Finding 21st-century solutions to mental and physical wellness is a personal mission for William Susilo Yunior, Chairman and co-founder of Indonesia-based Gorry Holdings. A few years ago, his father survived a stroke but could no longer continue doing the things he loved, namely indulge in good food and going out. Additionally, Susilo himself had long been struggling with weight and stamina issues.
These experiences were the impetus for Gorry Holdings, which began as a health-tech diet-food catering company, Gorry Gourmet, in 2014. The project tailor-made client meals according to a wide range of needs from weight loss and muscle gain to pre-natal and special needs, without sacrificing taste.
“We established Gorry Holdings with a clear vision in mind: helping Indonesia to be a healthier nation by creating a holistic wellness ecosystem,” Susilo said in an interview. “We work very closely with reputable healthcare facilities such as hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and laboratories to build extensive and valid data collection and solicit recommendations.”
Recently the company developed GorryWell, an app that makes it easy for both healthy people and those already suffering from illness to manage their diet through location-based, real-time recommendations and advice. This means that people like Susilo's father can decide where to go to enjoy a good – but healthy – meal.
In December 2018, Gorry Holdings gained financing from Singapore PE firm Heritas Capital Management. The startup now wants to raise a Series B round. Declining to comment on the size of the investments, Susilo said: “[The] Series B funding will be allocated to technology advancement, human resource development and our expansion efforts into other major cities in Indonesia.”
Expanding via staff wellness
The GorryWell app also focuses on employee wellness, an important issue that Susilo and Gorry Holdings' COO and co-founder Herry Budiman feel has been overlooked in Indonesia. GorryWell's Employee Wellness Program helps companies to monitor and manage employees' physical and mental wellbeing.
“We aim to help every employee achieve their wellness goals by providing suitable diet, exercise, and lifestyle recommendations based on their physical and mental condition,” Budiman said. “This includes what they tend to consume, how active they are, or the types of mood they have.” The app can also be synchronized with IoT devices.
Currently its content is tailored for the Indonesian market, differentiating it from the many global health and fitness apps that might not have sufficient data and understanding of the Indonesian diet and lifestyle habits.
According to Susilo, there is a general lack of corporate understanding that healthy employees mean good business. This is a conversation Gorry Holdings believes it has brought to the table.
"There is simply a lack of motivation from companies to support their employees' motivation to live a healthy life. It doesn't help that research has found that more than 50% of productive-age employees say that it is difficult to make time – even just one hour a day – to exercise or do any physical activity to benefit their health," he said.
Another problematic reality is that employees are not motivated to start eating well. According to multiple surveys – from Cigna 360, the World Health Organization, Country Health Profiles and the National Center for Biotechnology – two-thirds of Indonesians don't eat breakfast.
Tapping health-tech ecosystem
GorryWell has gained notable clients, including the state-owned oil and gas company SKK Migas. According to GorryWell, SKK Migas has experienced “remarkable results from implementing their internal employee wellness program,” with a 66% increase in productivity.
“After just one month… their overall wellness score showed a 52% increase and their food intake quality showed a 100% improvement," Susilo said, noting their quality of sleep also doubled. SKK Migas itself also benefited because absenteeism decreased significantly too just as productivity increased, resulting in a fall in costs.
“There is an increasing trend in which HR is investing in employee wellness, and it does not need to be expensive,” said Sylvano Damanik, Vice Chairman of management consultancy Korn Ferry, during a joint employee-wellness event with Gorry Holdings in October 2019.
Susilo and Budiman understand that collaboration between players in the healthcare-tech ecosystem is integral to achieving growth. “The health-tech industry itself has multiple verticals, offering curative solutions like ours. For example: telemedicine, pharma-delivery, health records, and others,” said Susilo.
As more Indonesian companies start to adopt similar employee wellness programs, there will be concern about employee privacy rights and how the data could be used. But GorryWell does not show individual data but only aggregated figures on its dashboard, Susilo said.
