Health-tech startup Maya raises $2.2m for expansion

 Healthcare startup Maya announced yesterday that it raised $2.2 million in seed funding, the highest-ever by a Bangladeshi health-tech company.

The funding will facilitate new products on Maya's platform and help it expand internationally, according to a press release.

Maya, which is dedicated to making it easier for women to get healthcare, especially for sensitive issues like reproductive and mental health, has recently launched its operations in Sri Lanka. The startup is also testing its services in India and Pakistan.

"Coming from the financial services industry, I have always heard 'Time is Money'. But what I learned as Maya started scaling is 'Time is Lives'," said Maya Founder and CEO Ivy Huq Russell.

"Maya responds to users every seven seconds, and every time we do, we are helping those in need with a level of trust that's hard to find these days."

The funding was led by early-stage venture investment fund Anchorless Bangladesh and The Osiris Group, a Hong Kong-based private equity firm.

"We've spent months working closely with Ivy and her team in what we've found to be the most fascinating and promising health tech startup in Bangladesh. They've built a product that creates much-needed trust amongst its users and scales via technology to a much wider population in Bangladesh and elsewhere," said Rahat Ahmed, founding partner and CEO of Anchorless Bangladesh.

"We believe Maya's potential to have a global impact on healthcare access is immense."

Maya started its journey as a healthcare information blog in 2011 to bridge the gap between general public and easy access to basic healthcare information. Over the years, Maya has grown to be a trusted source of healthcare information specialised in dealing with sensitive topics.

It has about 10 million unique users and currently counts more than 300 licensed healthcare providers on its platform, according to TechCrunch website.