Weimai Secures $30M Series B Funding Led by Qianji Capital, Advances AI-Powered Full-Care Management Ahead of Hong Kong IPO
On September 13, VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) learned that ““Weimai” Announces Completion of $30 Million Series B Financing.This financing round was led by Qianji Capital, with follow-on investments from Yuanjing Capital, Source Code Capital, Matrix Partners China, and the company’s founder, Jialin Qiu.
Weimai Management Team (Photo provided by the company)
Following this round of financing, Qiu Jialin, Founder and CEO of Weimai, stated, “This investment reflects our confidence in the national policy direction of ‘Internet + Healthcare’ and our optimistic outlook on the development trends of the medical and health industry.”
It is reported that Weimai will focus its investments on four key areas:
1. Continue to deepen the operation of "Internet + Healthcare" services at partner hospitals, helping to enhance the integrated online and offline service experience, and expanding the scope and boundaries of services;
II. Continue to accelerate urban expansion by broadening partnerships with cities and hospitals; among China’s more than 350 prefecture-level cities, Weimai has currently entered over 70, with the next-stage target being 150 cities;
III. Continue to incubate and explore innovative service businesses, and promote the launch and large-scale rollout of ongoing Internet+ in-hospital specialty service projects;
IV. Continue to refine and build a more professional and efficient talent pipeline.
Since its founding in 2015, Weimai has remained dedicated to the internet healthcare sector, driven by the mission of “making healthcare services more accessible.” By leveraging technologies such as the internet, the company aims to simplify access to healthcare for the general public and streamline service delivery for hospitals and physicians. So, how do users evaluate its services? And how does the investment community view this latest funding round?
To this end, VCBeat conducted exclusive interviews with Qiu Jialin, Founder and CEO of Weimai, and Shen Xiaoyin, Vice President of Qianji Capital, to gain their perspectives on Weimai.
In recent years, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have attached great importance to the development of “Internet + Healthcare.” In April this year, Document No. 26 [2018] issued by the General Office of the State Council, titled *Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Promoting the Development of “Internet + Healthcare,”* explicitly stated that “medical institutions are encouraged to leverage information technologies such as the Internet to expand the scope and content of medical services, and to establish an integrated online-offline healthcare service model covering pre-diagnosis, during-diagnosis, and post-diagnosis stages.” Meanwhile, in its official policy interpretation of the *Opinions*, the National Health Commission further emphasized the need to “combine optimizing existing resources with expanding new supplies, utilizing ‘Internet+’ not only to enhance current medical services but also to enrich service offerings.”
Since its establishment in 2015, Weimai has actively responded to the national encouragement and call for innovation in “Internet + Healthcare,” accelerating its development around three key priorities:
I. Optimize Existing Resources on a City-by-City Basis,By fully integrating all localized healthcare resources—including hospital services, physician services, and institutional services—the platform provides appointment registration, data inquiry, and comprehensive payment services for all local hospitals. Meanwhile, it invites physicians from local hospitals to join the platform, thereby expanding the service boundaries of both hospitals and doctors. This constitutes the foundational “3+1” model of Weimai’s 1.0 era.
II. Developing Internet Hospitals through Collaboration with Public Hospitals, fully leverage core medical service resources such as hospital experts and renowned physicians to implement an online-offline integrated virtual clinic model, providing the public with more “convenient, efficient, credible, and high-quality” healthcare services, enabling ordinary citizens to enjoy the benefits of “Internet Plus” healthcare by accessing medical consultations and prescriptions from the comfort of their homes;
III. Seize the opportunity of internet hospital development to achieve key breakthroughs in “innovative healthcare service operations.” Expanding incremental growth, broadening service offerings, and diversifying service supply represent the strategic direction for Weimai’s new phase (Weimai 2.0).
Meanwhile, by building city-level internet-based big data platforms for healthcare and medicine, Weimai provides users with a series of precise services, including online appointment registration, report inquiry, end-to-end payment, online doctor consultation and diagnosis, management of medical records and health files, external prescription dispensing and medication delivery, maternal and child health and chronic disease management, tiered diagnosis and treatment, remote medical care, and family doctor services. It aims to create a local one-stop healthcare service platform for the public, committed to providing lifelong healthcare services for every individual, and fostering a new ecosystem of healthcare services where “everyone has a health record, every household has a family doctor, and every city has an online hospital.”
