Helian Health Raises $360 Million to Revolutionize China's Health Screening Industry with Digital Health Management Solutions

The health checkup industry is entering a "dilemma."

In recent years, as the medical model has shifted toward preventive health management and in light of the wake-up call provided by the COVID-19 pandemic, society at large has placed increasing emphasis on early screening for various risk factors associated with diseases. This trend has, to a certain extent, driven growth in demand for health check-ups, thereby opening up substantial market opportunities.

Data Source: iiMedia Research

According to data from iiMedia Research, the number of people undergoing medical checkups and consultations in China has been increasing since 2014. By 2020, the number of such visits had reached 640 million, and it is projected that the number of individuals receiving medical checkups in China will rise to 680 million in 2021.

Although the market size is growing rapidly, this does not obscure the fact that coverage remains low. Data show that the current health checkup coverage rate in China is only 36%, leaving substantial room for growth compared to the approximately 80% coverage rate in developed countries in Europe and the United States.

Amidst this significant disparity, we see the future possibilities of the health checkup industry, but at the same time, we clearly recognize that there are still many market pain points in the current health checkup industry, which are hindering the development of China's health checkup industry.

This is inevitably a sector brimming with imagination and boundless challenges. Before this trend gained momentum, Helian Health was already positioned at its forefront.

Physical examinations serve as the first line of defense for human health, often playing a crucial role in identifying existing health issues or potential risks, thereby enabling early detection and helping to control disease progression. Therefore, prioritizing this critical step is essential for maintaining personal health.

But in fact, it is not easy to truly conduct health checkups well.Under the premise of data compliance and legality, an analysis of 2 million health examination reports sampled from hospitals with in-depth cooperation by Helian Health revealed that,Currently, only 16% of people in China pass their health checkups, while 84% fail due to the one-size-fits-all nature of standard health screening packages., the absence of tailored health screening packages leaves individuals at significant risk of missed diagnoses and excessive testing. Furthermore, the lack of continuous health management after the examination exacerbates the issue. For most people, while a health checkup is indeed performed, it is not effectively carried out in substance.

The reasons for this unfavorable situation are multifaceted.First, from a personal perspective.At present, the health checkup industry is dominated by corporate group orders. Due to cost and time constraints, corporate wellness checkups typically consist of fixed packages, making it difficult for employers to offer personalized, one-on-one customized checkup plans for their employees. Meanwhile, employees themselves often lack access to intelligent service platforms, leaving them ill-informed about which specific items are suitable for their needs and how best to approach their health screenings.

Next, from the perspective of hospitals and physicians.For hospitals, the high proportion of group health checkups often leads to a concentration of examinations within specific time frames. Delivering personalized health checkups primarily tests a medical examination institution’s service capacity; under staff shortages, it is difficult for physicians to provide one-on-one customized checkup plans tailored to individual needs. Furthermore, designing products and streamlining checkup processes that both meet user demands and maintain considerable efficiency is by no means easy.

Clearly, the pain points currently faced by each stakeholder in health checkups are vastly different; however, these disparate challenges converge on a single outcome: the lack of an efficient and convenient information service platform at the health checkup stage that meets the current needs of the general population.

Specifically, within the overall health examination service ecosystem, although hospitals, physicians, and users coexist in the same environment, they remain fragmented and have not formed a robust closed loop. An information technology platform can effectively address this issue by serving two key roles: first, as a “lubricant” that efficiently connects all stakeholders to maximize their collective impact; and second, as a “power source” that precisely empowers each party through innovative technologies driven by user needs.

The health checkup industry is undoubtedly a “tough nut to crack,” yet its needs are clear: it requires a comprehensive solution to help health checkup centers upgrade into internet-based health management centers.From this perspective, Helian Health has unlocked greater potential for innovation and growth.

As early as 2019, Helian Health began planning the “Internet Health Management Center,” a digital solution designed for public health examination centers. One year later, the solution was successfully launched and pilot implementations were initiated in hospitals. Throughout this process, Helian Health continuously updated and iterated the system, officially releasing it to the market in 2021 and making it available to major hospitals.

