Fertility treatments can be unnecessarily complicated and out of reach but they shouldn’t be, Anna Haotanto told herself when she stepped down from ABZD Capital – an investment and advisory firm she co-established – looking for a fresh start. 

Inspired by her own egg freezing experience and let down by the lack of innovation in reproductive care, she set up Zora Health, a Singapore-based digital platform that aims to simplify fertility care at no extra cost for the patients. Here, she tells us more.

Anna, tell us a bit about your background and what inspired you to create Zora Health.

My last role was the managing partner of ABZD Capital and I was on the board of directors for Gourmet Food Holdings after serving as the managing director and overseeing the company’s growth in technology, digital innovation, branding, marketing and human resources.

I also founded The New Savvy – Asia’s leading financial, investments and career platform for women. Before being a founder, I was in banking for 8 years in wealth management.

I’ve been working for 22 years, and I was ready for a break and a fresh start. I stepped down last year because we reached a big milestone and I was keen to explore more tech opportunities. In that period, I looked at a lot of ideas, but asked myself, “What problem do I feel passionate about? What is overlooked and underserved?”

It’s not about proving myself, but solving something I care deeply about. I’ve always been interested in healthcare. Throughout my journey, I’ve had a lot of health issues. Last year alone, I had five surgeries. I thought I was suffering from perimenopause and started learning more about the symptoms.

It was an interesting area that I didn’t know much about. I started deep diving, because if I have that problem, I might as well try to solve it or find somebody to help. I realised there were very few solutions here. However, I couldn’t find a single source of truth or a platform of trusted resources.

So, I went into fertility as egg freezing is a topic I’m familiar with as I’ve done it myself. It’s also a very overlooked US$54bn global market, and 44 per cent of treatments are in Asia.

Technology has changed a lot of the way we do things, the way we travel, the way we stay in hotels, and the way we commute. There are a lot of developments, but not in fertility care. In Southeast Asia, I believe, there are only three or four fertility tech companies, mostly hardware or e-commerce.

I thought it was a very interesting market: high quantum, underserved. But we don’t talk about it because there are barriers to entry, such as shame and guilt.

How would you describe Zora Health in a few words?

Zora Health is a one-stop reproductive health and family planning platform that integrates patients, corporate employers, and fertility care providers, simplifying the journey and enhancing accessibility for all parties.

Our comprehensive services include online and physical consultations with a global network of partner clinics, medical concierge services and expert support. We also provide corporate fertility education workshops to cultivate fertility-friendly work environments, which ultimately help companies attract and retain top talent.

What makes Zora Health different?

Our clients often encounter common barriers, such as lack of information, stigma surrounding fertility issues and concerns about the affordability of treatments. They are also unsure of their options, what the process is like and regulations in different countries. These barriers can significantly impact their family planning journey, leading to delays or hesitations in seeking care.

At Zora Health, we strive to address these challenges by providing personalised support, educational resources and partnerships with over 80 clinics across 16 countries to empower our clients to make informed decisions about their reproductive health.

We also provide corporate fertility education workshops to cultivate fertility-friendly work environments, which ultimately help companies attract and retain top talent.

Zora means light or dawn. To us, it signifies a new beginning, a new way of doing things. We are building solutions we wished existed.

Women’s health comes with a lot of stigma. How has this impacted you as a founder?

The more stigma and problems there are, the more opportunities we see for Zora Health. The more I speak to our patients and clients, the more I see how important the work is.

Over the past few months, I realised that fertility is a problem that people address when it’s a bit too late. A younger friend of mine was told that she could only retrieve one viable egg. She’s only 37, so I think it’s a real problem. It’s just a problem that has never been talked about.

How does it impact me? The work is very meaningful and honestly, I’m very surprised to have found something that I truly love and care deeply about. We have an opportunity to change lives and make an impact. Even when I pitch to investors, I tell them I’m not here for five years — I’m here for 10, 15 years. I hope this will be my last work because there’s nothing else I want in life.

What obstacles have you encountered on this journey?

I don’t like bringing up gender issues, but the problem exists. We know that two per cent of total funding goes to women. There are a lot of female analysts and associates, but they’re not the ones writing the cheques. When I fundraised, I experienced it myself.

One of the biggest challenges for femtech is that female healthcare is poorly understood. Most of the research money historically goes to male afflictions.

There’s also a lot of medical gaslighting. When my friends see doctors, they share their discomfort but are not understood. It’s not because doctors don’t want to solve the problem, but rather that they don’t understand it. There should be more research money spent on all this.

Two, if the people writing cheques are males, they may also need help understanding, not because they don’t want to, but because they are unaware. Many years ago, when speaking to a start-up founder in his office, I saw one of my friends who needed to pump breast milk.

She complained that she had to pump in the copier room. He was completely clueless when I asked the founder why he didn’t have a private room. He was only 33. It’s not necessarily a gender problem – at 33, I didn’t have kids and I didn’t know that you needed a room for privacy and pumping breast milk.

We’ve spoken to about 400 women now, and many women don’t know about the egg freezing process. I did it five years ago, and I still didn’t know the process until I wrote an article.

Where are you with Zora Health now?

We are serving our patients and have 80 clinic partners across 16 countries. In addition, we are currently focusing on working with corporations through corporate workshops and offering corporate benefits for reproductive health and family planning. This covers the whole spectrum of fertility, menopause, PCOS, endometriosis and more.

Where do you see the company in the future?

In the long term, our vision is to unlock possibilities for women’s healthcare in Asia. To provide women with choices so they can live their lives without limitations.

To do this, we need a few things. One: resources and knowledge. It’s about creating a knowledge platform for women. And then you need providers, and a large network of clinics. And last, which people don’t talk about, is financing.

When I was young, my mum had a few surgeries because of breast cancer. I was very scared because she was not eligible for insurance by the time I could buy her insurance.

Until today, I live with that fear. What happens if she has a life-threatening disease in the future? Can I afford it? Financing is very important, and that’s often something people miss.

Maybe one day I’ll have to use my service. I’m 40 this year. Struggling with PCOS for the past six years, it will be harder for me to get pregnant. If I ever want to have kids, I believe there is a high chance I need to have IVF and if I do, I will definitely be a Zora Health patient myself.