What comes to mind when you think of delivering newborn babies? Well, the baby comes out, and the umbilical cord is clamped, cut and discarded.

As we know today, cord blood is a very good source of blood stem cells and can be used in transplants to treat blood disorders and cancers. 

So instead of throwing the umbilical cord away just like that, more parents are requesting to harvest cord blood from their newborn’s umbilical cord during delivery. 

According to Health Hub, the blood is stored in liquid nitrogen tanks at about negative 180 degrees Celsius at a cord blood bank, and can be retrieved for use by the newborn when he or she grows up, or even by the newborn’s siblings. 

But how do cord blood banks work exactly? What is the difference between some of the terms we hear, say private versus public cord blood banks? And to what extent is cord blood banking a business that generates long-term recurring revenue? 

On Under the Radar, Drive Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to  Tan Poh Lan, Group CEO and Executive Director, Cordlife.

Founded in 2001, the SGX-listed firm is a pioneer in private cord blood banking in Asia. It operates the region’s largest network of cord blood banks and is an industry leader in markets such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Indonesia.