Yidianling Secures Tens of Millions in Series A++ Funding to Accelerate Transformation in Mental Health Services

Yidianling, a leading domestic psychological service platform, recently secured tens of millions of RMB in Series A++ financing from YuanBio Venture Capital.

According to Xu Yingqi, founder of Yidianling, the platform—operating as an integrated online and offline psychological services provider—has onboarded more than 12,000 licensed psychological counselors, accumulated over 3 million registered users, and delivered more than 200 million minutes of paid counseling services. Following this round of financing, the company will strengthen comprehensive coverage of online psychological counseling, explore innovative formats for offline psychological services, and optimize standards for psychological service products.

Chen Jie, Founding Partner of YuanBio Venture Capital, stated that YuanBio’s participation in Yi Dian Ling’s A++ financing round was driven by two key factors. First, YuanBio is optimistic about the prospects of psychological services in China. With social development, the number of individuals experiencing suboptimal mental health in China continues to rise, with particularly strong demand for psychological services among younger demographics, especially those born in the 1980s and 1990s. Second, the Yi Dian Ling team has left a deep impression on YuanBio. The founding team comprises both internet industry veterans and psychology experts, successfully integrating internet operations with traditional psychology. This approach has enabled the company to rapidly grow into a leading online psychological service platform in China within just a few years. Looking ahead, YuanBio will continue to invest in innovative healthcare companies led by exceptional founding teams.

According to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO), mental health issues are rising globally year by year. Nearly 10% of the world’s population suffers from mental disorders, with anxiety and depression being the most prevalent conditions, affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Among individuals aged 15–29, suicide accounts for 8.5% of all deaths, making it the second leading cause of mortality in this age group.

According to a nationwide survey, approximately 10% of China’s population currently suffers from psychological disorders. Among the top ten diseases causing the greatest functional impairment, five are mental disorders. In urban areas, 25% of residents exhibit overt or latent psychological issues. The number of individuals with various mental and psychological disorders exceeds one million. Among the 150 million adolescents in China, 30 million are troubled by emotional and stress-related problems. Globally, there are more than 10 million attempted suicides each year. It is projected that by 2020, the burden of neuropsychiatric diseases in China will rise to one-quarter of the total disease burden.

Source: "2018 Research Report on the 'Jiaolü' (Anxiety) Population"

In recent years, the Chinese government has increasingly prioritized mental health. In 2012, it enacted its first legislation on mental and psychological health, the Mental Health Law of the People’s Republic of China. This further safeguarded the importance and standardization of mental health-related services within the policy framework and elevated their status. In 2015, the Mental Health Law of the People’s Republic of China and the National Mental Health Work Plan (2015–2020) were successively issued, propelling the mental health services industry into a phase of rapid development.

As of the end of 2018, the number of certified psychological counselors had exceeded one million, with fewer than 100,000 engaged in full-time or part-time counseling practice, resulting in a shortage of over one million psychological counselors.

As market demand surges and supportive national policies are introduced, the value of applied psychology is becoming increasingly prominent. Internet-plus psychological counseling platforms, represented by YiDianLing, are rising rapidly. Driven by the dual engines of demand and capital, these platforms are accelerating the development of specialized online entry points for psychological counseling to address the needs of a broader clientele.

According to comprehensive statistics, the proportion of online consultations in 2018 showed a several-fold increase compared to 2015. It is reported that the annual per capita expenditure on psychological counseling in 2018 increased significantly compared to 2016, exceeding RMB 5,000 per person per year. In 2016, the number of users of psychological services in China had already exceeded 3 million, surpassing the 10 million mark in 2017, and the user base is expected to grow several-fold by 2019.

Source: “2018 Research Report on the ‘Jiaolü’ (Anxious) Population”

According to relevant data, more than 90% of people are willing to pay for psychological content products. Users’ psychological needs mainly revolve around intimate relationships, emotional stress, interpersonal relationships, family of origin, and parent-child education.

