Australian AI healthtech Heidi uses Hong Kong as a launchpad for North Asia growth

Australian healthtech company Heidi is helping clinicians around the world to reduce paperwork and spend more time with patients.

With support from Austrade, the company has established a strong base in Hong Kong, secured major healthcare and university partnerships, and positioned the city as its gateway to North Asia.

Founded in Melbourne in 2019, Heidi has developed an AI Care Partner that supports clinicians through the administrative demands of modern healthcare. Its platform can transcribe consultations in real time and generate clinical notes, referral letters, patient summaries and other documents. This helps doctors reduce screen time and focus more on patient care.

Today, Heidi is used in more than 190 countries and supports more than 2.7 million patient interactions each week. Its international growth has been driven by a simple but powerful proposition: give clinicians time back by automating routine documentation and fitting into their existing clinical workflows.

Solving a global healthcare challenge from Australia

Heidi was created after co-founder Dr Thomas Kelly, a former vascular surgery resident, experienced first-hand the documentation burden that contributes to clinician burnout. Together with co-founders Waleed Mussa and Yu Liu, he set out to build technology that could support doctors before, during and after consultations.

The company’s vision is ambitious: to double the world’s healthcare capacity by providing an AI Care Partner for every clinician. Heidi’s technology supports more than 110 languages and can be customised for different specialties, from general practice to podiatry, veterinary medicine and hospital care.

Easing workloads for Hong Kong clinicians

Heidi began gaining traction with Hong Kong clinicians in early 2024 before formally establishing its North Asia headquarters in Hong Kong in 2025.

The market offered a strong fit for Heidi’s solution:

• a sophisticated healthcare system
• growing demand for digital health solutions
• multilingual clinical settings
• pressure on clinician capacity.

Hong Kong also provides a gateway into the wider Greater Bay Area and North Asia. For a digital health company with global ambitions, the city offered both a testbed for adoption and a regional base for partnerships with healthcare providers, universities and innovation ecosystems.

From early users to strategic partnerships

Heidi entered Hong Kong through a hybrid approach: organic adoption by private clinicians, followed by strategic partnerships with major healthcare and academic institutions. Early users in private practice helped build market credibility. Enterprise and university partnerships created pathways for broader adoption.

A major milestone was Heidi’s partnership with EC Healthcare, one of Hong Kong’s largest non-hospital healthcare providers, to deploy Heidi across clinical workflows.

The company also signed agreements with:

• Hong Kong Metropolitan University to support AI-ready healthcare training
• City University of Hong Kong’s Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine to explore AI documentation in veterinary medicine
• HKUST Business School to research the role of AI in physician decision-making and consultation quality.

These partnerships demonstrate Heidi’s ability to solve an immediate workflow challenge while contributing to the future of healthcare education and digital capability in Hong Kong.

Heidi’s founders Waleed Mussa (right) and Yu Liu (left) and Australian Consul-General to Hong Kong Gareth Williams (middle) at Heidi’s official Hong Kong launch in late 2025.

How Austrade helped

Austrade supported Heidi’s Hong Kong growth by providing market insights, strategic introductions and profile-building opportunities. Austrade helped connect the company with healthcare providers, academic institutions, government agencies, industry bodies and innovation partners. Austrade introduced some of Heidi’s earliest customers, including one of its largest clients in Hong Kong.

Heidi also participated in Austrade-supported activities including health technology webinars, trade missions and the Asia Summit on Global Health, where Australian innovators were showcased to Hong Kong decision-makers, investors, healthcare groups and research partners.

‘Working with Austrade gives Australian innovators like Heidi instant credibility in international markets,’ says Ivan Wong, Hong Kong Representative, Heidi.

‘Their on-the-ground networks opened doors to top-tier enterprise partners and academic institutions in Hong Kong far faster than we could have done alone, directly accelerating our mission to expand global healthcare capacity.’

Lessons for Australian exporters

Heidi’s experience shows the importance of solving a universal problem while adapting to local needs. In Hong Kong, that meant supporting English, Cantonese and Mandarin clinical settings, respecting data security requirements, and building trust with local clinicians and institutions.

For Australian digital health and medtech companies, Hong Kong can be a valuable first step into North Asia. Its healthcare system, professional networks and connection to the Greater Bay Area can help companies validate demand, build clinical references and identify partners for wider regional growth.

Looking ahead

Heidi plans to continue expanding from Hong Kong as its North Asia hub, building local clinical, sales and technical capability while deepening partnerships across healthcare, education and research. The company’s longer-term ambition is to move beyond documentation into a fuller AI Care Partner platform that supports clinical decision-making, task management and workflow automation.

As healthcare systems across the region look for ways to improve efficiency and reduce clinician burnout, Heidi’s Hong Kong journey highlights how Australian innovation can meet global demand — and how Austrade can help companies turn early market interest into strategic international growth.