Yidianling Secures $30 Million Series B+ Funding to Advance Digital Mental Health Platform

Recently, Yidianling, a digital healthcare and psychological services platform, officially announced the completion of its RMB 200 million Series B+ financing round. The round was led by FutureX Capital, with continued participation from existing investors 58 Industrial Fund and Proxima Ventures. The proceeds will be primarily used for technological product development, strengthening the professional team, and internet marketing and promotion.

Notably, this marks the second financing round completed by Yidianling this year. Previously, in April, Yidianling secured tens of millions of yuan in Series B funding from the 58 Industrial Fund.

Since its establishment in 2015, Yi Dian Ling has consistently adhered to the philosophy of “professional expertise, compassionate care, and sincere service.” By leveraging the “Internet+” model, the company has standardized psychological service protocols, introduced specialized psychological services, and established a sub-specialty diagnosis and treatment system. It provides lightweight psychological interventions through licensed counselors, supplemented by collaborative care with psychiatrists, striving to set the benchmark in the field of digital healthcare and psychological services.

As of now, Yidianling’s online user base has reached 25 million, with over 30,000 licensed psychological counselors on its platform. The company has received widespread acclaim from users and has gradually emerged as one of the leading enterprises in China’s mental health industry.

According to data from the White Paper on the Mental Health of Urban Residents in China, 73.6% of individuals are in a state of suboptimal psychological health, 16.1% exhibit varying degrees of psychological issues, and only 10.3% are considered mentally healthy. The substantial population experiencing suboptimal psychological health and psychological disorders has given rise to significant unmet needs, fostering a market valued at hundreds of billions of yuan.

However, amid market development, the industry continues to face challenges such as supply-demand imbalance, a substantial shortage of psychological counselors, and the need for standardization of service practices.

To this end, Yi Dian Ling has established an internet-based digital and standardized workflow. By conducting multi-dimensional segmentation and classification of users’ psychological issues, it has generated tens of thousands of specialized psychological service SKUs. This enables precise mapping of user needs, provides algorithmic decision-making support for subsequent service matching, and enhances the accuracy of aligning user demands with appropriate services.

Meanwhile, by presenting the content and processes of its psychological services in a visualized, product-oriented format and standardizing them, Yi Dian Ling provides users with more understandable and predictable service standards, thereby ensuring service quality while strengthening the trust of both potential and existing users.

In terms of professional standards, YiDianLing has customized three specialized service assurance systems to empower both users and counselors. The first is a professional management system based on strict entry audits, an N-to-1 annual counselor review process, professional credit point management for counselors, and mandatory supervision. The second is a professional empowerment system featuring targeted support via the expert app, systematic training courses, and a team of professional supervisors. The third is a bilateral protection system grounded in unconditional customer refunds and professional liability insurance for counselors.

Building on this foundation, Yi Dian Ling leverages internet-enabled psychology to break through the spatial and geographical barriers between service providers and users. To address service matching challenges, Yi Dian Ling employs an intelligent assessment system and big data-driven recommendation algorithms. By analyzing user needs to generate psychological service SKUs, it delivers more tailored and professional services, significantly reducing users’ costs in screening for appropriate care. Furthermore, by transitioning mental health services toward a standardized model, Yi Dian Ling not only strengthens the connection between supply and demand but also ensures service quality to a greater extent.

Underpinning this success is the support of the digital mental health service system built by YiDianLing. As a company with an internet-native DNA, the YiDianLing team has leveraged internet technologies to achieve digital iteration across multiple stages, including user outreach, psychological assessment, and counselor matching, thereby creating a distinct differentiation from traditional mental health services. Furthermore, the deep involvement of numerous professional psychology experts within the team fully ensures the professionalism of its services.

Furthermore, to continuously enhance users’ awareness of mental health, YiDianLing has established a professional content team composed of psychology experts. This team consistently disseminates science-based educational materials through various media and communication channels, thereby ensuring the delivery of mental health education to end users.

From early on with lightweight psychological content focusing on the public’s struggles with mental health issues, to today’s mature offerings including psychological counseling, mental wellness courses, and counselor training, Yidianling has gradually built a comprehensive ecosystem for mental health services by continuously exploring the boundaries of its service capabilities.

While continuously strengthening its presence in the consumer (C-end) market, Yidianling has also targeted the social psychological services sector—providing psychological services to governments, enterprises, social organizations, schools, and other entities. In product design, the company places greater emphasis on the participation of business (B-end) stakeholders, rather than merely offering standalone psychological counseling and mental health education services to B-end audiences.

