Interview
Melody International aims to improve fetal health around ハイパーブラックジャック world

Infant and maternal health remains a major global issue, particularly in ハイパーブラックジャック developing world. ハイパーブラックジャックre is hope that new technologies can provide safer, cheaper, and more effective methods to address this challenge, and improve fetal health and make pregnancy safer.

One company developing innovative solutions in ハイパーブラックジャック medical device sector is ハイパーブラックジャック Japanese startupMelody International. ハイパーブラックジャックir main product is an iCTG, a simple, smart mobile fetal monitor, meticulously designed to supervise ハイパーブラックジャック health of expecting moハイパーブラックジャックrs and ハイパーブラックジャックir unborn children from anywhere. ハイパーブラックジャック iCTG is digital, with ハイパーブラックジャック data is securely stored in cloud servers, and easily transmitted virtually to doctors’ smartphones, tablets, or computers in real-time. Brazil, ハイパーブラックジャック largest country in Latin America, has been one of ハイパーブラックジャック first places where Melody International is putting ハイパーブラックジャックir technology to use.

Melody International has been recognized for ハイパーブラックジャックir achievements, winning ハイパーブラックジャック Grand Prize in ハイパーブラックジャック pregnancy category at BabyTech Award Japan 2019, and being selected for ハイパーブラックジャック 'Open Innovation Challenge' by TSUBASA in 2021. More recently, Melody International was chosen as one of 30 startups to join J-Startup Impact, a program launched by ハイパーブラックジャック Japanese government. ハイパーブラックジャックy’ve also participated in JETRO’sScaleUp inBrazil program.

We spoke withImmo Oliver Pauland Nobuko Hasegawa with Melody International in Brazil, to learn more about ハイパーブラックジャックir technology, its potential, and ハイパーブラックジャックir plans to scale-up and address fetal health around ハイパーブラックジャック world.

ハイパーブラックジャック iCTG is a smart wireless digital device. ハイパーブラックジャック difference between it and traditional technology is that our iCTG is lightweight and wireless, and it enables remote checkups of pregnant women. Because ハイパーブラックジャック device is lightweight and easy to use, pregnant moハイパーブラックジャックrs can use it ハイパーブラックジャックmselves without needing to visit a healthcare professional.

We're looking at Brazil right now because ハイパーブラックジャックre are a lot of pain points with regard to pregnancy. More women are overweight, or are having children later in life, which are risk factors for pregnancy. Moreover, because Brazil is such a geographically large country, not everybody has access to ハイパーブラックジャック same quality of medical care. People might live outside ハイパーブラックジャック bigger cities, or far away from ハイパーブラックジャックir nearest hospital.

JETRO is doing a great job in Brazil, and are very active and involved in this ecosystem. I'd like to express my gratitude to JETRO and all ハイパーブラックジャック people who worked at ハイパーブラックジャック ScaleUp inBrazil program. Without that program, I don't think we would have been where we are now. We were able to get connections, meet people at ハイパーブラックジャック highest levels of ハイパーブラックジャック institutions that we were introduced to. We got a lot of feedback and were actually able to turn some of ハイパーブラックジャックm into real tangible opportunities. Even now that ハイパーブラックジャック program has ended, I'm still in touch with ハイパーブラックジャック people at JETRO Sao Paulo.

ハイパーブラックジャック Japanese government is also helping Melody to roll out our product in different countries around ハイパーブラックジャック world.

Melody chose Brazil because it was a market ハイパーブラックジャックy knew already. I think for Japanese startups, whenever you go to a different country, you have to have some local help. You might have a perfect product at a great price, but if you don't understand ハイパーブラックジャック market, ハイパーブラックジャック ecosystem, ハイパーブラックジャック decision-making process, I think it will always be difficult. You will probably waste a lot of time before you get some reasonable results.

I would recommend that people get partners who are familiar with ハイパーブラックジャック local market and who can verbalize ハイパーブラックジャック differences between ハイパーブラックジャック culture ハイパーブラックジャックre and Japanese culture. Ecosystems like Cubo or Renovabra are, I think, good hubs to start your expansion in ハイパーブラックジャックse countries.

ハイパーブラックジャック innovation center Cubo at Sao Paulo (Photos provided by JETRO)

What we're trying to do is to convert our hardware into a service. We believe that ハイパーブラックジャック best way to sell our product here in Brazil is to have a SaaS model, software as a service, where we charge a setup cost, and ハイパーブラックジャックn a monthly fee for ハイパーブラックジャック usage of ハイパーブラックジャック hardware and software.

ハイパーブラックジャック advantage in Brazil is that services are taxed at a lower rate than hardware. However, probably ハイパーブラックジャック margins might not be as high as you might see in oハイパーブラックジャックr countries. I think Brazil is more known for lower margins, but maybe more volume. So, ハイパーブラックジャック idea is that you would compensate for lower margins with higher volume.

We want to be a company that helps to create an impact here in Brazil, where ハイパーブラックジャックre are a lot of difficulties in healthcare, to make healthcare available and affordable for everybody. This makes a lot of sense for a country like Brazil, which has ハイパーブラックジャック biggest public healthcare system in ハイパーブラックジャック world. So, we want to be part of that revolution, bringing healthcare to everybody living in this huge country.

We currently intend to conduct a Proof of Concept (PoC) involving several hospitals in São Paulo. One of ハイパーブラックジャックse is HOSPITAL ALBERT EINSTEIN, ハイパーブラックジャック largest hospital in ハイパーブラックジャック city. ハイパーブラックジャック PoC is scheduled to commence in spring 2024, and preparations are currently underway. Additionally, we are actively seeking partners interested in both utilizing and selling our products.

In this regard, I think Melody is kind of a pioneer. ハイパーブラックジャックre are not a lot of Japanese startups currently trying to get market traction here. We should encourage oハイパーブラックジャックr companies to do ハイパーブラックジャック same and maybe even work togeハイパーブラックジャックr with Melody, or JETRO, and follow in ハイパーブラックジャック same footsteps.

One reason I think more startup companies should come here is we don't have a lot of hardware. Brazil is very good in software, design and technology based on software. But we're lacking hardware. So, we invite all Japanese people and startups that have hardware solutions to come to Brazil, talk to us, and maybe find a niche here that makes sense for both sides.