Changmugu Medical Secures Tens of Millions in Seed Funding, Attracts Interest from Philips Healthcare

Recently, VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) learned that Beijing Changmugu Medical Co., Ltd. (“Changmugu Medical”), a high-tech enterprise specializing in artificial intelligence, announced the completion of its seed funding round amounting to tens of millions of RMB. This round was jointly invested by FreeS Fund and Lei Ming, one of the “Seven Founding Members” of Baidu.

Regarding this round of financing, An Yicheng, Co-founder of Changmugu Medical, stated that Changmugu Medical is committed to leveraging cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies and collaborating with top-tier medical teams to develop first-class AI healthcare products that meet the practical needs of clinicians. The funds raised in this round will be used, on one hand, for clinical trials and registration of new products, with continued deepening of efforts in deep learning algorithms and product precision to enhance diagnostic and treatment efficiency for clinicians. On the other hand, the company will further deepen its integration into hospitals, utilizing AI technology to more precisely serve clinical needs. By providing a comprehensive, end-to-end AI-driven diagnostic and therapeutic solution—ranging from imaging diagnosis and disease subtyping to preoperative planning and precision medicine—the company aims to accelerate the clinical implementation of AI products.

The Changmugu team was established in 2017 on the campuses of Harvard University and Stanford University in the United States. Its core members consist of postdoctoral researchers and PhD holders from prestigious institutions both in China and abroad, including Harvard University, Stanford University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Tsinghua University. FreeS Fund has been closely monitoring the application of artificial intelligence across various industries, with healthcare being one of the sectors poised for near-term breakthroughs through AI.

Li Feng, Founding Partner of FreeS Fund, stated, “The greatest challenge in applying artificial intelligence to the healthcare sector lies in practical implementation. The Changmugu team comprises medical scientists from Harvard Medical School and engineers from Stanford University in Silicon Valley. This unique composition not only equips them with cutting-edge technology and product development capabilities but also enables them to address unmet clinical needs from a physician’s perspective, positioning them to achieve significant breakthroughs rapidly and establish a sustainable commercial loop.”

Lei Ming, a renowned angel investor, one of the seven founding members of Baidu, and Director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence Innovation at Peking University, has guided Changmugu’s development since the team’s inception and facilitated its return to China from the United States. Lei Ming stated, “In investing in Changmugu, I was drawn to the founding team’s elite educational backgrounds from top overseas universities, their robust foundation in medical expertise, forward-looking technological innovation, and a comprehensive business commercialization model. Such a team with deep integration of medicine and engineering is exceptionally rare in China.”

Philips Healthcare, one of the “GPS” trio of multinational medical device giants (GE, Philips, and Siemens), also extended an olive branch to the Changmugu team. In September 2018, Changmugu Medical was invited to participate in the global selection competition for Philips Healthcare’s Healthcare AI Start-up Accelerator Program. This accelerator initiative represents a comprehensive startup incubation partnership launched by Philips Healthcare across multiple regions, including the United States, Europe, India, and China. After intense competition, the Changmugu team stood out among more than 300 AI startups in China and became one of the four final selected projects.

Following its entry into the Philips Medical AI Global Accelerator Program, Changmugu will engage in in-depth discussions with Philips to explore collaborative opportunities, comprehensively enhance its team’s capabilities, and strive to become China’s leading artificial intelligence healthcare enterprise.