Digital Solutions for Health Management Centers

To date, Helian Health has established partnerships with over 1,000 hospitals, and this number continues to grow. The key driver behind its rapid expansion is the tangible impact its system delivers to hospitals. According to Helian Health’s statistics, after adopting the digital solution for health management centers, hospitals have seen a significant improvement in operational efficiency for physical examinations, a benefit directly reflected in appointment volumes. Data from the operational platform of a prefecture-level central hospital in Guangdong Province shows that after implementing the system, the hospital’s physical examination appointment volume increased by 50-fold.

Specifically, how does the “Internet Health Management Center” built by Helian Health empower hospitals to improve quality and efficiency?

First, in the pre-examination phase, leverage operations as an entry point to help medical examination centers increase their user base.Currently, the RMB 30 billion health checkup market is gradually shifting from offline to online channels. However, due to a lack of strategic presence, public hospitals remain at a competitive disadvantage, with 95% of online offerings currently provided by private health checkup centers.

To help public hospitals “turn the tide” in the individual health-checkup market, Helian Health has focused primarily on operational strategies by integrating with hospital WeChat official accounts to secure more precise user traffic. Reportedly, Helian Health initially entered the market through hospital Wi-Fi services, deeply cultivating hospital-based scenario services and serving over a thousand large general hospitals, thereby becoming the largest provider in the hospital Wi-Fi sector. Statistics show that up to 1.3 million people use Helian Health’s Wi-Fi services daily, enabling the company to achieve targeted user acquisition.

WeChat Official Account Operation Plan

In addition to helping hospitals expand their user base for individual health screenings, Helian Health has achieved pioneering technological breakthroughs in addressing the “1+X personalized” approach to medical examinations. Through its independently developed AI-powered personalized customization platform, the company guides users to make online appointments, thereby facilitating patient triage and flow distribution. The platform administers intelligent pre-examination questionnaires and analyzes multiple dimensions of user data, including basic personal information, medical history, lifestyle habits, and family genetic background. By leveraging big data and AI-driven algorithms for modeling, it tailors exclusive examination packages for each user, marking a further enhancement in the service capabilities of examination centers. 

1+X Personalized Package Customization

Secondly, during the examination phase, software systems are utilized to drive the efficient operation of the health checkup process.To enhance the operational efficiency of hospital health examination centers, Helian Health provides a suite of platform systems, including an online appointment system, a cross-departmental collaboration platform, quality control management for health examinations, an occupational disease examination system, a premarital and preconception examination system, and a full-process intelligent guidance system. These solutions cover over 80% of business operations with just 20% of the operational effort, significantly reducing the burden on hospitals and promoting the extension of their examination services toward higher quality.

 Heyi Jian - Physical Examination Management System

Finally, after the examination, establish connection channels to extend physical examination services into health management.Evidently, physical examinations have not yet fulfilled their true potential, primarily due to the disconnect between users and examination centers after the check-up. Addressing this issue, Helian Health has extended its examination services into the post-examination phase. By developing a health management model based on domestic and international textbooks, literature, clinical guidelines, diagnostic and treatment standards, and extensive physical examination report data, the company independently created a post-examination health management system. This system gradually leverages internet technologies to establish seamless connectivity between users and hospitals. It provides comprehensive digital services for post-examination users, including customer profiles, risk assessment, follow-up management, health interventions, and in-hospital referrals, thereby enabling proactive health management for individuals and families. With a disease prediction accuracy rate of up to 70%, this initiative plays a positive role in the effective prevention and control of chronic diseases.

Overall, Helian Health primarily empowers hospitals to radiate across the entire physical examination ecosystem. By upgrading systems and implementing operational strategies, it transforms physical examination centers into internet-based health management centers, ensuring that the public undergoes the appropriate examinations and receives proper post-examination health management. This drives significant improvements in industry-wide efficiency and service quality, thereby maximizing the value of physical examinations.

Clearly, entering the health checkup industry is no easy feat. It is understood that the health checkup system market is fraught with mixed quality, primarily due to the low technical barriers associated with these systems. As long as one understands the basic workflow of health checkup operations, a team of just two or three developers can build such a system. This has led to a landscape dominated by small vendors, most of which have fewer than 20 R&D staff. Annual software revenue for individual companies typically caps at around RMB 20 million, making profitability difficult and leaving most firms in a state of loss.

