HD, Southeast Asia’s leading healthcare and surgery marketplace, announces the close of a Series A-1 strategic extension round with participation from global healthcare leader MSD (tradename of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., USA), bringing HD’s total Series A funding to $7.8 million. This marks the first investment by MSD IDEA Studio Asia Pacific, an initiative by the MSD Global Health Innovation Fund (MGHIF) and MSD Asia Pacific regional team to support and collaborate with early-stage companies delivering transformative healthcare solutions. 

With this investment, MGHIF joins a roster of prominent investors, including SBI Ven Capital, M Venture Partners, FEBE Ventures, Partech Partners, Ratio Ventures, Orvel Ventures, and TA Ventures, who have collectively supported HD’s Series A funding round. This participation demonstrates MGHIF’s commitment to advancing innovative healthcare in the Asia Pacific region and will enable HD to further expand its flagship HDmall healthcare marketplace and Jib AI technology. 

In the nine months since HD’s Series A round led by SBI Ven Capital, the company has doubled in growth and successfully developed and deployed its Jib AI technology. Currently, over 60% of HD’s chat commerce is managed by autonomous AI agents, delivering high-quality, instant 24/7 responses to customers. Most importantly, this technology enables healthcare professionals - nurses, physicians, and surgeons alike - to focus more on providing exceptional patient care, with Jib AI handling the majority of initial triaging and care navigation. Over the next 12 months, Jib AI’s agent capabilities will further expand to include order and refund processing, assisted checkouts, scheduling, electronic health record querying and review, medical information retrieval through the Jib AI Health Assistant, and AI-enabled asynchronous virtual care with expert physicians. 

Sheji Ho, CEO and Co-Founder of HD, commented, “This investment from MGHIF, their first in Southeast Asia, underscores the importance of our mission. With MSD IDEA Studio Asia Pacific’s strategic support, HD’s extensive and rapidly growing network of over 2,500 healthcare providers, and our proprietary Jib AI technology, we’re excited to accelerate our journey toward making affordable, high-quality healthcare accessible to millions.” 

Jib AI’s success in enhancing healthcare navigation for patients while providing operating leverage has attracted strong interest from healthcare providers on the HDmall marketplace, who are eager to integrate Jib AI into their direct channels and day-to-day operations. As healthcare providers’ needs continue to evolve, HD remains committed to empowering them with innovative solutions that enable better, more affordable, and patient-centered care in the digital era. 

Commenting on the investment, Saumick Pal, Head of Digital, Data Analytics & Innovation, MSD Asia Pacific, said “Today’s announcement represents a significant milestone as we make our inaugural investment through MSD’s IDEA Studio Asia Pacific fund. We look forward to collaborating closely with the talented team at HD, a pioneering healthcare and surgery marketplace with a well-established presence in Thailand. Together, we are committed to supporting the vision of improving access to affordable healthcare services, enhancing patient outcomes, and driving transformative change in healthcare across the Asia Pacific region.” 

The Series A-1 extension marks a significant milestone for HD, which has already facilitated healthcare access for over 400,000 patients through its platform. With additional support from MGHIF, HD is poised to expand its impact even further, making affordable, accessible healthcare a reality across Southeast Asia. Through HDmall and Jib AI, HD empowers healthcare providers to focus more on patient care. By 2025, the company aims to support over 5,000 healthcare providers and reach 600,000 patients.