YaoYanShe Secures RMB 300 Million Series C Funding to Drive a Tech- and Data-Powered Drug Development Model

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that innovative CRO platform Drug Research Society recently announced the completion of a new round of Series C financing amounting to RMB 300 million. This round was co-led by Zhongding Capital and Sequoia China, with continued participation from Matrix Partners China, Yuanjing Capital, and Yuansheng Capital. Huaxing Alpha served as the exclusive financial advisor for this financing round.

Yao Yan She has been in operation for over three years, completing five rounds of financing and attracting significant investor interest. In December 2015, it closed its angel round. In November 2017, it secured Pre-A round funding from Yuanjing Capital. In May 2018, Yao Yan She completed its Series A financing, led by Matrix Partners China with participation from Yuanjing Capital. In the same year, the company raised its Series B round, led by Yuansheng Capital, with continued participation from Matrix Partners China and Yuanjing Capital.

Following this Series C financing round, Yaoyanshe will prioritize three key areas for resource allocation: building a platform-based supply chain system, developing technology-driven products powered by “technology + data,” and enhancing customer value and experience. Committed to continuously uncovering the needs of the clinical research industry, Yaoyanshe aims to create more high-quality service models by integrating talent flows, technology flows, and data flows. By addressing deeper and more numerous industry pain points and leveraging “speed” as its core service advantage, the company strives to provide high-value drug development services to pharmaceutical enterprises.

In the field of drug development, a significant challenge lies in executing R&D over long cycles with multi-stakeholder involvement. Addressing the three most critical elements—consistent quality, high efficiency, and low cost—is paramount.

Since its inception, Yaoyanshe has consistently focused on technology integration within drug R&D scenarios to enhance research efficiency and control costs. By providing key technological products and tools across various stages of the development process, it has successively launched the Yaoyanshe APP, Xunyao APP, and official WeChat accounts such as “Yaoyanfa” and “Linyanquan,” accumulating a large user base and covering more than 95% of industry practitioners.

Among them, the Yaoyanshe APP is positioned as a comprehensive toolkit for professionals in the clinical research industry, providing CRCs and CRAs with commonly used tools such as the Chinese-English reference for CTCAE 5.0, drug name explanations, and subject visit reminders, along with services for querying research center information and facilitating industry information exchange.

The Xunyao APP leverages the platform advantages of high-traffic internet portals such as Alipay to facilitate faster participant enrollment in clinical trials.

By reconstructing the industry’s labor utilization model and leveraging the product advantages derived from the integration of data and informatization management, Yaoyanshe engages industry practitioners in providing clinical research services for pharmaceutical companies, thereby delivering innovative and efficient solutions for drug development during the clinical research phase.

In April this year, Yaoyanshe officially launched Trial.Link, a clinical research entry platform that connects five key stakeholders: sponsors, hospitals/institutions, investigators, patients, and practitioners. Positioned as a bridge for efficient industry communication, the platform facilitates seamless information exchange across the sector. To date, it has onboarded more than 180 hospitals and institutions and integrated over 300 pharmaceutical companies and sponsors, effectively streamlining people, data, standards, and processes to provide pharmaceutical enterprises with a service model that optimally balances quality, cost, and efficiency.

Through its innovative platform-based model, Yaoyanshe has accumulated extensive project experience to date, serving over 800 research-oriented hospitals. Its largest single study encompassed more than 300 hospitals. Substantial project outcomes demonstrate that the “Yaoyanshe Model” shortens R&D cycles by 20% and reduces R&D costs by 15% for pharmaceutical companies, offering particular advantages in large-scale, multi-center trials.

Sun Meilin, founder of Yaoyanshe, stated: “Stability in quality and levels of efficiency cannot rely solely on the managerial capabilities of any individual within a given role. Instead, unified standards should be established across all stages, consistent processes developed, and excellent project talent structures precisely matched. By adopting a development mindset grounded in business scenarios for technology positioning, and leveraging network effects combined with data-driven business principles, we can comprehensively reconstruct and build the supply chain for drug R&D services.”

Regarding the advantages of Yaoyanshe, Sun Meilin summarized: “Over the past three years, the platform has accumulated high-quality user traffic. Leveraging the core network effects of its existing talent and data flows, the company will engage through technological products to restructure drug R&D services into standardized and streamlined processes, thereby providing pharmaceutical companies with innovative and efficient drug R&D supply chain services.”

Regarding the future development of Yaoyanshe following its financing round, Zhu Yingchun, Partner at Zhongding Capital, stated: “Just as in the commodity trading sector, where Zhongding believes that new technologies are driving the integration of B2B commodity supply chains and serving as a new weapon for cultivating channel giants, we are equally convinced that in the service sector, new technologies can drive the standardization, systematization, and intelligentization of B2B services. This enables services to be defined, operated, and driven by data-based decision-making, much like product SKUs, thereby breaking through management ceilings and fostering giants in the ‘service supply chain.’ By empowering frontline clinical trial execution personnel with tools, and gaining deep insights into business scenarios through long-term collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies, Yaoyanshe has refined operational best practices. Ultimately, it empowers the industry through its Trial.Link platform, promising a bright future. Furthermore, the management team, represented by Mr. Sun, combines profound industry understanding with an open mindset toward new technologies. We look forward to continuing to accompany Yaoyanshe on its journey of exploration and growth.”

Zhai Jia, Managing Director at Sequoia China, stated that the triple dividends of advancements in medical innovation technologies, a surge in investment, and healthcare system reforms will drive a new round of rapid growth in the CRO industry. Meanwhile, Yaoyanshe’s flexible workforce organization, empowered by technology and data, will enable faster service cycles, provide enhanced oversight, reduce development costs, and expand the availability of trial sites. This approach is expected to integrate various stakeholders across the industry chain and promote sector-wide upgrading.