers”, says Sarah. “However, since there’s no real uniformity to pilot agreements, founders need to be aware of some key provisions that will shape their experience with the organisation they’re dealing with.”
Katrin agrees, adding “Some corporate partners have existing documentation around pilot programmes – but for many, it’s up to the startup to set up a legal document that seals the partnership. Kindrik Partners provided real value in educating the startups and help them understand the legalese – whether it be a letter of intent, an MOU, or formal partnership agreement.”
after demo day
fixed fees on seed funding rounds
Following demo day, Kindrik Partners is available to the cohort companies to assist them with their first institutional funding rounds. To bring more transparency to the market around legal costs, Kindrik Partners offers fixed fees for institutional seed funding rounds and some associated projects, such as ESOPs.
“We want to help founders understand the terms on which they are raising their first formal funding, to help them close the deal as efficiently as possible, and of course to ensure they are getting market terms. Providing fixed fees removes one of the biggest obstacles to start-ups engaging counsel during the funding process, i.e. concerns around creeping costs and their lawyers running the clock on each call or email query”, partner Chris Wilson says.
final words
The mentorship and guidance given to the startups has been highly valued by founders in the accelerator programme.
“It’s been a hard time to run a tourism accelerator during the coronavirus pandemic – it’s no surprise that we are the hardest hit. But we’ve noticed that many of our industry partners have stepped up and focused on innovation to give them a competitive edge when the industry recovers.”
“Having Kindrik Partners on hand to assist has been truly valuable throughout the course of the programme as our founders navigate the new normal.”
Malaysian point of sale (POS) startup StoreHub is on a mission to help businesses execute better, through innovative technology and great design.
Wai Hong Fong, StoreHub CEO and co-founder, recently talked to us about his company and how he has found working with Kindrik Partners on their Series A capital raise.
the storehub story
Wai Hong refers to himself as an accidental entrepreneur. Most of his family are professionals and he says that it was a combination of kind of stumbling into opportunities plus being frustrated with a problem and wanting to solve it, which led him to where he is today.
After completing his BA in arts, media and philosophy at the University of Melbourne, he co-founded and became Managing Director at OZHut a lifestyle online retailer, where he did everything from writing code, web development and design, search engine optimization and even running the packing tables at the warehouse.
After 5 years at OzHut, he moved to China to study Mandarin and met a friend running a small retail store who asked him to look at his POS given Wai Hong’s e-Commerce background. He realised how terrible it was and not only wanted to help his friend fix this but other small to medium businesses that required offline and online sales support.
Wai Hong knew that the iPad POS was taking off in the US but there were no alternatives in Asia. With the belief that it was time for technology to revolutionise the traditional POS industry in Asia, and to help build better businesses, he co-founded StoreHub in 2013, along with current Chief Technology Officer, Congyu Li.
In the first 12 months of development, they bootstrapped the company then received a small investment from an angel investor, as well as a grant from Malaysia’s Cradle Fund. Wai Hong says that this initial funding allowed them to grow their product quickly and we’ve been cashflow positive and profitable since late 2015.
StoreHub is now a cloud-based iPad POS with inventory management, reporting and CRM, accessed via a mobile responsive backend, with over 850 retail stores paying a monthly subscription and customers in Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia.
In addition to the POS product offering, StoreHub supports its product with exceptional customer service based on the business to consumer experience which is not commonly offered by the industry.
In 2016, StoreHub announced a partnership with Malaysia-listed payments giant GHL Systems to deliver a fully integrated mobile point of sale (mPOS) credit card terminal and iPad POS solution. They also secured USD$850k in their Series A capital raising round from 500 Startups, as well as investors in China, Singapore and Malaysia.
Wai Hong says that StoreHub now plans to grow at least another 5 times its current size in the next year, add complementary products to their core offering and also enter new South East Asian markets, such as Thailand and Philippines.
challenges
Wai Hong notes that the biggest challenge for StoreHub is hiring and managing people, especially on a shoestring budget, talent acquisition and management is key.
The POS market is also highly competitive however StoreHub manages to differentiate because of their broad offering and leveraging their customer service focus which is generally seen as an afterthought in the industry. Being product and tech obsessed has also helped them stay ahead of the pack.
working with Kindrik Partners
Wai Hong primarily dealt with lawyers for the angel investment which involved local lawyers but it unfortunately turned out to be a painful and expensive experience.
He was then introduced to Kindrik Partners partner Lee Bagshaw through former Kindrik Partners lawyer, now investment analyst at tech VC Monks Hill, Lucy Luo. Lee supported StoreHub through the Series A capital raising, including drafting all of the documents which is unique for a deal like this, as investors usually provide the first round of documents.
Wai Hong says that it was our first serious cap raise and it was a refreshing experience given the angel investment round, knowing if I had an issue I would be getting sound advice. It made a huge difference that Lee thoroughly understood the South East Asian venture capital landscape, particularly as they had to negotiate with the investors.
Given Lee really understood StoreHub’s business, Wai Hong would work with him again on further corporate governance work like an Employee Share Options Scheme. He has also recommended both Kindrik Partners and Lee to a whole bunch of startups.
He says not only was Lee fast at delivering the work which helped StoreHub maintain their professionalism with investors, but he gets the space, market standards and provides valuable industry insights. Wai Hong thought Lee’s wealth of experience showed specifically when he advised on the all important term sheet, his advice and guidance was spot on.
Wai Hong also thinks that the Kindrik Partners Templates are also pretty cool, providing good information and learning points, and are a good starting point for legal work.
summing up
StoreHub’s growth is a testament to the company’s commitment to building a product and providing outstanding customer service. Kindrik Partners can’t wait to see what Wai Hong and the team have planned for their ambitious next steps.
Explore StoreHub.
[Note: The firm’s name was changed to Kindrik Partners in July 2020 and references to the firm’s previous name have been updated.]
