MedJie Completes Series C Funding Round Led Solely by Sequoia China

VCBeat has learned that the leading physician platform “Yixuejie” completed its Series C financing in early September, with this round exclusively invested by Sequoia China.

“YiXueJie” is a leading online learning and service platform for physicians in China, dedicated to providing member services such as accurate, timely, and reliable medical news, CME, and medical knowledge bases to Chinese doctors.

It is reported that “Yixuejie” currently operates nearly 30 WeChat official accounts, with over 10 million followers, a daily average readership of 1.5 million, and a user base comprising more than 2 million mainstream physicians and healthcare professionals. The mobile app “Yixuejie Doctor Station,” launched in 2015, has amassed over 2.3 million registered users.

In recent years, China’s innovative drug sector has entered a period of rapid development, with nearly 50 new drugs approved annually for domestic and foreign companies. The number of clinical trials conducted around novel drug targets continues to set new records. Against this backdrop, competition for the market launch of pharmaceuticals and medical devices has become increasingly fierce. Major companies are significantly increasing their market investments and accelerating digital transformation. According to industry research, China’s digital healthcare marketing market is projected to reach RMB 111 billion by 2025. As pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers place greater emphasis on digitalization and national policy changes diminish the role of offline sales representatives, digital marketing will accelerate its penetration across the entire pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing landscape.

Leveraging its position as China’s leading medical media brand, its vast physician user base, and its early-established digital marketing capabilities, “Medical Circle” has become a pioneer in the digital marketing of innovative drugs in China. In recent years, “Medical Circle” has experienced robust growth in its core business, with revenue nearly doubling over the past six years at a compound annual growth rate, and an accelerating growth trend observed in the last three years. All of the top 30 global pharmaceutical companies have partnered with “Medical Circle.”

Chen Qirui, the founder, believes that since its inception, “Medical Circle” has demonstrated strong evolutionary capabilities—transitioning from traditional magazines to social media, then to a learning and service platform for physicians, and finally to digital marketing for innovative drugs. By adapting to its own capabilities and changes in the external environment, the company has achieved “major strides every three years,” gradually driving strategic and organizational upgrades. The steady development of “Medical Circle” stems from its vision of “building China’s best physician platform,” its commitment to the mission of “serving healthcare professionals and improving healthcare,” and its adherence to the development principles of “science as the foundation, professionalism as the pillar, and kindness as the guiding light.”

Looking ahead, Chen Qirui, founder of Yixuejie (Medical Circle), stated, “Standing at the golden age of digital marketing for innovative drugs, our journey has just begun. While our peer M3 primarily targets the Japanese market and currently demonstrates outstanding revenue and market capitalization performance, China’s market potential is no less than that of Japan. As the Chinese pharmaceutical market expands driven by patient demand and undergoes a transition from generics to innovation, we believe that China, like Japan and the United States, will see the emergence of several leading specialized healthcare industry service companies. We are confident that ‘Yixuejie’ will become a leader in this space!”

Chen Qirui disclosed that the funds from this round of financing will be used to upgrade the standard of medical information services in China, promote the upgrading of CME standards, create higher-quality clinical decision support tools for physicians, and accelerate the deployment of new business initiatives targeting hospitals and innovative biopharmaceutical companies.

As the era of innovation dawns, the domestic physician platform sector has begun to explode. As a leader in the medical media landscape, Yixuejie (Medical World) has achieved high-quality accumulation in business volume and physician users, leveraging its premium content and leading brand. It also ranks among the top tier in China for digital marketing of innovative drugs.

Mr. Cao Yibo, Managing Director of Sequoia Capital China Fund, stated: “Sequoia China is honored to serve as the exclusive investor in the Series C financing round for Medlinker. We have always maintained strong confidence in China’s healthcare market and have invested in numerous innovative enterprises across areas such as novel therapeutics, medical devices, and diagnostic testing. We look forward to and believe that our investment in Medlinker will create synergies with our existing portfolio.”

Guided by its original mission to “serve physicians and improve healthcare,” and adhering to the guiding principles of “science as the foundation, professionalism as the structure, and kindness as the beacon” for the development of its physician platform, Yixuejie (The Medical Community) is committed to building China’s premier learning and service platform for physicians. To date, Yixuejie operates nearly 30 WeChat subscription and service accounts, boasts over 10 million followers, achieves an average daily readership of 1.5 million, and has gathered more than 2.5 million mainstream physicians. Its mobile app, “Doctor Station,” launched in 2015, has accumulated 2.5 million installations and over 2.3 million registered users. Founded in April 2012, Yixuejie completed its Series A financing in December 2015, led by Daotong Investment and iKang Guobin; it subsequently closed its Series B financing in April 2018, led by Fosun Xingweilai.