Vaccination for the vulnerable

• 500-backed digital health startup Alodokter has set up a drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination center in Indonesia.
• More than 10 other centers are in the works, making this program one of the country’s largest vaccination initiatives.

• Launched in partnership with Homecare24, a professional home care services provider, with the official support of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Tourism, this program is free for the elderly and tourism workers.
• Under this agreement, Alodokter is the exclusive online booking platform for the center.
• Learn more about Alodokter’s vaccination center here.

A big catch

• CEO of 500-backed aquaculture startup Jala Tech, Liris Maduningtyas, has been named one of Forbes Indonesia’s 30 under 30. This year’s theme is ‘presenting Indonesia’s young achievers and game-changers’.

• Jala Tech provides IoT (internet of things) water-quality monitoring systems for shrimp farming. This enables farmers to select the right treatment for their ponds based on real-time data.
• In a 2018 interview, she shared that being a woman in this industry was challenging. “People questioned why I was there… But because I have proven that I can be an entrepreneur in aquaculture technology and really solve problems…I don’t really have any challenges at work now.”
• She found that most women in aquaculture work as researchers or in processing plants. However, she noted that the number of women in the industry is rising — Jala Tech itself has hired more female engineers and sales staff.

Gearing up for change

• In an interview with KrAsia, 500-backed Carsome’s Group CFO Juliet Zhu shared how she is closing the gender gap in the automotive industry.

• “According to a Deloitte report, women only account for 20 percent of the automotive workforce globally, dropping below 10 percent at the executive level,” she said. “Women are heavily underrepresented in an industry that continues to alienate women customers even though women are also buying and selling cars.”
• At Carsome, Juliet works with the leadership team to improve its recruitment funnel and career progression track for female employees. She noted that today, 35% of the startup’s senior positions are held by women, “a number far above the industry average”.
• She believes change and equality comes first from women supporting and uplifting each other. “This way we can help create more opportunities for women to break the glass ceiling and eventually close the gender gap,” she concluded.
• Read the full interview on KrAsia here.

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500 Startups is a venture capital firm on a mission to discover and back the world’s most talented entrepreneurs, help them create successful companies at scale, and build thriving global ecosystems. In Southeast Asia, 500 Startups invests through the pioneering 500 Southeast Asia family of funds. The 500 Southeast Asia funds have backed over 240 companies across multiple sectors from internet to consumer to deep technology. It continues to connect founders with capital, expertise and powerful regional and global networks to help them succeed.

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