Ronglian Kangrui Secures RMB 15 Million Pre-A Financing to Advance Smart Solutions for Research-Oriented Hospitals

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that on December 18, 2019, Ronglian Kangrui (Beijing) Medical Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Ronglian Kangrui”), a company dedicated to leveraging technology to support the development of research-oriented hospitals, announced the completion of its Pre-A financing round of RMB 15 million. It is reported that the investor in this round was Cheetah Mobile, and the funds will be primarily used to advance product research and development and market expansion for intelligent technologies in the construction of research-oriented hospitals, further consolidating its leading advantage.

In recent years, medical quality, operational efficiency, sustainable development and innovation, and satisfaction evaluation have become key dimensions in the performance assessment of tertiary public hospitals. Ms. Che Hui, Founder, Chairwoman, and General Manager of Ronglian Kangrui, believes that establishing research-oriented hospitals will be an effective pathway for the sustainable development of hospitals in the future, as well as an important benchmark for measuring their level of development.

It is well known that top hospitals worldwide possess the characteristics of research-oriented institutions. However, due to a long-standing emphasis on clinical application and practice, hospitals in China have relatively weak scientific research capabilities. Building research-oriented hospitals, allowing clinical needs to drive innovative research, taking innovative research as a core mission, addressing complex and refractory diseases as a fundamental task, and prioritizing the development of precision medicine will undoubtedly become a significant trend in modern hospital management.

Ms. Che Hui pointed out that personalized precision diagnosis and treatment are indispensable factors in the development of research-oriented hospitals, “which necessitates that major hospitals gradually strengthen their capabilities in molecular pathology, biomarkers, targeted therapy, precise risk assessment, early prediction and warning, and precision clinical decision-making.”

Ronglian Kangrui has innovatively adopted precision medicine as its strategic entry point, delivering medical software platform services to hospitals from the perspective of molecular pathology. Molecular-level pathological diagnosis is an essential step in the development of personalized treatment plans. Currently, it is primarily achieved by leveraging multi-omics data—including genomic and proteomic information—collected through technologies such as high-throughput sequencing, gene chips, fluorescence detection, PCR, and mass spectrometry.

For a long time, the construction of hospital information systems in China has mainly focused on process management and clinical practice, while the informatization of omics data remains at a very early stage. In China, most hospitals do not have dedicated personnel engaged in basic scientific research and bioinformatics analysis; consequently, corresponding professional tasks can only be completed by outsourcing services through bidding processes. “This is the objective background behind the mushrooming emergence of numerous gene sequencing companies in China,” Ms. Che Hui told VCBeat. Under this model, patients undergo sequencing at gene sequencing companies and then submit their gene sequencing reports to hospitals as auxiliary references for subsequent diagnosis and treatment.

“Due to technical limitations, corresponding omics data cannot be synchronized within hospital systems, resulting in a significant loss of clinical and research value caused by the fragmentation between omics and clinical data,” pointed out Ms. Che Hui, Founder of Ronglian Kangrui. By leveraging Ronglian Kangrui’s solutions, true integration of patients’ omics data with clinical data can be achieved within hospitals.

Omics data feedback will be integrated with patient phenotypes for comprehensive analysis, while the primary responsibility for diagnosis remains with the hospital. This allows both physicians and professionals from genetic sequencing companies to focus on their respective areas of expertise. Ms. Che Hui stated that, with the support of Ronglian Kangrui, physicians will in the future be able to conduct real-world data (RWD) studies based on large cohorts of samples linked to complete clinical and omics data, thereby facilitating the translation of hospital research achievements and enhancing the innovative value of hospitals.

Ronglian Kangrui was wholly established in October 2017 by Beijing Rongzhi Lian Technology Co., Ltd. [002642], a company listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The company’s senior executives and core team have deep roots in the healthcare and technology sectors, with backgrounds spanning Fortune 500 companies such as Accenture and GE (General Electric), as well as leading domestic biomedical and internet healthcare enterprises. They bring leading industry perspectives, along with robust expertise in management consulting, operational performance, and product research and development.

Leveraging Rongzhi Lian’s technical capabilities in bioinformatics analysis, big data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), and IT integration, Ronglian Kangrui has built a smart healthcare big data platform. This platform helps medical institutions, medical research organizations, and regional centers establish sample-centric clinical and omics precision data platforms, enabling end-to-end management of molecular pathology workflows. It has also initially established applications based on technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence, thereby enhancing informational support capabilities for clinical research centers at research-oriented hospitals, precision medicine centers, biobanks, and the full-lifecycle management of research subjects.

Ms. Che Hui explained that the software platform provided by Ronglian Kangrui is part of hospital informationization initiatives, yet it differs from traditional medical software, reflecting the trend of hospitals evolving from basic informationization to digitalization and then to intelligence. It empowers scientific research and further serves clinical practice, using professional software as a bridge to enable hospitals to transform data into value.

Currently, Ronglian Kangrui’s collaborative clients include large Grade-A tertiary hospitals such as Shanghai Ruijin Hospital–National Center for Translational Medicine, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Shanghai Xinhua Hospital, and Yichang No. 1 People’s Hospital, as well as major enterprises involved in healthcare, such as Sunac China.

Regarding this round of financing, Ms. Che Hui stated that with the successful completion of the funding, Ronglian Kangrui will continue to deepen and accelerate its product layout in the construction and innovation of research-oriented hospitals. While gradually improving existing products and solutions, the company will provide efficient and high-quality technical support for clinical scientific research, promoting the development of clinical research centers, precision medicine centers, biobanks, and comprehensive management of research subjects in research-oriented hospitals, thereby empowering hospitals’ technological innovation, achievement transformation, and sustainable development. Meanwhile, by integrating the OrionStar AI technology from Cheetah Mobile, an investor in this round, the company will further enhance intelligent applications of its products in scenarios such as smart follow-up and smart health education.

Cheetah Mobile (NYSE: CMCM), founded in November 2010 by Fu Sheng, is committed to “making life better through technology in a world where humans and machines coexist.”

On May 8, 2014, it was officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Building on its existing business strengths, Cheetah Mobile is strategically upgrading from the mobile internet to an AI-driven industrial internet, and has established vertically integrated AI capabilities, including self-developed chip computing power, algorithmic capabilities, system capabilities, application capabilities, and a “Business Brain.”

Its algorithmic capabilities encompass full-stack speech technology (mouth), microphone arrays (ears), comprehensive visual perception and recognition (eyes), indoor navigation platforms (legs), and 6-axis robotic arms (hands). In collaboration with its subsidiary OrionStar, it has developed three open systems: OrionStar Voice OS, OrionStar Robot OS, and OrionStar Arm OS. This has enabled the creation of intelligent service robot solutions based on intelligent voice service robots, intelligent delivery service robots, and intelligent labor service robots. Additionally, its AI-empowered solutions cover speech, chips, computer vision, intelligent self-service devices, and indoor autonomous navigation. Leveraging its two core business segments—“Intelligent Service Robots” and “AI Empowerment”—Cheetah Mobile is embracing the intelligent upgrade of services and products in the AI and 5G era. By empowering industries with AI, the company strives to achieve discontinuous growth and evolve into a globally leading AI-focused internet company.