Chinese medical imaging business secures $86m Series B
Shanghai-based Universal Medical Imaging, China’s largest independent imaging diagnosis company has raised a RMB600 million ($86 million) Series B round led by Cathay Capital, V Star Capital and CEC Capital.
V Star was created in 2016 through a spin-out by the team managing GGV Capital's renminbi-denominated fund. It now has five renminbi funds and one US dollar vehicle. CEC is best known as a transaction advisor; indeed, it advised on this round. On the asset management side, it has nearly $500 million in committed capital across one renminbi fund and one US dollar fund.
Universal Medical's Series B - which also featured Hidea VC and state-owned Tianjin Teda Group - is said to be the largest ever seen in the medical imaging space.
The company provides imaging services that help doctors diagnose medical conditions. It also conducts health check-ups for patients and claims to be able to run PET, MRI and CT scans concurrently, thereby saving time and cost. Universal Medical operates out of four centers in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Chongqing. The new capital will go towards expanding this network into other cities.
The company recently opened up its cloud-based imaging platform to assist medical institutions in diagnoses of potential coronavirus patients.
“In recent years, China’s policies have clearly supported participation by social capital in the establishment of independent medical services. The imaging center is a standardized business model that is easy to copy and operate in a chain. We see huge potential in offering such high-quality services to meet the growing demands of patients,” said Mingpo Cai, founding partner at Cathay Capital, in a statement.
In the past two years, China has seen the emergence of numerous artificial intelligence start-ups that focus on image-based diagnosis assistance. However, industry participants note there are issues around regulation and liability, resulting in a duplication of work that might mean it takes longer to perform diagnoses.
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