China's Miaoshou Doctor hits $1b valuation
Miaoshou Doctor, a Chinese online healthcare services platform that has expanded into the offline pharmacy space, has completed its extended Series C funding round, having achieved a post-deal valuation of more than RMB7 billion ($1 billion).
The company did not disclose the size of the round or identify any of the participants, merely saying it was fully subscribed by existing investors. This follows an announcement in January that Starquest Capital – a platform backed by the China state-owned Venture Capital Fund (CVCF) and Sequoia Capital China – was leading a RMB500 million round with participation from Sequoia.
The company, which was established in 2015, received a sum of undisclosed size from Tencent Holdings and Sequoia in 2015, according to AVCJ Research. They re-upped last year, contributing RMB500 million alongside Kunling Capital and Qiming Venture Partners.
Like numerous other players in the online health space, Miaoshou connects patients and doctors, facilitating online consultations, offline appointment booking, prescription issuance, and medical record management. The company also has a network of more than 200 directly owned pharmacies across 66 cities and with partnerships covering 260 top-tier hospitals.
Miaoshou expects to see strong growth in its prescription business on the back of government policy encouraging hospitals to shift from selling drugs to selling services. There is greater emphasis on integrated platforms that allow doctors, hospitals, and local governments to trace the treatment process from prescription issuance to the purchase of drugs from a third-party pharmacy.
Ping An Healthcare & Technology, which runs mobile app Ping An Good Doctor, and Tencent-backed WeDoctor are the dominant forces among platforms that facilitate communication between doctors and patients. The former went public in May 2018, while the latter closed a $500 million round at a valuation of $5.5 billion.
Tencent is also an investor in Trusted Doctors, an online consultation business that raised $250 million earlier this year. More recently, Weimai, which offers similar services but positions itself as a technology partner for hospitals in lower-tier cities, received $100 million.
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