Keeping the doctor away

• Ever missed a dose or two of your medication and maybe even tried to play catch up the next day? You may not think it’s a big deal, but 500-backed e-pharmacy Dawaai is taking this matter seriously. The startup partnered with pharmaceutical firm Martin Dow Marker (MDM) for the Joint Patient Awareness, Access and Care (JPAAC) program.
• Together, the two firms aim to increase awareness of disease and dosage compliance amongst more patients as well as share reliable public health information through digital channels.
• The program offers pharmacist training programs, pharmacy management skills training, and educational awareness sessions to improve pharmacists’ capabilities in counseling patients.
• MDM will also utilize Dawaai’s e-commerce platform and network to improve access to medicine.
• Read the full article here.

Preloved is in the air 

• “We are not an online marketplace that drives consumption, but one that inspires every person in the world to make more possible for one another by selling and buying,” said Chee Soon Ng, Managing Director at Carousell Singapore.
• As online commerce booms, he expects corresponding growth in the preloved market. In fact, over the past two years from 2019 to 2021, the company has seen a double-digit increase in secondhand listings on Carousell in Singapore.
• On Singapore’s National Day last year, Carousell launched a campaign with the aim of rallying users to give away 20,200 free items – a goal that was exceeded in a month.
• “[This] means that 20,200 items were repurposed and saved from being thrown out mindlessly. We’ve seen [the Free Items category] growing almost nine times since launch and continue seeing a very healthy adoption rate of this category where 80% of items listed for free are given away within seven days,” Chee Soon added.
• What’s next for Carousell? “Our priority remains on creating a lifestyle for consumers where secondhand is the first choice. Carousell is dominant across the horizontals, and we have the opportunity to provide secondhand options across the customer’s life cycle. No other platform in SEA is able to do this,” he concluded.
• Read the full interview here.

Education and teaching re-imagined

• Online learning has grown in popularity, especially during the pandemic. What is Nas Academy’s edge? 
• Jacqueline Maye Lim, Philippine head of 500-backed Nas Academy, revealed that it subscribes to the ‘learning by doing’ model.
• She added that the startup invites industry experts, whom they call ‘creators’, to not only  create classes but to create their own academies. This empowers creators to build learning communities that will grow with them.
• Offering a mix of free workshops and paid masterclasses, Nas Academy has served over 100,000 students across 100 countries to date and reports it has a 5x higher completion rate than the average online learning platform.
• Watch the full interview here.