Boyu leads round for Chinese health insurance platform
Waterdrop, a Chinese online health insurance platform that runs mutual aid programs and provides brokerage services, has raised RMB1 billion ($145 million) in Series C funding led by Boyu Capital.
Additional contributions came from Tencent Holdings, Gaorong Capital, CICC Capital, Kaizhi Capital, and an evergreen fund managed by Yuantai Investment Partners. Waterdrop has now raised nearly RMB1.6 billion over the past three months, following a RMB500 million Series B in March. That round featured Tencent, Gaorong, IDG Capital, BlueRun Ventures, Sinovation Ventures, and Yuri Milner of DST Global.
The company was established in 2016 by Peng Shen, who previously co-founded Meituan-Dianping’s food delivery business. It operates mutual aid programs, a crowdfunding platform that supports people who require treatment for serious illnesses, and an online insurance brokerage. Activities were primarily conducted through Tencent’s WeChat service, but then Waterdrop created an online mall that offers products from 60 insurers, including Ping An Insurance, China Life, Allianz, and Met Life.
Expansion has been especially rapid in tier-three cities and below, with the number of independent paying users across the company’s business lines exceeding 250 million, according to a statement. In May alone, new single-year insurance premiums topped RMB500 million, while 90% of those using the mall are buying their first online insurance product.
Peng said the company would use the proceeds of the latest round to broaden its product offering, improve user experience, and deepening cooperation with insurance companies. In addition to strengthening the management team for the online mall and deploying artificial intelligence technology to maximize efficiency, he said that efforts would be made to ensure the mutual aid and crowdfunding platforms helped more patients with serious conditions.
Waterdrop received RMB50 million in angel funding in 2016 from a group of investors that included Gaorong and ZhenFund. Gaorong also took part in a RMB160 million Series A round in 2017 alongside the likes of BlueRun, IDG, and Sinovation.
More on Greater China
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.