Taking Yidianling’s current enterprise psychological services as an example, unlike traditional employee mental health services, Yidianling’s B2B psychological services focus on helping enterprises ensure safe production and implement employee mental health management. The “Xinqing” Enterprise Psychological Service SaaS platform, which serves as the service infrastructure, not only enables comprehensive prevention of employees’ psychological issues but also enhances enterprises’ active involvement in managing employee mental health.

Not only is its client base continuously expanding, but Yidianling also does not limit itself to online platforms in terms of service delivery channels; establishing a comprehensive service system is its key strategic objective.

Yidianling has always prioritized user needs as the guiding principle for service expansion. From its origins as a psychological counseling platform, Yidianling has successfully established an integrated online-offline closed-loop mental health service system. This system encompasses online services—including a mental health content community, emotional support channels, psychological counseling, and counselor training—as well as offline physical service institutions.

It is reported that since 2018, Yi Dian Ling has established more than ten mental health service centers under the brand “Yi Dian Yang Guang Mental Health Center,” starting from Hangzhou. Each center’s team comprises distinguished professionals, including domestic and international psychologists, psychological counselors, psychiatric consultants, professional supervisors, and case managers. Leveraging years of operational experience and a substantial accumulation of case studies, these teams are well-positioned to deliver integrated and comprehensive mental health service plans, ensuring scientific assessment and evidence-based efficacy for clients.

Furthermore, grounded in the biopsychosocial model, the team does not limit its focus to psychological symptoms alone when addressing clients’ psychological distress; instead, it customizes psychotherapeutic interventions through multi-level analysis and a systemic framework.

It is evident that continuous expansion and service diversification have always been Yidianling’s key strategies in responding to market developments, whether in terms of service offerings, target audiences, or delivery platforms.

As public mental and psychological health conditions grow increasingly severe, Yidianling, a service platform that has consistently upheld “customer value and professionalism,” has officially embarked on its journey into the field of psychiatric care. The initiative to “extend service capabilities into the medical domain and establish a comprehensive mental health diagnosis and treatment system” is gradually being implemented.

This year, Yidianling Clinic’s Internet Hospital has officially been established in Guangdong, marking Yidianling’s formal entry into the internet healthcare sector and representing another significant leap forward in its exploration of mental health and psychological well-being.

It is understood that building a mental health diagnosis and treatment system will be an important part of Yidianling's future development. Currently, to meet users' diagnostic and treatment needs, Yidianling has established offline psychiatric specialty clinics and online internet hospitals specializing in mental health, enabling it to provide full-cycle professional services by integrating with its existing mental health service offerings.

Xu Yingqi, the founder of Yidianling, has accumulated many years of experience in operating pharmaceutical platforms, which also serves as strong support for Yidianling’s strategic layout.

“Moreover, as awareness grows, users with mental health care needs are increasingly turning to platform-based services for solutions,” said Wang Ding, co-founder of Yidianling. As early as 2019, Yidianling made the establishment of a comprehensive mental health diagnosis and treatment service system a key component of its development strategy, aggregating a large number of high-quality psychiatric specialists to support subsequent service delivery.

In Yidianling’s future plans, continuing to strengthen the digitalization of services will remain a key focus for development. To this end, Yidianling will actively invest in the research and development of digital diagnosis and treatment solutions, which can be specifically divided into the following three steps.

First, by leveraging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, we achieve digitalized and intelligent assessment of users’ mental health status. To deepen the application of AI in mental health services, Yi Dianling has established an internal Psychological Counseling Laboratory staffed by master’s and doctoral-level professionals with specialized backgrounds in psychology, as well as a technical team composed of engineers and algorithm specialists. These teams are respectively responsible for researching and translating market needs into actionable insights, and for developing technology-driven service products. Meanwhile, Yi Dianling is collaborating with multiple leading AI teams in China to jointly launch smart hardware products and enhance the support systems for AI-assisted psychological services.

Second, design digital intervention methods to achieve effective disease intervention. It is understood that Yidianling has currently launched professional online meditation products and self-help psychological courses. Moving forward, Yidianling will continue to introduce more interventions covering prevention, treatment, and mental health management, based on scientific theories and evidence-based medicine.

Third, it provides assisted intervention plans for doctors and counselors. Compared with traditional services, digital intervention plans have obvious advantages such as replicability, accumulative experience, and low cost, which can effectively assist psychiatrists and psychological counselors in carrying out diagnosis, treatment, and counseling services, significantly improving service efficiency.

