Lejian Health: The Rising Star in China's Billion-Dollar Corporate Employee Wellness Market

The health insurance sector is undoubtedly one of the hottest medical sub-sectors in recent years.

From the perspective of investment enthusiasm, according to data from the VCBeat Orange Database, since 2020, there have been more than 35 financing events in China's primary health insurance market, with a total financing amount exceeding RMB 10 billion.

In this red-hot sector, numerous companies have carved out their own business models—focusing on channel innovation, precision marketing, differentiated services, actuarial pricing, operational optimization, and risk control—and have gained sustained recognition from investors, bringing them to the eve of an initial public offering.Faced with a vast and somewhat “crowded” health insurance sector, investment institutions are also actively seeking more high-quality targets: those that operate in a high-growth niche and possess strong explosive potential.

VCBeat has observed that Lejian Information Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Lejian”) was incubated and established in 2017,By deeply cultivating the corporate employee health benefits market and building a closed-loop ecosystem integrating medical care, health check-ups, and insurance, it has become an industry dark horse in just four years., serving over 1,000 enterprises, including more than 300 of China’s Top 1000 companies, including Tencent, Huawei, Xiaomi, ByteDance, Didi, Qunar, Pinduoduo, Meituan, 58.com, and XPeng Motors.

Notably, Huang Feiyan, the helm of Lejian, participated in the founding of two listed companies, eLong and iKang Group. She officially took over Lejian in October 2019 and, within just two years, transformed it into a quasi-unicorn in the health technology sector.

How has Lejian achieved such rapid growth? What strategies lie behind its success? How will it position itself for the future? To address these questions, VCBeat conducted an in-depth interview with Huang Feiyan, Founder and Chairman of Lejian and Co-Founder and Director of iKang Group.

Amid the surge of startups in the health insurance sector, some companies have adopted a pure consumer-centric (C-end) approach, others have focused on low-to-mid-tier group insurance, while still others have targeted young user demographics.Lejian is different, as it positions itself to provide one-stop services offering comprehensive and systematic integrated medical and health insurance coverage for corporate employees.

“Among China’s top 1,000 enterprises, roughly 300 are state-owned, 300 are private, and another 300 are foreign-invested. The combined workforce of these companies totals approximately 95 million people; when their family members are included, the affected population reaches about 300 million,” Huang Feiyan told VCBeat.“For this demographic, employed by large corporations, benefits are a key consideration. ‘The better-designed the corporate benefits package, the more it enables employees to work with peace of mind and in good health.’”

Relevant survey reports indicate that the two-week prevalence rate among Chinese residents is as high as 32.2%, with a two-week outpatient visitation rate of 24%. The two-week outpatient visitation rates for the age groups of 25–34, 35–44, 45–54, and 55–64 years are 9.6%, 13.1%, 19.6%, and 29.4%, respectively, with the vast majority being employed individuals. Among the employed population aged 15–64, the two-week work absence rate due to illness is 5%, amounting to 206 days of work absence per 1,000 employees over a two-week period. This equates to an average of approximately 5 days of work absence per employee per year due to illness, while each employee works while ill for 20–30 days per year (experiencing physical discomfort and reduced work efficiency).

There remains a substantial unmet objective demand for disease prevention, scientifically guided medical consultation, and disease rehabilitation management among the working population.. From the perspective of corporate input-output, a Harvard University study shows that the return on investment (ROI) for proactive workplace health management is 1:6 (i.e., for every $1 invested in employee health, medical costs decrease by $3.27 and absenteeism costs decrease by $2.73); practical data from Quantum, a U.S. health insurance management platform company, indicates that employee health management can reduce corporate medical costs by 5.7% in one year, 9.2% in three years, and 14.14% in five years.

Correspondingly, companies are placing increasing emphasis on the design of health benefits in their human resources strategies. This is driven by the dual objectives of safeguarding the physical and mental well-being of employees and their families—thereby alleviating personal concerns—and enhancing the company’s long-term competitiveness in a fiercely competitive market environment.In other words, an increasing number of enterprises have come to realize that a healthy workforce is essential to building a healthy business, which in turn has spurred the emergence of a multi-billion-yuan niche market within the health insurance sector: corporate employee health management.

A trend serves as corroborating evidence. According to Huang Feiyan’s long-term observations, large enterprises have been progressively increasing their budgets for employee healthcare services year by year. Taking China Construction Bank (CCB) as an example, the bank has seen a significant rise in its healthcare service expenditures over the past decade, benefiting both its employees and customers.

Addressing this need, Huang Feiyan led the Lejian team to conduct in-depth research, providing a comprehensive suite of solutions for the pain points and challenges large enterprises face in benefits design, and building a one-stop service platform to efficiently and precisely meet corporate needs.

It is worth noting that, unlike small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), large corporations have more diverse and complex demands for healthcare services. “Our team has extensive experience in the B2B sector, as only those who have long served large enterprises can truly understand their needs and design service solutions accordingly,” said Huang Feiyan.

Certainly, the scope of health services is extensive, covering various aspects such as medical examinations, clinical consultations, at-home testing, and insurance. To address this, Lejian offers a solution by providing customized health services to enterprises through a strategy of “curating premium selections.” How exactly does Lejian achieve this? A detailed analysis follows.

It is not easy to provide large enterprises with a one-stop “medical healthcare + health insurance” service.This not only tests the ability of entering enterprises to gain insight into the personalized demands of companies and their employees, but also requires matching sufficient medical, health, examination, and insurance resources, as well as mid- and back-office capabilities capable of supporting this system.

