This article is part of a series produced in collaboration with Sunway iLabs, spotlighting emerging startups from the LaunchX 2025/2026 cohort. The first feature highlights HomeHaven Rx, one of the Top 16 startups, which is building an end-to-end medication management ecosystem designed to enhance safety within the home.
Open to university startups across Malaysia, LaunchX is the university startup accelerator programme that turns validated ideas into fundable startups, co-organised by Sunway University, Sunway iLabs, and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), and supported by the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE).
On an ordinary afternoon in a modest Malaysian household, a five-year-old girl sat cross-legged in front of the television, transfixed by an episode of Gerak Khas, a police drama flickering with scenes she did not fully understand. On the dining table nearby sat a collection of brightly colored pills, her mother’s medication, left within easy reach.
“I thought they were candy,” said Syarmilla Ezza Ismail, now a founder and solopreneur. “I wanted to be pretty like my mom. I just took them because they were there.”
What followed was a slow and terrifying unraveling. Her weight dropped sharply. Expensive supplements did nothing. Then came the ambulance, the rush to the hospital, and a fight to stabilise a blood sugar spike that nearly reached her brain. “That incident nearly cost me my life,” she said.
She survived. But the consequences would follow her for decades: a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes, and a lingering awareness of how easily something as ordinary as a pill could become lethal.
Today, that childhood accident has become the unlikely origin story of HomeHaven Rx, a startup that aims to transform how medicine is stored, tracked and used in the most intimate of places: the home.
A Problem Hidden in Plain Sight
For Syarmilla, the insight did not arrive all at once. It unfolded slowly, through lived experience and observation.
During a gap year, she worked as a pharmacy assistant. What she saw disturbed her. Elderly patients would arrive clutching empty blister packs or unmarked pill boxes, asking for refills of their “blood pressure medicine.” Often, the pills were indistinguishable, small, white, generic.
“Even an experienced pharmacist cannot safely identify a drug just by its shape or color,” she said. “But many patients would just accept whatever was handed to them.”
The risks extended beyond confusion. Antibiotics were frequently misused. Courses were left unfinished. Medicines accumulated at home, forgotten or improperly stored.
“I could remind them,” she said. “But once they left, I had no way of knowing what actually happened.”
Later, as a forensic chemistry student, she encountered another layer of the problem: environmental contamination. Improperly disposed medicines, flushed down toilets or tossed into landfills—were leaving traces in water systems, contributing to antimicrobial resistance.
“It made me realise this isn’t just a personal health issue,” she said. “It’s a health crisis, an environmental crisis, and an economic crisis, all at once.”
Building a Safer System at Home
HomeHaven Rx, an end-to-end medication management system is Syarmilla’s attempt to address that “triple threat” with a single, integrated solution.
At its core is a smart medication safe, a physical device designed to store medicines securely using biometric or keypad access. But the hardware is only one piece of a larger system. The safe is paired with software that tracks medication usage, reminds patients when to take doses, and allows caregivers to monitor adherence remotely.
“I’m not just building a box,” she said. “I’m building an end-to-end ecosystem.”
The system is designed with multiple users in mind. For children, it prevents accidental access. For elderly patients managing multiple prescriptions, a condition known as polypharmacy, it simplifies complex routines through visual and audio prompts.
For caregivers, particularly those in what is often called the “sandwich generation,” the stakes are different. These are adults balancing careers, raising children and caring for aging parents.
“They’re carrying a huge cognitive load,” Syarmilla said. “They’re constantly asking themselves: Did my parent take the right medicine? Did they mix up doses? What if something goes wrong while I’m at work?”
The platform aims to ease that burden by automating tracking and providing real-time updates.
A System That Extends Beyond the Home
The implications, Syarmilla believes, go beyond individual households.
Malaysia’s public healthcare system, like many others, is under strain. Clinics are crowded. Consultations are brief. Patients often return repeatedly for routine follow-ups.
By integrating remote patient monitoring into HomeHaven Rx, she hopes to reduce unnecessary visits while improving the quality of care.
“Doctors can see adherence data before the patient even walks in,” she said. “That makes the consultation more meaningful.”
The system could also play a role in emergencies, something Syarmilla knows firsthand.
In 2019, she was attacked by a robber and suffered severe injuries to her hand. As she waited hours in a government hospital, drifting in and out of consciousness, she realised something alarming: the medical staff had no immediate access to her history.
“They didn’t know I had Type 1 diabetes. They didn’t know my medications or allergies,” she said. “When you’re fighting for your life, you can’t be expected to recite all that.”
HomeHaven Rx, she said, could bridge that gap by making verified medical data instantly accessible.
A Founder’s Relentless Drive
In the crowded world of health tech startups, founders often speak of passion. For Syarmilla, the word feels insufficient.
“My commitment isn’t just professional,” she said. “It’s personal. I’m here because I survived something I shouldn’t have.”
That sense of purpose has helped her push forward, even as a solo founder navigating the technical and financial challenges of building hardware.
Her early efforts have begun to gain recognition. HomeHaven Rx was named champion of the KPJ KRAFT Challenge 2025, securing initial funding and opening doors to research collaborations.
Judges, she recalled, were drawn not just to the technology, but to the urgency of the problem. “They told me this is real, pediatric poisoning, elderly non-adherence. It’s happening every day,” she said.
Building, One Prototype at a Time
For now, HomeHaven Rx remains in its early stages, with prototypes being assembled through a combination of personal effort and help from friends she met in startup incubators.
“I’m technically a solopreneur,” she said. “But I’ve been lucky to have a village.”
Advancing the product will require capital, particularly to hire engineers and refine the integration between hardware and software. Her goal is to move from early prototypes to real-world pilots, starting with a lower-risk market: supplements and vitamins.
“It’s our beachhead,” she said. “We validate the system there before moving into prescription medicines.”
The long-term vision includes a subscription-based model, making the device more accessible, and partnerships with healthcare providers and insurers.
Choosing the Hard Path
The road ahead is not without obstacles. Hardware design must account for local realities, such as Malaysia’s reliance on blister-pack medications rather than loose pills. Regulatory frameworks for medication disposal remain weak. And as a first-time founder, Syarmilla has had to confront her own doubts.
“I had imposter syndrome,” she said. “I remember my first pitch, I felt like I didn’t belong.”
She also grew up with a speech impairment, which made public speaking daunting. But something shifted when she began talking about her idea.
“The moment I held the microphone, I forgot about my stutter,” she said. “I just focused on what the world needed to know.”
Her approach now is simple: keep moving.
“The best cure for imposter syndrome is execution,” she said.
A Future Without Preventable Tragedies
If HomeHaven Rx succeeds, Syarmilla imagines a future where medicine is no longer a hidden danger in the home.
“No more pills left on dining tables. No more children mistaking them for candy,” she said.
She envisions elderly patients living independently for longer, caregivers freed from constant anxiety, and healthcare systems that are less reactive and more preventive.
At its core, the mission is both deeply personal and broadly ambitious: to ensure that what nearly killed her as a child does not happen to someone else.
“This starts at home,” she said. “And if we can fix it there, we can change everything.”