From farmers to founders

• Give three chicken farmers five years, and they may just launch a startup to help thousands of farmers! That’s what Ashab Alkahfi (Co-Founder & President), Tubagus Syailendra (Co-Founder & CEO), and Ahmad Syaifullah (Co-Founder & CTO) did.
• 500-backed Chickin, an Indonesia-based poultry startup, raised seed funding led by East Ventures. 
• The goal? To democratize the poultry industry by utilizing and integrating the internet of things (IoT) technology and data management to increase farmers income, and enhance food security for Indonesians. 
• The team said they will use the fresh funds to improve their growth, people, technology, partner acquisition, and farmers’ empowerment to ensure the best quality and maximum amount of production.
• “All of these tools were created as efficiently as possible, affordable by farmers, and easy to use,” said Ahmad.
• So far, the startup has reached thousands of farmers and acquired more than 150 farm locations with over 2.6 million chicken population capacity. Chickin has also served more than 200 companies and grew their revenue by more than 50x in the past one year.
• Read the full story on TechNode Global.

A fantastic collaboration

• Employees of Malaysian media company Media Prima Bhd (MPB) now have free access to integrated health services via a digital app!
• Dubbed ‘Fit-tastic’, the program is a collaboration between MPB and 500-backed digital health company Naluri, and aims to create awareness of mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing, as well as provide a support system for staff members.
• “Financial problems and workplace stress are the two biggest sources of stress for employees in Malaysia, so we provide access to multidisciplinary professional expert assistance and consultation at your fingertips 24-hours without the requirement of an appointment,” said Azran Osman-Rani, Co-founder & CEO of Naluri.
• He added that the program also offers a 24-hour support assistance service from 100 professional and certified experts, such as dieticians, physicists, counselors, doctors, fitness coaches, executive coaches, pharmacists, financial planners, and more.
• Read the full article in the New Straits Times.

Family planning at your fingertips

• In Southeast Asia, up to two-thirds of women who use contraceptives get them from pharmacies. This makes pharmacies a great platform for education on family planning. However, according to 500-backed digital health startup SwipeRx, health organizations have struggled to engage pharmacies at scale.
• With their community of over 240,000 pharmacy professionals across the region, the SwipeRx team saw an opportunity to solve this problem. They obtained information about the contraceptive supply chain, as well as pharmacy professionals’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices — all within a fraction of the time typically required to survey the fragmented industry.
• Armed with empirical evidence, SwipeRx launched digital behavior change campaigns to improve knowledge on contraception methods, address biases, and more.
• The result? During the campaign period, nearly half of clients referred through SwipeRx’s referral tool were introduced to family planning services.
• Pharmacist Sin Kimcheng in Cambodia said, “Previously, I encouraged my clients to seek family planning from a specialist doctor, but this is not always possible in my rural community. Because of SwipeRx, I am more confident in my ability to counsel clients about all contraceptive methods available.”
• Read the full case study here.