First, in terms of gaining insights into market needs, Lejian’s management team consists almost entirely of professionals with years of deep experience in the healthcare industry.“They possess strong insights and extensive experience in understanding healthcare and the needs of large enterprises.” Currently, Lejian has a professional “product selection” team comprising medical doctors, general practice experts, laboratory testing specialists, and seasoned industry veterans who have previously served as medical directors at Fortune 500 multinational corporations.

“Take me as an example. With nearly 20 years of experience in the industry, I am well aware of the demands of large enterprises and where suitable, high-quality medical resources are available to meet those needs,” stated Huang Feiyan. She emphasized that it is precisely this profound understanding and insight into the industry that enables Lejian to provide the most appropriate solutions for its large enterprise clients.

Furthermore, leveraging resources in the medical health checkup and insurance sectors, Lejian collaborates with leading enterprises and suppliers in the industry to provide customized services for its clients.To date, Lejian has established China’s largest healthcare service network integrating “health checkups, dental care, nucleic acid testing, vaccination, and home-based testing.” Spanning from private institutions to Grade 3A hospitals, the network covers more than 600 cities across China. By connecting appointment systems, intelligent examination guidance systems, and post-checkup health management platforms, Lejian has created a comprehensive health management pathway.

It is worth noting that one-stop health management services are highly convenient for large enterprises. The reason lies in the fact that,EnterpriseThe larger the industry scale, the more personalized and diversified employees' health management needs become; therefore, a platform with strong medical resource allocation capabilities is required to meet these needs.

For example, in addition to establishing the largest physical examination service network in China, Lejian has also invested in medical testing laboratories and built a nationwide home-based testing network with strong service capabilities, thereby providing products and solutions for personalized home health checks for corporate employees.

“Some young employees are reluctant to visit physical examination centers, as certain routine tests can be conducted at home, such as urinalysis and fecal immunochemical testing for occult blood. For some tests, results are available immediately at home, while others require samples to be sent back to the laboratory for analysis before a test report is issued,” introduced Huang Feiyan. “It is evident that the service chain we provide to enterprises is fully tailored to their specific needs.”

Finally, to build mid- and back-office capabilities, Lejian has established a robust digital intelligence technology platform.Efficiently matching customers with appropriate resources has always been a priority for Huang Feiyan. To this end, Lejian has assembled a robust technical team with expertise in big data and AI R&D, as well as extensive experience in medical data analysis and internet applications. Leveraging forward-looking top-level design and strong execution capabilities, the team has built an integrated “trinity” platform. This platform not only provides corporate clients with one-stop healthcare services but also establishes digital health records to enhance personalized service capabilities tailored to individual needs.

Through the team’s efforts, Lejian’s “Enterprise Cloud Hospital” platform creates a lifelong health record for each employee who authorizes its services. This record integrates multi-source data, including medical examinations, health behaviors, and insurance information. By applying data de-identification and ensuring compliance, the platform not only develops distinctive user profiles and a precise recommendation engine but also provides corporate HR departments with comprehensive data analytics dashboards and cockpits.

It is worth mentioning that Lejian has also established an internet hospital, an online pharmacy, and other related services.It is conceivable that corporate employees can enjoy Lejian’s comprehensive services across all stages, from health to sub-health and then to light medical care.: Employees can perform at-home testing for specific health indicators on a daily basis, or visit offline facilities for more comprehensive physical examinations. They can also access light medical services through Lejian’s physician resources and online pharmacies. In the event of serious or critical illnesses, they can benefit from Lejian’s arranged medical services at Grade 3A hospitals.

During this process, employees can also use Lejian to access insurance packages precisely tailored to their needs, such as HPV vaccine insurance, pre-diabetes insurance, and pulmonary nodule insurance. This helps employees reduce medical expenses and improve the quality of healthcare. For enterprises, addressing employees' health issues serves as an effective safeguard for corporate productivity.

In summary, by creating a closed-loop ecosystem integrating “medical care, health management, check-ups, and insurance,” Lejian provides high-quality one-stop services to enterprises and their employees. This is the core driver fueling Lejian’s sustained and rapid growth.

In recent years, thanks to the advancement and application of technologies such as big data, 5G, and artificial intelligence,China’s digital transformation of healthcare services is accelerating at an unprecedented pace, placing digital health infrastructure in a position of unparalleled importance.

On the policy front, the state has intensively issued policies related to digitalization and new infrastructure, releasing a series of favorable measures that inject new momentum into industry development. In particular, the further opening of medical insurance policies has introduced a “super payer” for the new services and business models of “Internet + Healthcare,” thereby accelerating the rapid growth of the sector.

From the perspective of industry development trends, the medical ecosystem closed loop of “health management + health insurance” is bound to become an important component of “new infrastructure,” which also drivesChina's health management market is ushering in a new wave of development, from which outstanding enterprises will benefit.

"There are no successful enterprises, only enterprises of the era.". Therefore, for the entire healthcare sector, in the face of current emerging business models, those who seize the opportunity and explore a development path that better integrates with their operations will gain a competitive edge.

China’s health benefits and health insurance market also hold immense prospects., Lejian, which has seized opportunities and continuously driven innovation and breakthroughs, is undoubtedly already on the right path and will go even further.

Regarding Lejian’s future, Huang Feiyan stated: “Lejian possesses high-quality medical, health, and insurance resources, the capability to deeply understand corporate needs, and a large team dedicated to data application and development. In such a vast market, future revenue will experience exponential growth. Our goal is to cover more than 70% of China’s Top 1,000 enterprises, achieve revenue exceeding RMB 10 billion, and serve over 60 to 70 million employees and their families. This is a modest target; while there is still a long road ahead, we are confident in reaching it.”We believe that quasi-unicorns are merely the starting point for Lejian, and capturing a market worth hundreds of billions is not a distant future.