Temasek-Backed Startup Raises $1.2 Million to Develop Contactless Health Monitoring
Health monitoring without touching the patient might sound like science fiction, but it keeps getting closer to reality — and now with serious money on the table.
A startup founded in South Korea in 2020, called injewelme, just raised $1.2 million to advance a technology that uses a camera and artificial intelligence to capture more than 20 health parameters in just 30 seconds. The round was led by Catalytic Capital for Climate and Health, a catalytic investment vehicle under Temasek Trust, with participation from Richardson Family, a UK-based family investment firm. And the most interesting part is that this is not just a nice-sounding lab promise — the technology has already been tested in real clinics in Singapore, including pilots conducted with SingHealth Polyclinics and private partners, with results reaching 95% detection accuracy. 🎯
It is easy to see why the money is flowing in this direction.
How injewelme’s Contactless Health Technology Works
The solution developed by injewelme falls under what the industry calls contactless health technology — systems capable of assessing a person’s physical condition without any direct contact with the body. In practice, the patient simply stands in front of a camera for about 30 seconds, and the system does the rest. Using advanced artificial intelligence algorithms, the platform analyzes micro-variations in the face and skin to extract data such as heart rate, oxygen saturation, estimated blood pressure, stress levels, and much more — all of it completely passive and non-invasive.
The company’s core technology has been named DeepHealthVision, or DHV. What makes this approach particularly interesting is the depth of the analysis. We are not talking about one or two basic metrics, but more than 20 health parameters captured simultaneously — something that, until recently, would have required a battery of equipment, sensors strapped to the body, and a healthcare professional present for every step.
The technology behind it is called rPPG, which stands for Remote Photoplethysmography. It is a technique that detects the subtle color variations in the skin caused by blood flow. These variations are imperceptible to the human eye but clearly visible to algorithms trained on millions of clinical data points. This approach has been gaining traction over the past few years precisely because it does not depend on specialized hardware: a standard camera, like the one on a tablet or a webcam, is already enough to perform the capture.
Another important point is speed. In a context where patient experience and clinical operational efficiency are growing priorities, having a quick, silent, and discomfort-free triage is a real differentiator. No needles, no gel, no finger squeezing. The device’s camera performs the reading and the system delivers results in real time. 🚀
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Beyond DeepHealthVision — The Company’s Other Solutions
injewelme is not limited to camera-based monitoring. The startup also develops two other tools that complement its preventive and personalized health proposition.
The first is DeepHealthNet, a predictive AI that collects and analyzes personal health data over time. The idea here is to go beyond a snapshot of the moment and build an evolving panorama. The system identifies patterns, predicts changes in health indicators, and flags risks before they become actual clinical problems. It is the kind of approach that shifts healthcare from treatment to prevention — a move every health system in the world is trying to make, but few manage to execute at scale.
The second is Gamified Health Management, an app designed specifically for children and teenagers that turns health tracking into something fun by using game mechanics. It might seem like a minor detail, but engaging younger audiences in health habits from an early age is one of the great challenges in contemporary preventive medicine, and gamification has proven to be an effective tool in this space.
The Weight of the Investment and What It Represents
The investment of $1.2 million might not seem astronomical when compared to the billion-dollar rounds that dominate tech headlines. But in the context of an early-stage startup, especially one focused on healthtech with real clinical validation, this amount carries enormous strategic weight. The round being led by Catalytic Capital for Climate and Health, a vehicle tied to Temasek Trust — one of the most respected sovereign funds in the world, headquartered in Singapore — says a lot about how seriously this market is being treated by major global players.
Temasek Trust is not known for betting on technologies without substance. The fund has a solid track record of identifying companies with real impact potential, and the fact that it put capital into injewelme signals that the technology passed a rigorous level of due diligence. Additionally, the participation of Richardson Family from the United Kingdom adds a layer of European interest that broadens the company’s geographic prospects from the start. This matters a great deal when the topic is market expansion, because European markets have specific regulations for medical devices and diagnostic technologies, and having a partner with access to that region can be a concrete competitive advantage.
From a digital health investment trends perspective, this funding reflects a broader movement that has been gaining momentum since the pandemic: the search for solutions that reduce physical contact, democratize access to health information, and integrate artificial intelligence functionally into everyday medical practice. 📈
Where the Money Is Going — injewelme’s Next Steps
With fresh capital in hand, injewelme has well-defined plans. According to an official statement from the company, the new resources will be directed toward expanding DeepHealthVision’s capabilities, testing additional parameters such as blood glucose, stress index, fatigue, and hydration monitoring. These are indicators that significantly broaden the technology’s scope and make it relevant to scenarios far beyond the traditional medical clinic.
