Former Alibaba Executive's Digital Therapeutics Firm Set for Global Expansion with Upcoming IPO

After gaining a deeper understanding of digital healthcare, He Chen realized, "I can do everything, yet I can't do anything. If I pursue being comprehensive, then all mental illnesses could be addressed. But the consequence of being too broad is that it might lack professionalism altogether. Choosing one track and sticking to it will lead to vast opportunities."

As it turns out, He Chen's judgment was quite accurate. Seventh Technology's addiction recovery digital therapy has generated large-scale stable revenue, and its core product, the IoT-enabled stroke rehabilitation digital therapy, is also going global. This capability is rare in the global digital therapeutics field.

This is one of the harshest things He Chen has ever said to the Seventh Technology team.

The cause was that at the time, Seventh Technology had developed a first-generation product that used mobile software to treat anxiety and depression. During the product development process, He Chen discovered that the threshold for creating software was not high, and in the later stages, it would still come down to competing with capital and traffic, making it increasingly difficult to continue as time went on.

Later, He Chen kept discussing the R&D direction with major experts for several months and finally found a breakthrough — addiction. The highest level of addiction is drug addiction. He Chen knew well that if this area could be tackled, it would not only be a market opportunity for the company but also solve a global challenge. However, whether he could make up his mind to do it and whether it could succeed remained a question mark.

At that time, Seventh Technology had not yet received its first round of financing, so stopping all previous projects was quite a bold move. Hence the statement: "With just these few million, if we burn through it and haven’t built anything, I’ll admit defeat." Facing the team’s confusion, he communicated with each member individually until he gained their approval and support.

After taking a bold step, the Seventh Technology team proposed using VR to treat addiction, gaining support from the Quality Analysis Administration and the Chinese Ministry of Justice. They helped gather multiple national experts to evaluate the plan, and the final conclusion was positive. Following this direction, Seventh Technology reviewed countless domestic and international literature, conducted user interviews, and performed scene reconstructions, gradually developing the world's first VR digital therapy product for drug rehabilitation.

All of the above occurred within the first year of the company's establishment.

During the application of the product, Seventh Technology also discovered multiple user needs, such as exercise and physical rehabilitation. As a result, they continuously improved the treatment system. Currently, they have formed a full-system scientific drug rehabilitation solution including VR, exercise, EEG, etc., and have conducted thousands of clinical studies. Moreover, this product has been rated by the Drug Rehabilitation Administration of the Ministry of Justice as one of the "First Batch of New Drug Rehabilitation Technologies and Methods Application and Promotion Projects," leading in market share nationwide in China.

In 2018, He Chen and the team discussed expanding the product line into the brain rehabilitation market.

But faced with a huge market, where to start? Should we continue with VR technology or use other means to help patients? The challenge arose again. He Chen once again sought advice from top experts in psychiatry and neurological diseases in China, examining the patient demographics, proportions, curability, and synergy. Eventually, they decided to focus on stroke rehabilitation.

After truly delving into it, the team's original设想 was completely overturned.Digital therapy is not as simple as a game or a piece of software. If clinical experts, patients, or their families do not approve, it is difficult to make progress. Overturning and restarting the plan is the norm, requiring constant iteration.

Finally, Seventh Technology directly stationed their entire team at the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University to communicate with patients, patient families, doctors, and rehabilitation therapists about product needs.

"At that time, the entire team stayed there for four or five months. I can't imagine how, in order to control expenses, the team moved into a small hostel near the hospital with beds costing 30 yuan each per night. Once, just before the New Year, a team member called me, crying bitterly while standing in the snow outside the hospital entrance—it was so hard to keep going. This is how we endured those hardships," recalled He Chen.

He Chen, former Director of Alibaba's Marketing Department, was no less busy back then than he is now."At the time when we established Taobao Seller Service Department, it was just an idea at first, without money or anything else. Ma (Jack Ma) only gave us 200 head counts and let us handle this matter by ourselves. At that time, Li (Hongbo Li) and I, with a few others, worked so hard to build up the entire Taobao Seller Service Division."

