Awake Medical: Building a Full-Cycle Clinical Solution for Stretch Mark Repair

In "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace," Hai Lan, the second female lead, fell out of favor due to her stretch marks. Recently, Xie Yilin, known as the "Hold It Together" sister, also posted on Weibo to showcase her "happy troubles." For a time, "stretch marks" once again became a hot topic.

Stretch marks are a common occurrence in daily life. According to the "2018 White Paper on Chinese Maternal and Child Healthcare Institutions" released by Spring Medical Management, there were approximately 156 million women of childbearing age in China in 2020. Currently, the market penetration rate for stretch mark products is extremely low, indicating a potential market value reaching hundreds of billions of yuan.

In October 2014, Chen Jianguo established Hangzhou Songyang Biological Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Songyang”). After three years of research and development and clinical trials, Songyang officially launched Anmeike in 2017, a medical brand dedicated to the repair and prevention of stretch marks.

Based on market demand, Amico segments its customers and has launched three business models ranging from stretch mark prevention to treatment, providing personalized solutions tailored to the individual differences of women at different stages.

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that Anmeike has established a Medical Clinical Research Center for Striae Gravidarum at the Shanghai Skin Disease Hospital, and is conducting multi-site clinical trials in collaboration with the dermatology departments of 30 public Grade A tertiary hospitals across China, including West China Hospital of Sichuan University. The product was launched in July this year, has reached 60% of China’s provinces, and entered nearly 70 public hospitals.

Anmeike provides tiered diagnostic and therapeutic solutions for women during pregnancy and the postpartum period. It has developed home-care products primarily featuring Betaine and peptide complexes for pregnant women, and further subdivides its focus on postpartum women into two distinct phases:

Golden Repair Period (Within One Year Postpartum): After delivery, women undergo a natural self-repair process. Clinical studies by Anmeike have shown that early intervention and treatment within three to six months postpartum result in a shorter repair cycle for stretch marks and better therapeutic outcomes.

Repair of Old Stretch Marks (More Than One Year Postpartum): Established stretch marks present a relatively longer treatment cycle and greater difficulty. Based on the principles of destruction, remodeling, and regeneration, Anmeike employs nano-fractional radiofrequency devices in conjunction with Anmeike products for combined therapy.

Anmeike provides precise diagnostics and personalized solutions for each client. In addition to assessing individual physiological differences, it evaluates five key dimensions of striae gravidarum—width, color, topography (concavity/convexity), area, and transepidermal water loss—to ultimately determine the treatment protocol and duration.

Based on its service model, Anmeike categorizes its business model into two types: B2B and B2C.

In the B2B sector, Amico develops business agents, further divided into two channels: one is the "public" channel, such as dermatology departments in hospitals and cosmetic dermatology departments in maternal and child health hospitals, mainly targeting postpartum customers to provide them with repair treatments; the other is the "non-public" channel, through e-commerce and fast-moving consumer goods, such as some maternal and infant retail stores, mainly selling pregnancy prevention products.

In the B2C sector, Anmeike established China’s first specialized postpartum rehabilitation clinic in Hangzhou this August. Focusing on postpartum rehabilitation services, its core offerings include pelvic floor rehabilitation, body contouring restoration, skeletal restoration, and psychological counseling. The clinic features departments of gynecology, cosmetic dermatology, and traditional Chinese medicine, staffed by a professional team of medical personnel and service providers.

Regarding customer acquisition, Chen Jianguo stated that in the B2B sector, Anmeike will further promote its products through these two approaches, with the expectation of expanding sales nationwide within two years. In the B2C sector, to ensure patient flow, Anmeike will locate its clinics within shopping malls and expand its customer base through various marketing strategies. Additionally, the company will acquire customers through professional channels and resource-based collaborations. It is projected that within three years, Anmeike will establish East China as its core hub, with further radiation across the entire country.

The impact of stretch marks extends far beyond the superficial appearance of a woman’s body, significantly affecting marital intimacy and women’s psychological well-being.

When discussing core competitiveness and differentiation, first, Ameico focuses on stretch mark treatment, with its therapeutic efficacy fully validated through comprehensive evaluations involving nearly 1,000 participants across multi-center clinical studies. Second, most postpartum rehabilitation institutions operate as lifestyle beauty service providers, lacking standardized medical protocols. This is particularly significant given that millennial mothers (born after 1995) have a substantially higher demand for high-quality medical services compared to those born in the 1970s and 1980s.

Notably, Anmeike possesses a core medical foundation. After three years of research and development and clinical trials, the company has established a case database for striae gravidarum treatment. In collaboration with the Shanghai Skin Disease Hospital, it jointly established the Anmeike Clinical Medical Research Center for Striae Gravidarum. Furthermore, Anmeike has engaged in multi-site clinical collaborations with the dermatology departments of 30 public Grade IIIA hospitals to conduct research on striae gravidarum.

Moving forward, Anmeike will establish standardized medical service protocols for diagnosis, treatment, and postoperative rehabilitation as research deepens, continuously refining its products and therapeutic technologies. It is expected to achieve nationwide coverage in China by the end of 2019.

The project is currently undergoing Series A financing.