Rogrand E-Commerce Files IPO Prospectus: Yao Xiaofei's Unwavering Commitment to Reimagining China's Healthcare Ecosystem

Yao Xiaofei is currently preparing to register a new WeChat account to post content more aligned with her identity as the “CEO of Rongguang E-commerce.” Her current WeChat Moments feed appears overly unfiltered, with personal life reflections and photos accounting for more than half of the posts. Colleagues from the Brand Public Relations Department have advised her on this matter several times, but she believes that authenticity is what she prefers to uphold.Nothing is more powerful than the truth.

Looking back to late 2014, when the Series A financing round was just getting underway, she traveled to Shanghai to meet Ma Mingzhe, Chairman of Ping An Group, in her quest for insurance-related resources. Carrying a bag and armed with a pitch deck that was half in English and half in Chinese, she said, “Mr. Ma, my business model ultimately aims to create a closed-loop insurance ecosystem, so I invite you to participate as a co-investor with an investment of RMB 20 million.” Her straightforward demeanor amused Ma Mingzhe, who replied, “Now that you’ve managed to meet me in person, are you really asking for only RMB 20 million?”

In 2011, Yao Xiaofei, using a BlackBerry phone in London, sensed that the opportunities for China’s informatization and digital economy were about to emerge.After resigning and returning to her home country, she entered the pharmaceutical distribution sector with a mindset of “fearless ignorance.” She aims to restructure the supply chain and address industry pain points such as low efficiency and flawed business models. More importantly, she seeks to innovate a medication service model that truly provides the public with safe, effective, affordable, and accessible high-quality medicines., and can meet the healthcare service needs of populations at various levels.Thus, she founded Rongguang E-commerce the following year.

Over the past eight years, Rongguang E-commerce has secured multiple rounds of financing, growing into a unicorn. During this period, Yao Xiaofei encountered numerous setbacks and thorny challenges, yet she remained steadfast and true to her original aspirations.

This original aspiration has touched many people and accomplished much.

Amidst the original aspiration, miracles are unfolding one after another.

No success comes easily; behind every element of success lies perseverance. Yao Xiaofei’s perseverance stems from her fidelity to the essence of things, to the laws of development, and to herself.

Yao Xiaofei was always the “perfect child” in her childhood.

Her parents, who were among the college students enrolled in 1977, were very strict with her. Although she consistently ranked first in her class, they never praised her. During elementary school, she memorized her entire Chinese language textbook from cover to cover. As an adult, her father often remarked, “Your good memory now is all thanks to the accumulation from those years of reciting texts.”

In sixth grade, Yao Xiaofei once felt compelled to challenge her parents’ authority. She confronted her father, asking, “Why have you never praised me?”

Her father told her, “Xiaofei, it is only right that you rank first; it is absolutely unacceptable for you to rank second.”

“Many years have passed, and looking back on these childhood experiences, Yao Xiaofei feels that her strict family education accustomed her to ‘hearing the truth even when it hurts.’ More importantly, it cultivated in her rigor, independence, and the formation of her own thinking patterns and goals in her studies. ‘In fact, I am someone who makes my parents proud; they just never show it,’ said Yao Xiaofei.”

Yao Xiaofei, born in the 1980s, is at a loss for words when it comes to topics about her hometown.

Due to her parents' job relocations, she would move to a new place every few years,Wherever her parents are transferred, that is her home.。

“Perhaps most people have a hometown, but I find it difficult to define mine. Sometimes I quite envy some of my friends; whenever they walk down certain streets or alleys, or return to their villages during the Chinese New Year, they feel a strong sense of belonging, as if they have returned to their original selves. But I don’t have that. I actually find it somewhat regrettable that I lack any profound sense of nostalgia,” said Yao Xiaofei.

"In this kind of mobility, where one is completely severed from one place and immediately integrated into another, the environmental changes are significant."Yet with each transfer to a new school, Yao Xiaofei quickly stood out, not only ranking first academically once again but also emerging as a leader within her peer group, all while maintaining a strong curiosity about the world around her.. She tends to get to the bottom of many issues, repeatedly pondering the reasons why.

