SoYoung Surges Over 44% on Nasdaq Debut, Valuation Exceeds $1.9 Billion

SoYoung, the First Internet Medical Aesthetics Service Platform to Go Public, Officially Lists on NASDAQ.

As of 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on May 2, So-Young International Inc.’s stock price was quoted at $19.75. The intraday high reached $19.91, with a maximum gain of 44.28%.

New Oxygen Technology issued a total of 13 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs), or 10 million Class A ordinary shares (including a 15% over-allotment option), raising approximately $180 million. According to the prospectus, 30% of the proceeds are earmarked for technology investment and R&D; 20% for brand promotion and user acquisition; 20% for business expansion; and the remaining 10% for enhancing platform content supply and potential future strategic investments.

Prior to this IPO, New Oxygen Technology had completed eight rounds of financing, attracting participation from numerous capital giants, including Matrix Partners China, Trustbridge Partners, Tencent, and even two “China-branded” investors—the China-Russia Investment Fund and BOC International Holdings. It is currently the only internet-based medical aesthetics service platform in China to have reached Series E financing.

Following this IPO, SoYoung’s founder and CEO, Jin Xing, will hold 15.6% of the equity and 84.7% of the voting rights.

It is reported that New Oxygen Technology is currently the first publicly listed internet-based medical aesthetics service platform in China. According to research by Frost & Sullivan, the total gross merchandise value (GMV) of medical aesthetics services facilitated through the New Oxygen platform in 2018 amounted to RMB 2.1 billion (approximately USD 310 million), accounting for 33.1% of the total online transaction volume for that year.

As an internet startup founded less than six years ago, So-Young Inc. became the first company in the industry to achieve profitability in 2017. In 2018, the company reported revenue of RMB 617 million (approximately USD 89.8 million), representing a year-on-year increase of 138%, and net profit of RMB 55.08 million, a substantial year-on-year rise of 220%. Since the beginning of this year, So-Young Inc. has maintained rapid growth in its business scale. In the first quarter of 2019, the company achieved revenue of RMB 206 million, an 81.8% increase from the same period last year, and net profit of RMB 45.9 million, a year-on-year increase of 49.9%.

At the bell-ringing ceremony for its IPO, Jin Xing, Founder and CEO of So-Young International Inc., stated, “So-Young is China’s most popular internet platform for medical aesthetics, a distinction that fills us with pride. So-Young helps users seek, evaluate, and book medical aesthetic services, and we are committed to extending the trust and confidence our users place in us to NASDAQ and global investors.”