Currently, Yidianling’s business scope covers relationship and emotional counseling, stress and mood management, parent-child relationships, workplace interpersonal dynamics, psychological assessments, mental health information, and psychology courses. To date, the platform has accumulated over 3 million registered users, onboarded more than 12,000 professional psychological counselors, delivered over 200 million minutes of paid consulting services, and provided 1.2 million hours of pro bono services.

Data from the Yidianling platform shows that among psychological counseling inquiries, relationship and marital issues account for the largest proportion, followed by emotional stress and parent-child education. In terms of age distribution, individuals aged 20–30 and 30–40 constitute the core demographic seeking psychological counseling, with these two age groups accounting for as high as 90% of the total.

In recent years, both the number of professional psychological counseling institutions and practitioners has been growing rapidly. As an online mental health service platform that pioneered the “Internet + Psychological Counseling” model, Yidianling has always upheld its mission of “making people around the world happier,” strictly requiring every employee to prioritize customer needs and persist in delivering exceptional one-on-one services.

It is understood that, driven by stringent requirements for platform development, Yi Dian Ling has established two rigorous systems.

1. Rigorously Selected Psychological Counselors

Rigorous qualification reviews, background checks, personal user experiences, and supervised professional development form our curated selection mechanism for counselors. We also conduct on-site assessments of counselors’ professional competence and service capabilities to ensure service quality, striving to become “the most professional mental health service platform.”

2. Implement an unconditional refund policy

Professional evaluation comes from the market and from customers. Unconditional refunds are a commitment to customers, as well as a strict requirement for the enterprise and its consultants. Only by standing in the customers’ shoes and adopting their mindset can a company concentrate its resources, break down the boundaries between customers and the enterprise, and create maximum value.

Xu Yingqi, Founder and CEO of Yidianling

At the end of 2016, 22 ministries and commissions jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening Mental Health Services; at the end of 2018, 10 ministries and commissions jointly issued the Notice on Issuing the Work Plan for Pilot Programs to Build a National Social Psychological Service System. As more supportive policies and plans have been rolled out, they have brought substantial benefits to the psychological counseling industry, fostering its development.

According to relevant reports on psychological services, psychological counseling, as a form of professional assistance, is gradually gaining public acceptance and recognition.

As the public places increasing emphasis on mental health, paid psychological counseling and paid mental health education are gaining wider acceptance. YiDianLing’s commitment to cultivating professional talent, offering lightweight psychological services, and promoting greater standardization is gradually becoming the future trend of the psychological counseling industry.

Currently, China's psychological counseling industry has entered a phase of rapid, even booming development, with the market gradually maturing. The income levels and consumption structures in China's developed cities are consistent with those observed during the rapid growth period of the psychological counseling industry in developed countries such as the United States, indicating that the country fully possesses the consumer capacity for psychological counseling services. In the coming years, the market for psychological counseling services will be favorably exploited, achieving high-speed growth in its user base.

After more than three years of operation, Yidianling has solidified its brand and accumulated extensive professional service experience, possessing the absolute strength to maintain a leading position in the field of Internet-based psychological counseling.

Furthermore, in addition to its existing business model, Yidianling will further explore diversified collaboration formats, such as “new media + social.” Upholding the philosophy of delivering consumer-facing services to the utmost level, the company will strategically expand into business-to-business (B2B) and government-facing (G2G) markets, fully integrating online and offline channels to enable more people to access high-quality psychological counseling services.

Expand online channels by penetrating short-video platforms such as Douyin and Weishi, while achieving comprehensive coverage of high-quality content hubs including Zhihu, Baijiahao, and Jinri Toutiao. Offline, establish a presence in key cities such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, and explore synergies with AI-driven smart hardware. These efforts aim to continuously broaden the market for psychological counseling services, attract higher-quality traffic, and lay a solid foundation for facilitating meaningful discussions on mental health issues and expanding access to professional counseling services.

A Corner of the Yidianling Headquarters Office Area

The psychological counseling market is becoming increasingly mature, leading to stricter, more standardized, and professionalism-focused requirements for professional competence in the future. For professional mental health service platforms like Yidianling, market supervision presents not only challenges but also significant opportunities for development.