YiKuai Medicine Secures Tens of Millions in USD Series B Funding to Empower County-Level Pharmacies Through Supply Chain and Operational Enablement

VCBeat has learned that Hunan Wholesale Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd. (“Yikuai Medicine”) recently announced the completion of its Series B financing, amounting to tens of millions of US dollars. The round was led by Qianji Capital, with participation from Duxiu Capital and existing shareholder Xinyuan Capital. The funds will be used to further strengthen the company’s supply chain advantages, expand market reach, and increase investment in research and development.

Founded in 2017, Hunan Wholesale Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd. focuses on providing an integrated suite of services—encompassing end-to-end supply chain solutions, operational empowerment, and technical support—to small and medium-sized regional pharmacy chains. Leveraging its robust supply chain advantages, the company secures premium pharmaceutical procurement resources and complements them with a comprehensive store operations system. This approach addresses the core needs of small and medium-sized pharmacy chains in terms of product assortment and operational efficiency, empowering pharmacies with integrated operational capabilities to enhance customer acquisition and service delivery at the terminal level. Currently, Hunan Wholesale Pharmaceutical has extended its coverage to nearly 20,000 pharmacies across 22 provinces and municipalities in China.

Upon the completion of this round of financing, Wholesale Pharmaceutical stated to VCBeat: “We believe that the true barrier in the B2B industry lies in the product itself; only products and services that can solve customers’ real problems will gain genuine recognition. The core users of Wholesale Pharmaceutical are small and medium-sized pharmacy chains. We are able to rapidly collect, distill, and filter out customers’ authentic needs and truly meet them. From this perspective, Wholesale Pharmaceutical’s future growth speed, business closed-loop, and business lines will better align with capital expectations, and there are even more possibilities ahead for Wholesale Pharmaceutical.”

Previously, Hunan Wholesale Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd. completed an angel round led by Dexun Capital, with participation from Meihua Ventures, Jiuhe Ventures, and Dade Hongyi; an Angel+ round led by Xinyuan Capital; and a Series A round led by Sequoia Capital.

Data shows that small and medium-sized chain pharmacies and independent pharmacies in China’s third-tier cities, urban-rural fringe areas, rural regions, and towns account for 80% of the national total. The growth rate of small and medium-sized county-level chain pharmacies exceeds the overall growth rate of pharmacies nationwide. Driven by consumption upgrades in county-level areas and national policies strengthening primary healthcare, the county-level retail market is experiencing rapid growth, with county-level pharmacies emerging as a new growth engine for the industry.

Data Source: Sinohealth CMH

Meanwhile, the promising county-level market has attracted many large chain pharmacies to accelerate their expansion, intensifying competition for small and medium-sized regional chain pharmacies.

Currently, the survival status of small and medium-sized pharmacies in county-level markets is far from optimistic. Externally, small and medium-sized regional chain pharmacies are facing multiple pressures, including the formation of customers’ online shopping habits, declining foot traffic in physical stores, changes in the profit structure and sources at the retail end, and an increasingly competitive retail landscape. Internally, factors such as small scale, lack of differentiated supply chain resources, severe product homogenization, weak professional capabilities of staff, and singular operational methods are all constraining the growth potential of small and medium-sized regional chain pharmacies.

Therefore, small and medium-sized chain pharmacies in districts and counties urgently need to expand their scale to establish regional barriers, transition from extensive to refined management and operations, and build service differentiation with a consumer-centric approach to achieve sustainable development.

To address the challenges faced by small and medium-sized regional chain pharmacies, Hunan Wholesale Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd. has developed an integrated service model encompassing supply chain management, operational empowerment, and technical support. This comprehensive approach addresses customer needs across the entire spectrum—from supply chain to operations to new retail—helping clients maintain a competitive edge in their respective regions.

In terms of supply chain, Yikuai Pharmaceutical has moved away from the single-product promotion model for market entry. Instead, it uses disease types as an entry point, reverse-engineering a catalog of 411 core products from 129 disease categories to build its own brand. This approach enables the provision of high-quality, cost-effective medications, working alongside clients to better serve patients.

In terms of operational empowerment, Hunan Wholesale Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd. closely aligns with the operational needs of small and medium-sized chain pharmacies in districts and counties. By leveraging the operational management capabilities and organizational team-building systems of listed pharmacy chains, it has launched a comprehensive set of pharmacy operational mentoring courses. These courses cover store operation mentoring, joint drug sales promotions, and professional knowledge training, helping pharmacies enhance their refined management capabilities, effectively reduce operational costs, and increase sales revenue and gross profit margins.

In terms of technical support, Yikuai Pharmaceutical transforms the technological tools for pharmacy procurement, sales, and new retail operations. Leveraging big data technology, Yikuai Pharmaceutical has collected industry data and operational data from partner enterprises to develop a holographic data middle platform. This platform enables intelligent diagnostic analysis of product data. Through six major modules and 22 sub-projects, it conducts comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the product structure of chain pharmacies, outputs optimization plans, and achieves objectives such as performance improvement, gross margin enhancement, inventory optimization, increased sell-through rates, and improved capital liquidity.

Leveraging its integrated service model encompassing supply chain management, operational empowerment, and technical support, Yikuai Pharmaceutical has extended its coverage to nearly 20,000 small and medium-sized chain pharmacies in counties and districts. Moving forward, Yikuai Pharmaceutical will continue to focus on strengthening its product system architecture. While meeting customer demands, the company aims to help clients reduce inventory levels, accelerate product development, and establish a closed-loop service ecosystem. Additionally, it will further enhance team building and refine its talent management framework to solidify Yikuai Pharmaceutical’s competitive advantage.