Monk’s Hill Ventures has invested $5 million in Ordinary Folk, a Singapore-based telehealth firm focused on men’s and women’s health concerns. The funds will be utilized to hire new employees and grow into Hong Kong while continuing to scale in Singapore. Sean Low founded the company in 2020, and it has two primary platforms: Noah, which is for men’s sexual health, mental wellness, hair care, and weight management, and Zoey, which is for women’s sexual wellness, fertility, mental health, and wellbeing.
Low says he launched Ordinary Folk to make it simpler to get therapy for stigmatized disorders like erectile dysfunction while also easing the pain points of an in-person professional appointment. “Men’s and women’s health issues are personal issues that impact us all at some time in our lives, whether directly or indirectly via our partners,” he told TechCrunch. “And there were no suitable options in Singapore and Hong Kong until we launched Noah and Zoey.”
Because there are numerous parallels between Singapore and Hong Kong, the firm picked Hong Kong as its next market to grow into, according to Low. Both cities, for example, are highly populated and fast-paced, with healthcare systems that face similar problems, he added. “While there are differences, Singaporeans and Hong Kongers share concerns about high healthcare prices, fear of illicit drugs, the hassle of visiting a doctor, and the stigma linked to men’s and women’s health ailments,” he said.
Ordinary Folk claim that income has increased by over 130 percent since its start, with over a million unique visits. It sets itself apart from other telemedicine businesses by constructing a whole healthcare stack, including healthcare and logistics for non-prescription drugs, according to Low. Ordinary Folk were also able to develop a health evaluation for patients to complete before to arranging an appointment, allowing doctors to make more precise diagnosis.
“In the case of sexual health, having to answer sensitive questions to someone you’ve never met might be difficult,” said Low. The health evaluation was created in collaboration with doctors and other health professionals. Physicians, psychologists, therapists, and other professionals are among the providers in Ordinary Folk’s network.
“Millions of individuals across Asia find it difficult to receive good treatment and care for health illnesses that have a great stigma associated,” Peng T. Ong, the co-founder and managing partner of Monk’s Hill Ventures, said in a prepared statement. Ordinary Folk is ideally positioned to add value across the consumer experience of healthcare services, providing an ecosystem where consumers have access to medical professionals and goods, as well as a wide choice of treatment alternatives, thanks to Noah and Zoey.
