Enterprise Singapore

Other founders might christen their startups with catchy single-word names, but Shawn Li chose to name his biomedical firm after the building where he got his PhD.

It’s a nod to the origins of E3A Healthcare (E3A), which was launched on the National University of Singapore (NUS) bioengineering campus in March 2019.

The idea for the business was born amid Li’s graduate research on optoelectronics, which led him to discover a global need for an affordable, easy-to-use device to monitor infants for jaundice – a condition where a baby's blood contains excess bilirubin.

Jaundice affects over 80 per cent of all Asian and African newborns. It can result in death, or severe neural damage and lifelong disabilities if not properly treated.

To detect jaundice, parents have to either bring their infant to the hospital frequently for testing, or purchase home monitoring products that could be priced up to US$10,000. Due to the costs involved, many in low and middle-income countries lack access to jaundice testing.