Zhanlue Data Secures Nearly RMB 100 Million Series B Funding to Advance AI-Powered Health Insurance Risk Control Solutions
VCBeat (WeChat ID:VCBeat learned that Shanghai Zhanlue Data Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Zhanlue Data”), an insurtech company, recently announced the completion of its Series B financing round, raising nearly RMB 100 million. This round of financing was led byLinfeng CapitalLed by [Lead Investor], with follow-on investments from investors including PPDAI, and Shanjing Capital serving as the exclusive financial advisor.
Zhanlue Data is a technology company specializing in risk control for health insurance. Serving insurance payers, it provides enterprise-level big data risk control solutions to partners such as commercial insurance companies and insurance intermediaries. The founding team members come from leading tech companies in Silicon Valley, and the core team comprises technology experts, insurance business specialists, and medical professionals.
Since its establishment three years ago, Zhanlue Data has collaborated with multiple insurance companies on risk control services, including China Life Insurance, PICC, China Taiping, CPIC, China United Insurance, China Continent Insurance, and Hannover Re. Currently, Zhanlue Data’s products and services have gained widespread recognition within the industry.
Liu Gejie, founder of Zhanlue Data, stated, “Following this round of financing, Zhanlue Data will accelerate its business expansion and strategic layout across China, further deepen collaboration with upstream and downstream partners in the insurance industry, and solidify its leading position in health insurance risk control.”
In recent years, regulatory authorities have successively issued multiple guidelines and policies for the insurance industry, marking a gradual shift from “promoting growth” to “strict regulation.” In this process, many insurance companies have faced solvency pressure due to transformation challenges. Meanwhile, to prevent and mitigate insurance fraud risks, since the issuance of the Guidelines on Anti-Insurance Fraud by the insurance regulatory authorities in 2018, regulators have been progressively establishing norms for fraud risk management and technical standards for anti-fraud measures in the insurance industry. Currently, it is a critical period testing insurers’ capital strength and operational capabilities, with risk control capability becoming one of the key indicators of core competitiveness for insurance companies.
Driven by this demand, Zhanlue Data has launched its flagship product: a big data-driven risk control solution for health insurance, enabling payers to achieve efficient and precise intelligent risk management.
Unlike other risk control service providers in the broader financial sector, Zhanlue Data positions itself within a vertical niche, deeply cultivating the health insurance domain and leveraging digital technologies and artificial intelligence to serve insurance payers. Its proprietary “Digital Health Insurance Risk Control Closed-Loop” model effectively facilitates data integration between policy-based medical insurance and commercial health insurance, streamlining operational processes such as product design, underwriting, claims adjudication, and customer service. This enables joint dynamic risk control throughout the entire product lifecycle, providing digital empowerment for product design, rational pricing, and refined operations.
Liu Gejie explained that the decision to focus deeply on the health insurance sector was driven by the recognition of the immense potential for big data to empower this industry. He noted, “When we first entered this industry, the application of data within the insurance sector was still at a relatively rudimentary stage. With the growth of the health insurance market and policy-driven incentives, the demand for big data applications in health insurance has gradually become more prominent. Data support is now indispensable across all aspects, from product design and risk management to refined operations.”
“To directly address the pain points in health insurance risk control, both technology and industry insights are indispensable.” Liu Gejie, founder of Zhanlue Data, particularly emphasized, “Health insurance risk control has its profound industry barriers.
First, the healthcare industry faces challenges such as information silos, low levels of standardization, and poor data usability.
Second, risk control in health insurance cannot be resolved by technical means alone; it also requires a sufficiently deep understanding of diseases, pharmaceuticals, pathological diagnosis and treatment, and payment systems.
Third, the risk control scenarios in health insurance are complex and diverse, with prominent conflicts among various stakeholders, posing a series of challenges to anti-fraud measures and claims operations in health insurance.
“StackLue Data leverages two core technologies—evolutionary machine learning and knowledge graphs—to deeply mine data and build precise models for population incidence rates, disease progression cycles, and healthcare costs. This enables data-driven personalized pricing, while its digital claims processing system incorporates intelligent risk control to accurately identify and exclude unreasonable expenses, conduct smart audits, and prevent fraud. The key advantage of StackLue Data lies in the deep integration of data technology with domain expertise.”
Amid the insurtech boom, with internet and industrial giants rushing to enter the field, Zhanlue Data, founded just three years ago, has emerged as a dark horse. By focusing on risk control, it has achieved efficiency and growth rates that surpass many insurtech companies backed by financial behemoths. Looking across the Pacific, the United States has also seen the rise of unicorn startups such as Clover Health and Collective Health, which effectively control costs through big data and artificial intelligence technologies, offering valuable insights for China’s commercial health insurance sector. In this hotly contested arena, Zhanlue Data has repeatedly won investor recognition thanks to its pragmatic approach and leading technological advantages.
Stack Data secured angel-round funding in 2016, shortly after its establishment, from Banyan Capital, Fumu Assets, and Silicon Valley investor Guo Wei. In 2017, the company completed its Series A financing round, with participation from DCM Ventures, Puhua Capital, Danhua Capital, Qihoo Zhongcai, Banyan Capital, and Fumu Assets.
Ma Ning, Founding Partner of Lingfeng Capital, the lead investor in this round, stated, “We believe that health insurance penetration in China is low, offering broad growth prospects. However, a persistent pain point over the years has been insurers’ inability to control claims costs and risks due to data deficiencies, leaving most medical insurance companies in a loss-making position. Zhanlue Data leverages artificial intelligence, big data, and other technologies to address these industry pain points by helping commercial insurers combat fraud, manage costs, and design products. Moreover, the company boasts an excellent team with strong execution capabilities.”
Regarding the investment in Zhanlue Data, PPDAI CEO Zhang Jun stated, “Currently, the density and depth of China’s health insurance market are far below those of mature markets, indicating sustained growth dividends and broad development potential. While the health insurance sector is experiencing rapid expansion, the lack of data and risk models has hindered the timely and effective identification of fraudulent activities, resulting in persistently high loss ratios. The Zhanlue Data team possesses deep expertise in both technology and the medical healthcare industry. By leveraging intelligent risk control to assist commercial insurance companies in conducting multi-dimensional analysis and decision-making, they have effectively promoted the healthy development of the industry.”
Zhanlue Data has become a Special Affiliate Member of LIMRA (International Insurance Market Research Association) and a Council Member Unit of China Social Security Magazine. In 2019, Zhanlue Data received numerous honors, including being named to the InsurStar50 – Top 50 Chinese InsurTech Companies of 2018, ranking among the Top 10 in the “2018 Global FinTech Startup Competition” organized by the PBC School of Finance at Tsinghua University, and being listed among the “Top 20 Chinese Insurance Technology Innovators of 2019” by Fenzi Lab.
The company currently operates dual headquarters in Beijing and Shanghai, with branch offices in Nanjing, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Changsha, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and other cities. It is reported that Zhanlue Data established its international headquarters in Hong Kong in 2019, marking a strategic focus on expanding into the Asian market.