PengLai Data Secures Hundreds of Millions in Back-to-Back Series A and A+ Funding to Advance Intelligent Hospital Operations Management Platform

Recently, Palline Data, a leading domestic provider of innovative intelligent operational management solutions for hospitals, announced that it had completed hundreds of millions of RMB in Series A and Series A+ financing within a few months. The Series A round was co-led by BlueRun Ventures China and Yun Qi Partners, with participation from Bojiang Capital, Legendstar Capital, Hanyuan Assets (Shanghai Jiao Tong University Alumni Fund), and Nantong Pegasus Equity Investment Center (Limited Partnership). The Series A+ round was led by Venshares Capital, with participation from Jinma Investment, while existing shareholders Bojiang Capital and Yun Qi Partners continued to increase their investments. Following the completion of this financing round, Palline Data will further enrich its product pipeline and provide more efficient services to its customers.

As a provider of next-generation intelligent hospital operation platforms, Palline Data has actively aligned with the policy direction of deepening healthcare reform. In 2017, it pioneered the launch of a high-barrier performance evaluation system integrating RBRVS and DRGs. According to bid award announcements on China Bidding Network (www.zhaobiao.cn), this product has consistently maintained a leading position in the number of successful bids since 2017. In recent years, based on a comprehensive review of operational characteristics across its business lines and in response to national requirements for high-quality development and health insurance payment reforms, the company has deepened its expertise in modern hospital management models. It has promoted innovative applications of digital technologies in core scenarios, launching an intelligent operation management system centered on lean performance management, dynamic costing, intelligent budgeting, and operational excellence. This system aims to alleviate financial pressures on hospitals, improve the efficiency of medical resource allocation, and enhance the supply efficiency of core services including medical care, teaching, research, and prevention. To date, the company has served nearly 400 hospital clients, over 80% of which are tertiary hospitals, achieving a customer retention rate as high as 97%, and has begun promoting its SaaS model. Among the top 100 tertiary public hospitals in the latest National Performance Examination, more than 20% are clients of Palline Data.

Currently, public hospitals are facing dual internal and external pressures, making the reform and upgrading of management mechanisms imperative. The latest national assessment data for tertiary public hospitals shows that in 2020, 753 tertiary public hospitals across China reported negative medical surpluses, accounting for 43.5% of the total, an increase of 25.89 percentage points compared to 2019. Meanwhile, the total asset turnover ratio of hospitals has continued to decline, with diminishing marginal returns on investment, rendering the extensive operational model driven by investment unsustainable. As the DRG/DIP health insurance payment reforms accelerate, hospitals urgently need to address shortcomings in refined management, improve asset efficiency and labor productivity, to cope with operational pressures. Leveraging the exceptional capabilities of its founding team and years of accumulated experience, Shanghai Palline Data Technologies Co., Ltd. has reaped the rewards of its perseverance, with its business entering a period of rapid expansion since 2021.

Mr. Wang Zhigang, founder of Palline Data, is a physician by training who has crossed over into hospital management and the IT sector, having served as a hospital director, senior executive at a medical group, and CEO of an IT company. Since 2016, he has been invited to serve as an instructor for the National Health Commission’s programs for leading talents in health economics and reserve economic leaders, establishing himself as a pioneer in the field of modern hospital management. The company has assembled and cultivated an expert team spanning hospital management, mathematical statistics, clinical medicine, big data, and AI engineering. Leveraging a knowledge base of management practices and methodological models, along with technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, the company enables dynamic perception, prediction, analysis, decision-making, and optimization across all business operations and processes both within and outside hospitals. This empowers the industry to activate production factors and enhance the efficiency of medical services.

At the 16th Annual Conference of Chinese Hospital Presidents, several hospitals shared their performance evaluation systems integrating RBRVS and DRGs for both single-site and multi-campus hospitals. They proposed that “performance reform helps hospitals improve quality and efficiency,” achieving significant substantive results such as “continuously increasing CMI and RW values,” “promoting clinical departments to control controllable costs through refined cost management,” and “supporting hospital DRG cost analysis (particularly benefit analysis based on case-mix index and surgical structure).” In line with the strategic orientation of the 14th Five-Year Plan and adhering to the high-quality development of public hospitals, “the content, evaluation methods, and assessment weightings reflected in performance distribution should be continuously adjusted and improved along with the development of the medical environment.” Furthermore, performance assessments should adopt differentiated strategies tailored to the characteristics of different departments, realizing a “one department, one policy” approach.

