HD secures $5.6M funding to develop Sierra AI for healthcare in Southeast Asia

Chatbots have evolved significantly over the years, thanks to large language models (LLMs) that have made them more useful. Startups are now leveraging generative AI to create custom chatbots for various businesses, including healthcare. Thailand's HD is at the forefront of building chatbots for the healthcare industry, aiming to enhance the customer journey.

Recently, HD raised a $5.6 million Series A round led by SBI Ven Capital, focusing on developing AI solutions for Southeast Asian healthcare. Their goal is to automate customer inquiries and improve conversion rates, ultimately cutting costs and enabling staff to focus on higher-value tasks.

By leveraging proprietary data, HD plans to train chatbots with transaction, chat, FAQ, and product catalog data collected over the years. This approach, known as vertical AI, allows the company to build practical AI applications tailored to the healthcare domain.

The new capital will be used to launch a chatbot for its marketplace and offer the technology for third-party use by the end of the year. HD has already onboarded 2,000 healthcare providers in Asia, enhancing its base language model for healthcare. The chatbot service will introduce a new revenue stream for the company.

During the post-pandemic period, HD focused on sustainable growth and cost reduction. While heading towards profitability, the company seized the opportunity to raise funds faster, taking advantage of decreased costs in customer and talent acquisition amid the pandemic slowdown.