EasySCULPT Secures Tens of Millions in Series A Funding, Pioneering Vertical Specialization in Aesthetic Medicine

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that in September 2019, Chengdu Zhisu Medical Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Yizhi”) completed a Series A financing round worth tens of millions of yuan, led by Changling Capital and participated by existing shareholder So-Young. It is understood that in September 2018, Yizhi, which had been established for only six months, secured millions of yuan in angel-round investment from So-Young.

“Yi Zhi,” meaning “Happy Fat,” is a company centered on fat management, dedicated to providing high-quality medical services while creating a relaxed and enjoyable customer experience. Currently, Yi Zhi’s primary business focuses on body and facial contouring, with plans to expand into fat-related anti-aging treatments in the future, further deepening its expertise and product offerings in the field of fat management.

Yizhi was established in March 2018. In October 2018, its first specialized medical aesthetics clinic focusing on fat management officially opened in Wuhou District, Chengdu, rapidly refining its business model. Data shows that the clinic achieved profitability within three months of opening and reached full customer capacity within six months. This month (on December 21), Yizhi’s first flagship store is set to open in Chengdu High-Tech Zone. Spanning 5,000 square meters, it will be the largest facility of its kind in Asia dedicated to fat management.

Xu Meibang, Founder and CEO of Yizhi, stated that this round of financing will primarily be used to support the launch of the Chengdu flagship store, team expansion, and brand building.

Xu Meibang stated that Changling Capital has deeply cultivated the healthcare and wellness sector and shares Yizhi’s philosophy, making it a trustworthy and reliable partner. Meanwhile, So-Young, as an existing shareholder of Yizhi, expressed its confidence in the company by participating in this follow-on investment.

“Currently, physicians in the medical aesthetics industry place greater emphasis on facial plastic surgery procedures that are either more technically challenging or easier to perform, thereby neglecting consumers’ demands for body contouring and refinement.” According to 2017 statistics, China has the largest obese population globally, with approximately 200 million overweight individuals and over 90 million classified as obese. Body management has thus become an indispensable aspect of aesthetic enhancement.

In this context, Yizhi has chosen to focus on the fat-related niche within aesthetic surgery, establishing itself as a vertical brand in the fat category with three core services: liposuction, fat grafting, and anti-aging treatments. It is reported that Yizhi’s core medical team primarily consists of experts from Ba Da Chu (Plastic Surgery Hospital) and international physicians. By leveraging its proprietary minimally invasive fat surgery techniques and protocols, the company significantly reduces operative time, recovery periods, and patient pain.

Yi Zhi aims to provide a “minimally invasive, painless, and faster-recovery” experience, striving to offer customers a relaxed and enjoyable body contouring journey. Xu Meibang told reporters, “Traditional facilities typically require a 2–3 day hospital stay after liposuction or fat grafting, whereas patients at Yi Zhi can be discharged on the same day as the procedure. While traditional approaches often result in significant swelling and bruising, necessitating three months of compression garment wear, Yi Zhi patients only need to wear elastic compression garments for 2–4 weeks post-operatively.”

“The medical aesthetics market has currently entered a period of restructuring. In major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu, competition is already extremely fierce; conservatively estimated, each city has more than 300 medical aesthetics institutions. Homogenized competition among these institutions is severe, with almost no technological differentiation, and marketing competition has devolved into price wars. As consumers become increasingly rational and the market environment becomes more standardized and mature, institutions that cling to traditional mindsets and fail to rapidly adapt to change will face elimination. We have chosen a vertical sector that has been overlooked by the industry yet holds immense potential, and we have deeply cultivated medical technological innovation within this field, clearly defining our corporate positioning from the outset. Our ‘focus + deep cultivation’ strategy also enables us to provide superior medical services,” said Xu Meibang.

Changling Capital, established in 2016, is a new generation of theme-driven venture capital fund. It is committed to investing in technology-driven business model innovations across five core investment areas: "New Healthcare Services," "New Medical Technologies," "New Healthcare Infrastructure," "General Health Consumer Goods," and "Aging Population Consumer Goods." Changling Capital has offices in Shanghai and Beijing, currently managing over RMB 3.5 billion in assets. Its investors include endowments from renowned U.S. universities and hospitals, foundations, pension funds, top-tier fund-of-funds, and other leading global institutional investors.

Jiang Xiaodong, Managing Partner at Changling Capital, told VCBeat that China is currently the world’s second-largest cosmetic surgery market and leads globally in growth rate. Recently, Changling Capital has observed rapid growth in demand for body contouring procedures and non-invasive/minimally invasive fat-reduction treatments. Emerging consumer segments and evolving consumption habits are also driving transformation within the industry. Consequently, Changling Capital is highly optimistic about the development of the body contouring sector and the maturation of consumer demand. Jiang Xiaodong further stated that this area is one of the key focuses for Changling Capital in the consumer healthcare sector.

Jiang Xiaodong stated, “After engaging in-depth with the Yizhi team, we place significant value on three prominent advantages of Yizhi. First, its innovations in services and products have substantially enhanced patient experience and service efficiency, far surpassing those of industry competitors. Second, it possesses exceptional operational capabilities, with key performance indicators such as revenue per square meter, customer acquisition cost, and payback period ranking among the best in the industry. Third, it boasts an excellent and seasoned management team, with an average of over ten years of extensive experience in the medical aesthetics industry’s supply chain, product technology, and operations. Based on these three factors and a comprehensive assessment of the industry, we are confident in Yizhi’s growth prospects and have decided to participate as the lead investor in its Series A financing round.”

It is understood that Yizhi’s future development will not be limited to medical services but will also extend into technology and consumer products. Therefore, in addition to providing financial support, Changling will assist Yizhi in integrating resources across these sectors.

SoYoung was founded in 2013, committed to providing safe, professional, and compassionate services to consumers of medical aesthetics. By the end of 2018, SoYoung had become China’s largest online platform for searching, selecting, and booking medical aesthetic services, with its business covering more than 300 cities across China. The platform attracts nearly 6,000 certified medical aesthetic and consumer healthcare institutions—including hospitals, outpatient departments, and clinics—for users to choose from. With over 2 million “Beauty Diaries” on the SoYoung platform, it provides authentic and effective information to support decision-making. On May 2, 2019, SoYoung officially listed on the NASDAQ, becoming the first publicly traded company in the internet-based medical aesthetics sector.

Luo Fang, Investment Director at So-Young, told VCBeat that So-Young has an independent investment arm that targets distinctive companies with high growth potential across the upstream and downstream segments of the industry chain. These investments are primarily aimed at fostering the rapid growth of outstanding enterprises, elevating the overall standard of the industry, and accelerating supply-side structural reforms within the sector.

Luo Fang stated that this investment primarily focused on four aspects of Yizhi: first, Yizhi’s core team possesses a strong medical background; second, Yizhi’s minimally invasive liposuction procedures exhibit distinct technical features and advantages; third, Yizhi’s management team has extensive experience in the standardized and regulated management of medical aesthetic institutions; and fourth, its specialized fat-related services demonstrate significant potential for rapid growth and scalability.

It is understood that, as a platform-based enterprise, So-Young provides its portfolio companies with funding and certain resource discounts but does not participate in their management or enjoy any additional privileges. This ensures that all enterprises on the platform are treated equally and compete fairly.