Thus, it is evident that Yidianling not only achieves comprehensive coverage of user needs ranging from mild to severe but also provides more diversified and convenient access to its services.

Zhang Hanqin, Partner at FutureX Skyline Capital“It is stated that: ‘With the rapid improvement of material living standards in China, people’s pursuit of a fulfilling spiritual life has become increasingly urgent. While the evolving international landscape and shifting social structures create opportunities, they also bring about periodic confusion, distress, and pressure. We deeply recognize that services capable of tangibly, scalably, and personally enhancing psychological well-being and the quality of spiritual life will serve as key supports for China’s harmonious and sustainable development. As one of the pioneers in the online mental health industry, Yi Dian Ling adheres to a user-centric approach, addresses actual needs, and innovatively integrates the power of data technology with classical psychological theories and practices, truly leveraging technology for the benefit of humanity. The mental health sector in China is still in its early stages, and we hope that Yi Dian Ling’s rapid development will attract more talented individuals to join the industry, enrich its depth, and bring a rich and fulfilling spiritual life to a broader population.’”

58 Industrial Fund New Services Team“It is believed that ‘Yi Dian Ling achieved several milestones in 2021, including obtaining an internet healthcare license and implementing various technological applications, such as the construction of expert capability profiling models and the development of an expert capacity system. We are optimistic about Yi Dian Ling’s continued implementation of its strategy integrating intelligence, data-driven operations, and specialization, as well as its combined diagnostic and treatment approach involving both psychiatrists and psychological counselors. We believe that Yi Dian Ling will be able to provide high-quality services to more users in the future, contributing to the enhancement of societal mental well-being!’”

As future market demand continues to grow and innovative technologies keep breaking through, Yidianling is also continuously leveraging its team’s advantages in technology and digitalization to bring more high-value innovative service solutions to the industry.

FutureX Capital was founded in early 2018 by the founding private equity team of China Asset Management (Huaxia Fund). Its team members primarily come from large USD-denominated funds, international investment banks, major Chinese financial institutions, and technology industry players. The firm focuses on cloud computing/enterprise services, the intelligent vehicle supply chain, the smart terminal supply chain, medical technology, and other sectors, and currently manages multiple USD and RMB funds. FutureX Capital is dedicated to investing in the leading core technology enterprises of each generation in China, growing alongside them. It strategically concentrates on foundational and platform-based software and hardware innovations, as well as the deconstruction and empowerment of various industries through technological applications, engaging deeply throughout the entire corporate lifecycle. Upholding an open-source philosophy, FutureX Capital continuously attracts extensive industrial resources, financial resources, and expert networks. It engages in multi-faceted collaborations with top-tier entrepreneurs, aggregates premier insights to form forward-looking perspectives and cross-industry synergies, and continuously identifies investment opportunities that improve the world by enhancing its cognitive capabilities. By seizing the wave of technological innovation, the firm makes proactive investments at critical turning points in corporate development and leverages the industrial resources of leading enterprises to provide deep empowerment, helping portfolio companies further unlock their potential.

58 Industry Fund is an early-to-mid-stage investment institution under 58 Group, a comprehensive provider of lifestyle services. Since its establishment in 2018, 58 Industry Fund has actively sought investment opportunities in emerging services, education and training, and technological innovation, aiming to collaborate with top-tier entrepreneurial teams to drive the upgrading and development of quality of life. The fund has invested in numerous outstanding startups, including Sweetome, LeKe Sports, UU Errand, Woodpecker Family Services, Yidianling, Nowcoder, Rainbow Planet, Diyi Street Dance, Jisi Academy, Meng Veterinary Clinic, Caibei, Dang Laoshi, Ai Boche, and Naixue Education. Leveraging 58 Group’s business layout and extensive industry expertise, 58 Industry Fund is committed to building a better lifestyle service ecosystem through capital and industry resources.

Proxima Ventures is a specialized investment firm focused on innovative medical technologies and disruptive biotechnologies, dedicated to serving exceptional innovative healthcare technology enterprises with significant growth potential. Managed and operated by a professional team with extensive experience in the medical industry, Proxima Ventures boasts diverse and international expertise, professional backgrounds, and industry networks. The firm currently manages multiple RMB and USD funds. Proxima Ventures has established a leading healthcare entrepreneurship ecosystem, facilitating connections between its portfolio companies and high-quality clinical and industrial resources, achieving remarkable experience and results.