This experience, though bitter yet sweet, allowed He Chen to gain an entrepreneurial partner. Li Hongbo has worked in the marketing department, public relations department, Taobao University, and Tao Work of Alibaba Group, possessing extensive experience in corporate management, website operation, and product innovation. He is a brother who has fought alongside He Chen all the way.After Seventh Technology was established, He Chen served as the CEO in charge of external affairs, Li Hongbo as the COO managing internal operations, and Zhang Yan as the CTO overseeing technology.The three of them worked together with great默契.

Now, Seventh Technology's digital therapy for stroke is equipped with dozens of gamified treatment plans. Each rehabilitation movement has been meticulously categorized, taking into account comprehensive factors such as the patient's regional characteristics, educational level, and cognitive abilities. Clinical research has been conducted in top-tier hospitals in Anhui, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, and continuous iterations and optimizations are being made based on the returned data.

After crossing the mountain of product development, there is still the hurdle of user experience to overcome. Seventh Technology's solution is to simplify everything.

In terms of VR equipmentAfter evaluating multiple suppliers, Seventh Technology finally found a device that is the smallest and lightest to wear. They also mitigated the issue of dizziness to the greatest extent through content design.

In terms of IoTIn hospitals or rehabilitation centers, Seventh Technology only adds sensors to existing rehabilitation equipment. In a home setting, patients can choose to purchase VR equipment based on their financial capability, or they can buy software embedded in TVs for rehabilitation training.

ContentSeventh Technology has designed targeted training programs for people of different cultural backgrounds and ages. The gamified design is kept as simple as possible to keep patients in a pleasant mood during training. Coupled with the patients' inherent awareness of the need for exercise, this further ensures treatment adherence. Training data is comprehensively evaluated and then sent to patients and their families, and fed back to doctors and therapists to inform the next steps in the guidance plan.

This minimalist treatment model breaks the tradition, monotony, and inconvenience of conventional stroke rehabilitation. Currently, Seventh Technology's stroke rehabilitation focuses mostly on limb training, covering almost all Class III, Grade A hospitals. Gradually, it will expand to areas such as aphasia and daily functional rehabilitation, going deeper into community hospitals and rural townships to open up the market.

In He Chen's view, it is necessary to develop products according to the standards of tertiary hospitals, but it is unrealistic for all patients to receive rehabilitation treatment in tertiary hospitals."China's future rehabilitation model will converge with that of Europe and the United States, extending to the community. The community is the most specific place where we will lease the entire set of treatment equipment to help build rehabilitation centers, allowing patients to receive treatment nearby with peace of mind.。”

Currently, Seventh Technology's digital therapy product for stroke is applying for NMPA medical device certification and has undertaken the pilot project jointly launched by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Health Commission, which has been implemented at Fujian Medical University. The product has already been used in more than 30 Class A tertiary hospitals across China.

On April 15, 2022, Hangzhou Saiwengsi Technology Co., Ltd. ("Seventh Technology") signed a strategic cooperation agreement with TMFOX VENTURE PARTNERS. Both parties have reached in-depth cooperation on platforms, businesses, brands, and other levels, and will jointly promote the overseas promotion of Seventh Technology's series of brain rehabilitation products, marking...Seventh Technology Officially Launches Overseas Expansion of Brain Rehabilitation Digital Therapeutics Platform。

At this stage, the domestic market in China needs education, while the European and American markets are relatively mature. However, both lack high-quality digital healthcare products. Therefore, Seventh Technology has chosen to develop both domestically and internationally in parallel, expecting to obtain NMPA and FDA certifications within the year, fully launching the marketization process.

He Chen believes that,Drawing on the commercialization experience of addictive products, Seventh Technology's stroke product revenue growth will reach an inflection point in the next two years.Currently, Seventh Technology has also launched a new round of multi-million financing plan to expand domestic and international markets and strengthen product research and development.

"A digital healthcare company is built through time, technology, people, and data accumulation. It's not something that can be achieved by simply following trends or blindly raising funds. A truly vital product needs time to prove itself, and we hope to let the data speak for itself. This industry is good, really good, and we will persistently continue to refine our product to make it more precise and of higher quality.""He Chen was absolutely certain."