Part of the funds will also be used for customer acquisition in Singapore and expansion into other Southeast Asian markets. The region is considered one of the most fertile grounds for healthtech in the world, with large populations, growing urbanization, and health systems under constant pressure for efficiency.
The company also stated that the DHV is being evaluated for deployment in sectors such as healthcare, elderly care, insurance, and workplace safety. One particularly interesting use case is the monitoring of physiological stress linked to heat exposure caused by climate change — a real and growing problem in tropical regions, where outdoor workers are increasingly exposed to extreme temperature conditions. Having a contactless tool that assesses signs of heat stress in seconds could literally save lives in those contexts.
The Bigger Picture — Other Contactless Startups Growing in Asia
injewelme is not alone in this movement. The healthtech ecosystem across the Asia-Pacific has seen a wave of startups focused on contactless monitoring raising significant rounds in recent years, confirming that there is real market appetite for this type of solution.
Dozee, for example, raised $8 million last March in a round also led by Temasek Trust, with a focus on global expansion. South Korea-based Sky Labs, maker of a ring-shaped blood pressure monitor, raised $15 million in a Series C round in 2023, directing those resources toward obtaining regulatory approvals across different markets.
Singapore specifically continues to solidify its position as a hub for digital health investments. Last year, at least two local startups attracted significant funding. Kyberlife, which operates an online marketplace for acquiring critical medical equipment, raised $3 million to expand across Southeast Asia. Aevice Health, known for its AI-powered smart stethoscope, received an undisclosed investment from global chemical manufacturer Denka.
This landscape shows that investment in contactless digital health is not a passing trend but a structural shift in how the industry thinks about diagnostics, triage, and continuous monitoring. 🌏
Artificial Intelligence as the Engine of Non-Invasive Diagnostics
It is impossible to talk about what injewelme is doing without going a little deeper into the role that artificial intelligence plays in this process. The system is not just a camera with filters — it is a model trained on real clinical data, capable of identifying subtle patterns that correlate visual characteristics with specific physiological states. This type of model requires an enormous amount of quality data to be reliable, and reaching 95% accuracy in a real clinical environment, as was the case with the SingHealth Polyclinics pilots, is an indicator that the training was conducted with rigor and care.
Artificial intelligence applied to health monitoring still faces concrete challenges, especially when it comes to generalization — meaning ensuring that the model performs well across different populations, lighting conditions, camera types, and varied clinical contexts. This is one of the main issues a company like injewelme needs to address as it scales. The good news is that this kind of challenge has known solutions: more data, more testing across diverse scenarios, and continuous model iteration with real clinical feedback.
What makes the bet on artificial intelligence in this context even more relevant is the predictive potential it carries. Today, the technology captures and analyzes parameters in real time. But as a patient’s data history accumulates through DeepHealthNet, the system can begin identifying trends and variations that precede health problems — functioning, in practice, as a data-driven preventive medicine tool. This completely changes the logic of healthcare, shifting the focus from treatment to prevention, which benefits the patient and, in the long run, delivers substantial gains for health systems as a whole. 🧠
Practical Applications Beyond the Medical Clinic
One of the most exciting aspects of this technology is its versatility. Although the starting point is the clinical environment, the potential applications of DeepHealthVision extend far beyond the walls of a doctor’s office.
- Elderly care: in nursing homes and home care programs, contactless monitoring allows for continuous tracking of vital signs without causing discomfort — something especially important for patients with reduced mobility or cognitive conditions that make traditional devices difficult to use.
- Health insurance: insurers can use non-invasively collected data to create personalized prevention programs and even adjust risk profiles based on real, up-to-date information rather than relying solely on questionnaires and periodic exams.
- Workplace safety: in sectors like construction, logistics, and mining, monitoring workers’ physiological condition in real time can prevent accidents caused by fatigue, dehydration, or heat stress.
- Telemedicine: imagine a telehealth visit where, even before the doctor starts the conversation, they already have a summary of the patient’s vital parameters on screen, collected by the camera in the seconds before the call. This workflow optimizes consultation time and significantly elevates the quality of clinical decisions.
This flexibility in application is what sets technologies like DHV apart from more traditional remote monitoring solutions. By removing the barrier of specialized hardware and reducing the process to a camera and an algorithm, injewelme opens the door for health monitoring to become something truly ubiquitous and accessible. 💡
What to Expect Going Forward
With clinical validation in hand, capital from strategic investors, and a market that is clearly moving toward non-invasive monitoring, injewelme appears well positioned to grow. The coming months should be decisive for the company, especially when it comes to expanding the range of monitored parameters and entering new markets across Southeast Asia.
The contactless healthtech segment in Asia-Pacific is accelerating fast, and recent investments from funds like Temasek Trust show that the institutional market is taking these technologies very seriously. For anyone following the intersection of artificial intelligence and healthcare, injewelme is definitely a name to keep on the radar.