Wang Zhigang, Founder of Palline Data

Wang Zhigang, founder of Palline Data, stated, “With the deepening of healthcare reform and the rise of a new wave of the digital economy, Palline Data will focus on complex management scenarios in hospitals and departments. Leveraging our profound understanding and accumulated experience in hospital management and digital-intelligent transformation over the years, we are deeply committed to developing a new generation of intelligent operational management platforms based on data, models, and AI algorithms. Our goal is to reconstruct the operational infrastructure for various medical institutions, achieving a leap from a product platform to an industry platform.”

Cao Wei, Partner at BlueRun Ventures China, stated, “Driven by external factors such as healthcare reform and the pandemic, hospitals are in urgent need of digitalized and refined operational management. Palline’s informatics products, including performance management, cost analysis, and specialty operations, effectively address the pain points of hospitals. After years of dedicated development, the company has established a strong customer reputation and industry influence. We look forward to seeing the company, under the leadership of Mr. Wang, further leverage its advantages in data, AI technology, and hospital management to empower the digital and intelligent transformation of China’s healthcare industry.”

Feng Yao, Managing Director at Yun Qi Partners, stated, “As the pace of healthcare informatization accelerates, the demand for lean hospital management is growing. Leveraging years of expertise in hospital management and sustained product innovation, the Palline team has refined an industry-leading intelligent operations platform. We believe Palline will further build out industry infrastructure, facilitating the iterative advancement of the digital and intelligent healthcare sector.”

Yang Xinrui, Investment Director at Bojiang Capital, stated, “We are honored to increase our stake and continue investing in Palline Data. As the 14th Five-Year Plan’s healthcare reforms deepen, hospitals have an increasingly urgent need for operational improvements, a process that requires more comprehensive technological empowerment. Starting with performance management as its entry point, Palline Data has built an integrated intelligent operations platform that has significantly enhanced the modernization of hospital management. To date, Palline Data has provided operations management systems to over one hundred tertiary hospitals across China, substantially improving their operational management capabilities and effectively facilitating the implementation of hospital operational reforms. Palline Data has now become a leading enterprise in the health-tech industry. Going forward, Bojiang Capital will continue to support the core management team, represented by Wang Zhigang, in contributing to the reform and development of China’s healthcare sector.”

Lu Gang, Partner at Legendstar Capital, stated, “Digitalization is delivering immense value in the new cycle of healthcare reform. As a leader in digital and intelligent hospital management, Palline Data has resolved numerous industry challenges through its deep insights into healthcare reform and hospital management, as well as its innovative practices. As a pioneer in digital and intelligent healthcare reform, we believe that under the leadership of its founder, Wang Zhigang, Palline Data will continue to make significant contributions to safeguarding public health.”

Dr. Lin Yi, Managing Partner at Genesis Capital, stated, “We are honored to lead the Series A+ financing round for Palline Data. Founder Wang Zhigang is a rare, multifaceted entrepreneur with expertise spanning clinical practice, hospital operations management, and digital technology. We are highly optimistic that under his leadership, the company will enter a period of rapid growth, empowering more healthcare administrators. Over the next five years, DRG/DIP policies will profoundly reshape the structure of the healthcare delivery system. We look forward to Palline Data, as a leading provider of hospital operations management platforms, continuing to innovate and support hospital administrators in addressing unprecedented operational and managerial challenges in the industry.”

Liu Wanchun, General Manager of Jinma Investment, stated, “Achieving comprehensive and refined management analysis in hospitals requires more than just DRG/DIP grouping as a starting point; it relies more heavily on hospital-wide data governance capabilities and management expertise. Subsystems such as performance evaluation, dynamic cost accounting, and departmental operations will serve as key levers for refined hospital management. Palline has polished its industry-leading performance and cost modules, making it one of the few vendors capable of delivering performance consulting services as standardized products. We look forward to the company, as an industry leader, empowering more hospitals to reduce costs and increase efficiency.”