In addition, the personalized demands of different payers have placed significant pressure on market entrants. Taking large hospitals as an example, while they have sufficient budgets and primarily rely on vendors to allocate substantial personnel for maintenance, customization, and development to barely meet their operational needs, their systems are technologically outdated by 10–20 years, resulting in extremely low operational efficiency. In contrast, small and medium-sized hospitals, constrained by limited budgets, face considerable hardships, with after-sales maintenance becoming virtually unattainable.

However, Helian Health is quite confident in its commitment to the health checkup industry, primarily because the company has established multiple core competencies.

On one hand, this is reflected in the investment. To develop this digital solution for physical examination centers, Helian Health has invested RMB 360 million, with RMB 200 million allocated to product research and development, and the remaining RMB 160 million dedicated to product maintenance and upgrades.

On the other hand, it is reflected in the pricing model.Helian Health has innovatively introduced a “pay-for-performance + maintenance fee” pricing model, moving beyond traditional buyer-seller relationships to form a community of shared interests with hospitals. It charges service fees by taking a portion of the incremental revenue generated from improving hospitals’ health checkup efficiency. This approach allows health checkup centers to avoid concerns about pricing, effectiveness, and after-sales support.

According toYe Anping, Co-Founder of Helian HealthHe stated, “Helian Health’s original intention was to make internet-based health management center systems affordable for all physical examination centers. In addition to large hospitals with ample funding, small and medium-sized hospitals should also be included. This is precisely the fundamental reason driving us to propose outcome-based payment, so that hospitals no longer need to consider the cost of the system itself and can fully devote themselves to its application.”

However, this approach clearly requires a certain period to take effect; therefore, Helian Health must maintain substantial cash reserves to ensure that hospital revenues can offset the company’s operational costs.

This is undoubtedly a “bet.” Why does Helian Health believe it can emerge as the “winner”?

Let us begin with external factors.With the continuous rise in consumption levels and the rapid development of the market economy, national health awareness has significantly improved. In particular, urban residents’ health consciousness is undergoing substantial changes, which undoubtedly brings a huge incremental market to the physical examination industry.

Data source: iiMedia Research

According to data from iiMedia Research, the market size of China’s health examination industry has been steadily increasing year by year. In 2012, the market size was still below RMB 50 billion, but by 2016 it had exceeded RMB 100 billion. This upward trend is expected to continue, with the market size projected to approach RMB 200 billion in 2021. Helian Health predicts that over the next 5–10 years, the scale of the health examination industry will reach RMB 520 billion.

Turning back to the company itself, Helian Health has already cultivated multiple core competencies in the health examination sector.On one hand, in terms of service model, Helian Health has established a systematic service framework centered on the health examination sector, effectively addressing its pain points and promoting hospitals to improve quality and efficiency, thereby benefiting multiple stakeholders.

On the other hand, in terms of R&D and operations.Helian Health has established an R&D team of up to 200 members, a scale ten times the industry average. The team’s technical staff are primarily recruited from leading internet companies such as Alibaba, NetEase, and Huawei. According to Ye Anping, Helian Health’s system is not static; its R&D personnel continuously update and iterate the platform. To ensure partner hospitals can effectively utilize the system and maximize its value, Helian Health deploys more than 100 professional operations specialists across China for on-site implementation support, aiming to deliver superior services to users.

Currently, the health checkup industry stands at a critical crossroads. On one hand, it presents a vast blue ocean of opportunities; on the other, turbulent waves within this blue ocean pose significant barriers to industry development. Guided by the “Healthy China 2030” strategic plan, health checkups have assumed a new level of importance. The industry now calls for enterprises to step forward, inject greater vitality, and drive enhanced efficacy and impact.

Along this long journey, Helian Health, as the highest-valued unicorn company in the health checkup industry, has consistently adhered to its mission of “making people healthier, reducing illness, and alleviating the fear of getting sick.” Leveraging the advantages of an internet-based enterprise, Helian Health helps health checkup centers upgrade into internet-enabled health management centers. Ultimately, through innovative concepts and technologies, it truly assists the public in conducting health checkups correctly at the source and effectively managing their health. Staying true to its original aspiration, Helian Health has taken the lead in this endeavor.