GGV leads $15.7m Series B for China's Synyi
Synyi, a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up that helps hospitals and medical research institutes process and manage data, has received RMB100 million ($15.7 million) in Series B funding led by GGV Capital.
Additional contributions came from Sequoia Capital China and ZhenFund. Sequoia led the company’s RMB55 million Series A last November with participation from a healthcare fund operated by CEC Shurong Investment Management, AVCJ Research’s records show. ZhenFund featured in the angel round several months earlier alongside China Rock Capital Management, and Shulan Health.
Shanghai-based Synyi was established in 2016 by Shaodian Zhang, who has degrees in computer science and medical informatics from Shanghai Jiaoting University and Columbia University, respectively. His objective was to speed up the analysis of existing medical data, so it can be used to solve clinical problems. The company systems are used on dozens of hospitals in China and it also has partnerships research centers at Beijing University and Cornell University, as well as Shanghai Jiaotong and Columbia.
Furthermore, Synyi is working with groups on a regional and national level to create data mining, governance and modelling standards. The plan is to integrate medical information resources, facilitating access to patient records and making the diagnosis and treatment process more efficient. The new capital will go towards supporting the company’s research in medical data management and machine learning and the expansion of its team and business.
Jixun Foo, a managing partner at GGV, said in a statement that Synyi represents an important step in the firm’s investment in medical AI in China. “The solutions provided by Synyi not only significantly increase efficiency in clinical research, but they also contribute to the long-term development of precision medicine and the use of AI in treatments,” he added.
Venture capital investors have backed numerous Chinese start-ups that provide technology-enabled solutions to the healthcare sector. Last month, Taimei Medical Technology, a cloud-based software developer that allows pharmaceutical companies and clinical research organizations to collaborate on drug development, raised a RMB300 million Series D round. This followed an identical commitment to Beijing Infervision, a company that develops medical imaging technology empowered by AI.
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