The funding by Save the Children’s impact investing arm will allow PrimaKu to expand the customer base for its digital platform, which improves child healthcare outcomes.
Save the Children Global Ventures (SCGV) has invested in PrimaKu, an Indonesian digital health platform, which will help the company work in partnership with Save the Children Indonesia to increase the uptake of vaccinations and tackle malnutrition and stunted growth in young children.
SCGV, the impact investing arm of Save the Children (STC), is initially making a $0.5m (€0.4m) equity investment in PrimaKu, sourced equally from its Australia Fund and its Children’s Impact Multiplier Fund.
If the company performs as hoped, SCGV expects to participate in PrimaKu’s Series A round. That funding would come from SCGV’s new Asia Health Fund, planned for launch in 2026, which will make investments with ticket sizes in the $1m-$2m range.
SCGV said this was the first of three health investments it would be announcing in coming weeks as it seeks to develop a track record of health investing ahead of the launch of the Asia Health Fund.
Health access
PrimaKu, most of whose current customers are in Java, will be able to take advantage of Save the Children Indonesia’s community health programmes across the country’s fragmented geography to reach more families in underserved and hard-to-reach rural areas, where access to healthcare is limited.
The PrimaKu platform uses accessible digital tools to connect parents, paediatricians, and healthcare providers to improve child health outcomes by providing healthcare guidance, vaccination reminders, and support with nutrition.
The platform has 1.5 million registered parents, and has partnerships with more than 5,000 paediatricians, as well as collaborations with 1,500 clinics across the country.
Improved outcomes
Some two-thirds of children in Indonesia do not receive all of their routine vaccinations, while more than one in five children aged under five have stunted growth, according to research cited by SCGV.
Children and families using PrimaKu complete childhood vaccinations over three times more frequently than non-users, while 96% of children registered on the platform do not become malnourished, SCGV said.
“If we can replicate these results in other parts of Indonesia not only will we grow PrimaKu’s business, it will contribute significantly to STC’s mission,” Paul Ronalds, SCGV’s chief executive told Impact Investor.
Lisa Fedorenko, head of impact investing, Asia Pacific at SCGV said the partnership with PrimaKu was part of the organisation’s commitment to advancing healthcare innovation across Asia and the Pacific.
“We see strong opportunities for technology-enabled solutions, like PrimaKu, to deliver outsized impact for communities while unlocking commercial returns in the sector,” she said.
Muhammad Aditriya Indraputra, co-founder and CEO of PrimaKu, said SCGV’s capital, support, regional expertise and network would be invaluable in helping to expand the platform to reach more families across Indonesia.
SCGV has previously made health sector investments in ThinkMD, a phone-based platform that helps developing world healthcare workers to diagnose child health issues, and Viebeg, which provides affordable healthcare products for children in East Africa.
The investor was founded in 2023 to expand the reach of Save the Children’s work on child-lens investing, which includes impact investing and blended finance structures and was pioneered in Australia and Asia. According to its recently published 2024-25 impact report, SCGV now has a presence in 31 countries, and has mobilised over $23m of funding,
In September, UK-based Impact Investing Institute and Save the Children said they were collaborating on a project to build on growing interest among impact investors in child-lens investing and understand how to overcome the barriers faced in doing so.