It is precisely this relentless pursuit of the essence of things that has endowed Yao Xiaofei with a resilient mindset. The foundational qualities associated with success—such as independence, decisiveness, and fortitude—are deeply rooted within her, shaping her unwavering determination to press forward.

After graduating from junior high school, Yao Xiaofei followed her parents’ wishes and went to the United Kingdom for her studies. Her childhood experiences and personal traits enabled her to adapt quickly to new environments; even in the UK, thousands of miles away, she adjusted well.

During her high school years in the United Kingdom, she developed an interest in sociology. Explaining social phenomena through the lenses of culture, institutions, politics, religion, and philosophy satisfied her penchant for deep reflection and her thirst for knowledge.

Several of her social survey papers received the highest scores in their grade, and articles such as “Women At Work” and “Marx and Weber’s Theory of Class” were widely circulated throughout the university and highly acclaimed.

After founding Rongguang E-commerce, Yao Xiaofei consistently adhered to a thinking logic that traces essence and underlying patterns from observable phenomena. She has always maintained that “truth emerges from the frontline,” advocating for first understanding what is reasonable before rendering the “unreasonable” reasonable. For instance, prior to launching the “Fijia Pharmacy” project—a service-oriented model featuring “integration of wholesale and retail”—she led her team in conducting extensive field research in third- and fourth-tier cities. One key question they explored was: What is the primary keyword associated with the services that middle-aged and elderly residents in these cities seek when visiting pharmacies?

Before the survey, many people thought of professionalism or price. But after the survey, the first keyword was “care”.

During her time in the UK, Yao Xiaofei pursued her undergraduate and master’s degrees at the University of Warwick and the London School of Economics and Political Science, respectively. During this period, she had not considered starting her own business in the future, nor did she have a clear vision for what lay ahead; her only understanding of the future was as follows:“No matter which field I enter or which platform I join, I will become a leader and drive great innovation.”

As graduation approached, many of her classmates joined the Big Four accounting firms and investment banks. However, Yao Xiaofei felt that “those purely number-driven, profit-oriented roles did not give me a strong sense of accomplishment or interest,” so she chose to work at Procter & Gamble’s UK headquarters.

At this renowned Fortune 500 company, as a senior finance executive,Yao Xiaofei has consecutively received a Rating 1 and ranked among the top 5% across Europe, with projects she led repeatedly honored with P&G Europe’s and Global Outstanding Project Awards.

(The photo shows Yao Xiaofei at a forum)

During her many years at Procter & Gamble (P&G), the company also bestowed upon her numerous benefits. Beyond accelerated, unconventional job rotations and promotions, she gained a global perspective, a deep understanding of leadership, as well as strategic insights into brand management, product development, and supply chain operations—all of which have greatly benefited Yao Xiaofei.

Throughout the subsequent entrepreneurial journey of Rongguang E-commerce, insights into the essence of the industry and a philosophy that respects the uniqueness and complexity of the sector have permeated its strategy as well as the operational and decision-making processes of all its projects.

“Why are we doing this now? I have a natural understanding of the industrial internet, respecting its complexity and possessing a deep comprehension of the industry itself and its development patterns. You cannot simply apply the model of one industry to another, because every industry, especially traditional sectors, is far deeper than most people realize. Whether in building brand trust, marketing, or channel influence, it shares similarities with, yet differs significantly from, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). On paper, mapping out the supply chain may seem straightforward. However, in actual practice, pharmaceuticals and FMCG are vastly different. For any industry, true innovation can only be achieved through thorough deconstruction and reconstruction based on deep understanding and insights. Looking toward the future, even nouns will become verbs.”Product as a Service, not just efficiency, but effectiveness.”

If the relentless pursuit of the essence of things forged her resilient heart on the path to success, then her “original aspiration” earned Yao Xiaofei the support of many influential mentors along her arduous entrepreneurial journey. As the saying goes, “An individual can go fast, but a group can go far.” Within the complex pharmaceutical supply chain, and in a sector where even leading internet companies must continuously experiment with trial and error and pivot their business models, she has consistently upheld the most authentic understanding of and dedication to the industry that defined her early startup days, thereby rallying the most influential figures in the field.

