Helian Chain Secures Over RMB 60 Million in Series A Funding Led by SoftBank China Venture Capital

VCBeat has learned that Helian IoT (hereinafter referred to as “Helian Chain”), an internet platform for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, recently announced the completion of its Series A financing round, raising over RMB 60 million. The round was led by SoftBank China Capital, with Qinzhi Capital participating as a co-investor. V-Kapital served as the exclusive financial advisor.

It is reported that, following the completion of this round of financing, Helilian will increase its investment in platform R&D and intensify efforts to recruit top-tier talent. The company will also expand its business in CMO finished products and material supply. By continuing to deepen its expertise in digital technology development for the pharmaceutical industry, Helilian aims to empower and upgrade the entire pharmaceutical supply chain, from raw materials to finished products.

HeliChain is an industrial internet enterprise focused on the pharmaceutical and broader healthcare sector. By integrating three core business pillars—CMO-based finished product development, centralized procurement of customized industrial materials, and digital applications—HeliChain enables its partners to benefit from highly coordinated services across the entire healthcare value chain, including material supply, manufacturing facilities, and brand commercialization.

In recent years, driven by consumption upgrading, the pharmaceutical and general health industry has emerged as a rapidly growing market exceeding RMB 10 trillion. The accelerated pace of product innovation and diversification of marketing strategies in the general health sector have led to pronounced trends toward brand diversification and personalization. Coupled with intense intra-industry competition, these factors have further compressed profit margins.

The transformation of the pharmaceutical industry demands that supply chains further reduce costs and enhance efficiency through collaboration. However, various segments of the traditional supply chain often face a multitude of challenges. For instance, the raw materials sector frequently struggles with market expansion, quality control, and cost management. The manufacturing sector contends with the coexistence of overcapacity and undercapacity, with its core objective being to cut costs, improve efficiency, and boost gross margins. Meanwhile, distributors and end-users urgently need to develop high-margin products and seek direct partnerships with manufacturers; however, they lack the means to consolidate industrial production resources.

Unmet needs have provided Helian with a strategic entry point. As the digital intelligence hub within the pharmaceutical and broader healthcare industry chain, Helian aggregates fragmented medication demand to align with industrial-scale production, thereby reducing idle capacity and delivering high-quality, cost-effective, and reliably delivered products to end customers in the healthcare sector. By leveraging data-driven production, Helian further achieves precise matching of manufacturing processes, production capacity, and material quality, which enhances production efficiency, reduces waste, and drives the overall upgrading of the entire industry chain.

The advantages of the helical chain are evident—

With over a decade of accumulated resources in the pharmaceutical industry, its business and terminal ends can directly engage in deep cooperation with more than 500 domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers through Heli Chain’s centralized supply and procurement services. These partners include well-known pharmaceutical companies such as Hunan Fangsheng, Quanzhou Hengda, Baotai Pharmaceutical, Xinfeng Pharmaceutical, Anke Hengyi, Kangpu Pharmaceutical, Fujian Pacific, Huipusen Medicine, and Baoruitan.

Heli Chain covers the development and sourcing capabilities for over 1,000 product varieties, enabling pharmaceutical distributors and big health brands to acquire more personalized, high-value-added products, thereby achieving cost reduction and efficiency improvement from the source;

In terms of material supply, Heli Chain has aggregated over 100 material suppliers, including Universal Printing, Kedi Printing, Jiuxing Printing, Yamingwei Packaging, Kangtai Pharmaceutical Packaging, Huaguan Packaging, Yanheng Color Printing, and Kaitai Gelatin Capsules.

The Heli Chain enables commercial partners and end-users to benefit from professional empowerment support, including market planning, product training, and marketing promotion. It not only addresses the challenge of customized product solutions but also significantly boosts product profitability, thereby delivering substantial value to commercial partners and end-user clients.

Following the completion of this round of financing, Helilian will undergo significant transformations: For its CMO business segment, Helilian will build a digital platform in 2022 to offer diverse products and enrich the industrial line for CMO finished product development; for its traditional materials business segment, Helilian will establish a stable, diversified, and fit-for-purpose professional supply chain service platform for the big health industry, adhering to digital standards.

Huang Xiaoyong, Chairman of Heli Chainstated, “In 2022, Heli Chain will continue to uphold the spirit of reform and innovation, leveraging a global perspective, an overarching strategic viewpoint, and whole-industry thinking to seize the wave of the internet technology revolution. We aim to achieve informatization, digitalization, internet integration, and the restructuring of industrial resource circulation ecosystems, thereby activating new momentum in the pharmaceutical and broader healthcare industry. Our goal is to establish Heli Chain as an enterprise capable of providing long-term, stable supplies of high-quality, cost-effective products for the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector, better serving the overall development of China’s domestic pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, and contributing to the transformation and upgrading envisioned by ‘Made in China 2025.’”

Jiang Min, Partner at SoftBank Chinastated: “SoftBank China has cultivated deep expertise in healthcare investment, with digital health being one of its key focus areas. We remain bullish on the empowering impact of digitalization across the entire healthcare industry chain. We look forward to LiLian demonstrating its unique value in the digital transformation of the upstream and downstream pharmaceutical supply chains.”

For Helilian, it will continue to build a bridge between the industrial end and the material supply end with digital standards, and drive intelligent material supply with digital algorithms; It takes it as its responsibility to create an altruistic pharmaceutical industry Internet, industrial Internet and smart supply chain, and is committed to establishing industry digital standards. From raw material origins, production factories to drug customization, e-commerce digital transactions, pharmacy terminals and other new retail scenarios, Helilian will achieve multi-party collaboration with its excellent digital technology, making digitalization and intelligence ubiquitous and empowering new industry changes!

SoftBank China Capital (SBCVC) was established in 2000 and is dedicated to investing in high-growth, high-tech enterprises across the Greater China region. It has successfully invested in a series of outstanding companies, including Alibaba, Taobao, Focus Media, GDS Holdings, BGI Genomics, Dian Diagnostics, and Edan Instruments. Currently, SoftBank China Capital manages multiple USD and RMB funds, with investment sectors spanning information technology, healthcare, clean technology, consumer retail, and advanced manufacturing. Its investment stages cover early-stage, growth-stage, and late-stage opportunities.

Shenzhen Qianhai QinZhi International Capital Management Co., Ltd., a vice-chairman unit of the Shenzhen Venture Capital Association, was established in October 2015 and is headquartered in Shenzhen. QinZhi Capital brings together seasoned professionals from the industry and investment sectors, such as those from Shenzhen Capital Group and Guosen Securities, as well as scientific research experts from renowned universities at home and abroad. Adhering to the investment philosophy of “boutique, originality, and industrial platform,” the firm focuses on the healthcare and wellness sector, investing in high-growth enterprises worldwide to facilitate the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements, with the commitment to becoming a professional healthcare investment institution with significant industry influence.

VB Capital is a cutting-edge boutique investment bank founded in 2016, specializing in four key sectors: innovative consumer goods, technology & industry, digital healthcare, and green digitalization. It provides entrepreneurs with multi-dimensional professional services from a financing strategy perspective, including industry insights, strategic planning, corporate risk control, and capitalization operations.