Bangkok-based telepsychiatry app ooca has closed a Series A funding round, while The Eastern Economic Corridor Office of Thailand is launching a dedicated bourse for SMEs and startups in the country’s special economic zone by mid year.
Hospital group BDMS invests in ooca
ooca has closed a Series A funding round from Thailand’s biggest hospital group, Bangkok Dusit Medical Services (BDMS), according to a company release on Monday.
Founded in 2017 by Kanpassorn Suriyasangpetch, ooca is Thailand’s first mental health platform that offers video consultations with psychologists and psychiatrists.
“We are committed to building innovations and creating new insights into mental health, offering a fresh perspective of how people think of psychology. Five years ago, people were not able to fully grasp how psychology and telemedicine could improve mental wellness, but now video calling with psychological professionals is becoming more popular,” said Suriyasangpetch, founder of ooca, in a release.
BDMS, which is listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, has been ramping up its investments in the healthcare sector in the past few years. Besides gobbling up a Thai hospital group Samitivej, which it took private last December, BDMS participated in a seed funding round of Mineed Tech, a Bangkok-based transdermal and intradermal delivery platform in 2022.
Dedicated stock exchange in SEZ
The Eastern Economic Corridor Office of Thailand (EECO), a government agency assigned to facilitate the expansion of an eponymous project, is launching a dedicated bourse for SMEs and startups in the country’s special economic zone by mid year.
“The EEC Stock Exchange will be a new mechanism for raising private capital in the EEC without any relation to companies listed on other stock exchanges,” said Kanit Sangsubhan, Chairman of the advisory board at EECO.
“Companies to be publicly traded in this bourse must be in the EEC area. SET-listed companies or foreign businesses are open to register its subsidiaries that operate within the economic zone to raise funds on the bourse as well.
Sangsubhan believes the new stock exchange would provide incentives for foreign companies and startups to invest in EEC.
The Economic Development Zone is a pilot special economic development project for technology-driven sectors in the industrial areas of Thailand’s eastern region as part of the Thai government’s 20-year growth strategy.
Should the bourse be set up successfully, this would become Thailand’s fourth stock exchange after the Stock Exchange of Thailand, mai, and LiVe x, which welcomed its first listing last year.