Yao Xiaofei felt deeply aggrieved. On many occasions, she repeatedly explained, “We have never considered ourselves a pharmaceutical B2B platform; rather, we are more focused on reshaping the supply chain and driving industrial upgrading.”

Such external misconceptions have a certain basis, as Rongguang’s “My Medicine Network” is one of the earliest third-party B2B platforms in the industry, has consistently led innovation in this field, and remains the only platform with transaction volumes exceeding RMB 100 billion.

In the summer of 2011, Yao Xiaofei returned to China with great curiosity. Having been away for more than a decade, she sought to apply her expertise to bring about change in society within a specific field.

After conducting a series of interviews and investigations, the pharmaceutical sector came into her focus. The industry suffers from low efficiency, fundamental flaws in its business model, an excessively long value chain, and an overly complex stakeholder landscape. “The industry is too backward,” she heard many people lament.

The backwardness of an industry signifies commercial potential. Yao Xiaofei wondered whether technology could be leveraged to upgrade the industry’s business model and efficiency—starting from the supply chain, then extending to the consumer end and payment systems.

“Absolutely not. This industry is too complex; it’s treacherous waters to navigate.” Many industry veterans advised her against it, some of whom were even policymakers in the sector.

Yao Xiaofei thought, “This industry is too important; someone will surely come along to change it. Why can’t that person be me?”

In 2012, Rongguang E-commerce was established, launching its first brand, “My Medicine Network,” positioned as a third-party integrated service platform for the entire pharmaceutical industry chain.

In the early stages of the project, “My Medicine Network” conducted pilot programs in Beijing and Hubei. The team found that there was still strong demand for online procurement of certain retail pharmaceuticals from industry pharmacies and clinics.However, from the perspective of its profit model, what Rongguang aimed to do during this period was to build the infrastructure for industry circulation., although its GMV reached tens of billions of yuan just a few years after its founding, Rongguang has steadfastly maintained a “zero-fee” policy. While many competitors have begun to extract profits at every opportunity, Rongguang has remained true to its original mission.

(The image shows the interior of Rongguang E-commerce)

However, at this point, burdened by the company’s substantial expenditures, founder Yao Xiaofei had no choice but to seek external investors, setting out with her bag in hand to raise capital.

In 2014, Yao Xiaofei met with several investment firms in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. The feedback she received from different investors varied significantly. Overall, investors still evaluated innovations in the pharmaceutical industry’s development model through the lens of consumer internet thinking and traffic-driven strategies.

However, the feedback from one prominent investment firm was markedly different; a partner at the fund gave her a highly positive assessment. First, although Yao Xiaofei’s prior background appeared to have little relevance to pharmaceuticals, there are in fact significant similarities between pharmaceutical and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) supply chains, giving her a substantial advantage. Second, the partner believed that Rongguang’s future business model would reach end consumers (C-end). As a former Procter & Gamble executive who studied consumer psychology daily, she has “an innate intuition for the C-end market.”

For this fund, the project was a promising one; however, since Alibaba Health had already begun undertaking similar initiatives as Rongguang, it decided to forgo investing in Rongguang.

Institutions such as Trustbridge Partners, Ping An Group, Fosun, and Huagai Capital were drawn to Yao Xiaofei’s original vision and Rongguang’s rapid growth momentum over the years. Trustbridge Partners quickly issued a Term Sheet (TS) to Rongguang, followed by multiple rounds of additional investments from Ping An Venture Capital and Fosun.

In 2017, Ping An Capital and Huagai Capital led the C1 round of financing for Rongguang, raising hundreds of millions of yuan.Recalling her meeting with Ma Mingzhe, Chairman of Ping An Group, Yao Xiaofei couldn’t help but laugh at her own naivety at the time. She was straightforward from the start, saying, “I’m just looking for an insurance-savvy co-investor, and I only need RMB 20 million.”

