China healthtech player gets $100m Series C extension

Several existing investors also took part in the round, among them IDG Capital, Source Code Capital, Matrix Partners China, Vision Plus Capital and Cenova Ventures. All participated in a $100 million Series C about 18 months ago, led by IDG.

While the likes of Ping An Healthcare & Technology – operator of the Ping An Good Doctor app – and Tencent Holdings-backed WeDoctor are diversified platforms that connect patients to doctors, pharmacies and health insurance providers, Weimai is a technology partner for public hospitals.

Established in 2013, the company claims to work with 1,000 hospitals across 160 cities nationwide, most of them in the third and fourth tiers. These hospitals, in turn, employ 100,000 doctors who treat more than 700,000 patients every day. There is also a remote consultation platform that has been used by tens of millions of patients, according to a statement.

The founder, Jialin Qiu, used his experience building IT infrastructure on a city-by-city basis to create a platform that integrates with the internal systems of hospitals. The monetization model is based on moving beyond remote diagnosis, prescription distribution, and payment processing to provide patients with treatment options not covered by the public health system. This would involve making referrals to private specialty clinics.

COVID-19 has accelerated the transition from offline to online services and the rise of telemedicine. Between January and March, Weimai teamed up with 30,000 doctors across its hospital network to provide free health consultations. More than two million patients took advantage of this service.

The company continues to work with partner hospitals on building out online-to-offline service offerings. It is also exploring the use of big data and artificial intelligence in delivering high-quality, personalized medical care on a larger scale. Qiu said the goal is to cover the entire process, from in-patient to out-patient, offline to online, single treatment to cyclical treatment, and generic to specialized care.

Weimai received seed funding from Source Code and two individual investors – Eddie Wu, a co-founder of Alibaba Group who chairs the company’s Ali Health subsidiary, and Shuguang Wu, a member of the founding team at Tencent – two years after its establishment. In 2016, the company launched its internet-enabled healthcare platform.

AVCJ Research’s records show that Source Code, Matrix, Vision Plus and Lighthouse Capital took part in a RMB120 million ($18 million) Series A in 2016. Cenova then joined Source Code, Matrix and Vision Plus in a $30 million Series B round in 2018.

Ping An Good Doctor, which listed in 2018, and WeDoctor are the dominant forces among platforms that facilitate communication between doctors and patients. Other operators in this space include Trusted Doctors, Zhiyun Health, and Miaoshou Doctor. Zhiyun – a specialist in chronic disease management – secured RMB1 billion across two rounds in January, while Miaoshou raised RMB600 million in the first tranche of its Series D round in June.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Healthcare
• Technology
• Expansion
• China
• Baidu
• Source Code Capital
• IDG capital
• Vision Plus Capital
• Matrix Partners
• Cenova Ventures