“How can Heaven and Earth endure? Because they do not exist for themselves, but for all things between them; thus, Heaven and Earth can coexist eternally. ‘Because it does not live for itself, it can live forever.’” This has always been Yao Xiaofei’s strategic commitment and most authentic core value.

“Change is inevitable, applying not only to things but also to processes. These forces are not fate, but trajectories—inevitable and natural. One must seek certainty amidst uncertainty and leverage uncertainty to create opportunities.” Throughout the interview, I was profoundly struck by her underlying logic and deep thinking.

At first glance, these may seem unrelated to entrepreneurship, but they embody a steadfast commitment to one’s original aspirations, an relentless pursuit of the essence of things, a genuine adherence to one’s inner convictions, and a profound understanding of the developmental logic of the industrial internet.

In late November 2019, I met Yao Xiaofei for the first time at the headquarters of Rongguang E-commerce, located in the Oriental Media Center in Beijing. In the hallway of the office area, she held a pen and notebook in her arms, apologizing repeatedly as she walked—at least six times—because she had been in consecutive meetings for several hours, causing the interview to start a few minutes later than scheduled.

On the culture wall in the office area, a timeline records Rongguang’s entrepreneurial achievements since 2012.Over the past eight years, Rongguang E-Commerce has established two core business systems: "My Medicine Network" and "Feijia Cloud – SaaS Cloud Pharmacy System." By the end of 2018, the platform’s transaction volume had exceeded RMB 100 billion, facilitating the “Internet Plus” strategic upgrade for more than 100 pharmaceutical manufacturers, over 2,600 pharmaceutical distributors, and more than 270,000 terminal pharmacies, clinics, and medical institutions.

(The image shows the culture wall in the office area of Rongguang E-commerce)

In terms of financing, Rongguang E-commerce has secured Series A, B, and C1 funding from top-tier investment institutions such as Ping An Ventures, Fosun Capital, Huagai Capital, and ZhenFund, growing into one of the highly valued leading enterprises in the vertical sector of pharmaceutical e-commerce.

However, these data are not the most significant highlights of Rongguang.Rongguang’s greatest highlight lies in staying true to its original mission: starting from the supply chain, gradually expanding to the consumer and payment ends, achieving a closed-loop business model, and ultimately realizing the restructuring and upgrading of the broader health industry.. However, from the perspective of some USD-denominated funds, this model was too complex. They told Yao Xiaofei, “Just tell us which company you are benchmarking against, what metrics you can achieve and by when, and we will give you $100 million to go ahead and execute.”

Yao Xiaofei would feel helpless upon hearing such remarks and would earnestly tell the other party, “You must respect the industry itself and have a genuine understanding of it.” Each time such incidents occurred, her colleagues and friends would advise her, “Xiaofei, don’t try to educate investors; it’s not worth it, nor is it necessary.”

As the founder, Yao Xiaofei holds a macro-level perspective on the restructuring of the industry: “When the time for transformation arrives, the industry will inevitably undergo significant changes. Amidst these transformations, circumstances will surely give rise to heroes, particularly in the field of general health. There will be companies and individual leaders who drive innovation—whether it is Company A, B, or C. Regardless of which entity takes the lead, industrial restructuring is bound to happen, but I firmly believe that we will be the ones to lead it.”

Regarding the development trends of the industry over the next five years, Yao Xiaofei shared her three key judgments:First, the pharmaceutical distribution supply chain will be restructured. Driven by payment innovations, demand-side and supply-side stakeholders will achieve more efficient and personalized matching, deliver an optimized experience, and meet the needs of multi-tiered medical service coverage.

Second, the future health and wellness industry will become increasingly internationalized. She cited the inclusion of an Indian generic drug tender in the “4+7” procurement list this September as a landmark event signifying the industry’s internationalization.

Third, public attention toward this industry is poised to grow exponentially in the future, with more talent, capital, and market participants entering the sector with greater momentum.

To her future self five years from now, Yao Xiaofei’s message is:

"Stay true to the original aspiration, remain optimistic and unyielding."