Qiu Jialin positions Weimai as"Localized Trust-Based Doctor-Patient Service Platform", to build a new type of localized doctor-patient trust-based service relationship based on the Weimai platform,and vividly likening Weimai to a combination of “WeDoctor + Haodf Online + Alipay” in third- and fourth-tier cities.
In just three years, Weimai has extended its “Internet + New Healthcare” model across 17 provinces, more than 70 partner cities, and 500 partner hospitals in China. The platform has amassed nearly 10 million users, providing services to a population of over 150 million, and has attracted 50,000 physicians to deliver various medical and health services on the platform.The team has expanded to over 300 members, including seven partners (with the founder among them). It is organized into seven major centers: City Center, Operations Center, Product Center, R&D Center, Financial Services Center, Finance Center, and the Board of Directors Office. R&D personnel account for nearly 50% of the workforce.
In fact, medical services operating under market-driven logic remain scarce. Through deep collaboration with hospitals and leveraging internet-based solutions, Weimai aims to “ensure that every patient receives at least one exclusive service.” Meanwhile, it seeks to enhance the sense of recognition, accomplishment, and pride among healthcare providers who demonstrate superior professional expertise, extensive experience, and strong service reputations, thereby elevating their overall service value.
Qiu Jialin believes that ideal internet-based healthcare should be family-centric, enabling all family members to identify and connect with familiar, trusted physicians who can provide continuous consultation and health management services. The role of the internet is to facilitate and empower trust-based service relationships between patients and providers through connectivity and enablement.
It is reported that Weimai is also the first healthcare service platform in China to advocate for "Trust-Based Healthcare." Centered on the public healthcare system, it provides users with open, transparent, professional, and precise medical and health services, thereby enhancing transparency and mutual trust between doctors and patients.
He evaluated Weimai as follows: “It’s only just the beginning.” This marks not only the dawn of Weimai 2.0, but also the nascent stage of the entire “Internet + Healthcare” industry.
Throughout its development, Weimai has consistently adhered to the successful practice of its “localization + trust-based healthcare + rural-encircling-urban” strategy. As Qiu Jialin has repeatedly stated publicly in media interviews: “The Weimai platform does not advocate for ubiquitous online consultation scenarios. Instead, we aim to facilitate convenient and efficient communication between local doctors and patients by building upon offline physical diagnosis and treatment connections. Through face-to-face consultations, online inquiries, post-discharge management, and lifecycle management for maternal/child health or chronic diseases, we establish a strong chain of trust between local doctors and patients, thereby forming a closed-loop healthcare service model based on doctor-patient trust, which Weimai champions. In an ideal internet healthcare ecosystem, each family can identify and connect with familiar, trusted physicians who provide continuous consultation and health management services. The role of the internet is to match and foster trust-based service relationships between doctors and patients through connectivity and empowerment.”
Currently, high-quality medical resources are concentrated in first- and second-tier major cities. This inverted triangular distribution of medical supply stands in stark contrast to the normal triangular distribution of medical demand, making it even more critical for leading hospitals and core medical resources in third- and fourth-tier cities to leverage “Internet+” solutions for service upgrades. Strategically, Weimai has adopted a “rural areas encircling the cities” approach, connecting primarily with third- and fourth-tier cities. By covering over 70% of local medical resources on a city-by-city basis, Weimai maximizes both user reach and service coverage, thereby providing efficient and convenient connectivity and services to patients and hospitals alike.
Following this round of financing, Weimai will expand its presence to more cities, serve a broader user base, and further broaden its innovative medical service offerings. The company aims to optimize existing services while driving new growth. On one hand, it will leverage internet technologies to enhance current medical services, realizing the “Healthcare + Internet” model to make patient care more accessible. On the other hand, it will drive innovation in medical services through the “Internet + Healthcare” approach, increasing and diversifying the supply of medical services to provide more precise, safe, and efficient healthcare solutions for diverse patient groups within hospitals.
In the future, Weimai will continue to integrate partnerships involving pharmaceuticals, insurance, and other models, accelerate collaboration with more cross-industry platforms, work alongside hospitals and physicians to leverage internet technologies for greater service innovation, and further deepen its penetration and integration across the entire closed-loop healthcare service ecosystem.
Coincidentally, Weimai’s previous three rounds of financing all took place in September. The first two rounds were as follows: the angel round in September 2015, with a fundraising amount of RMB 40 million; founding investors included Yuanjing Capital, Source Code Capital, and co-founders of international internet giants such as Alibaba and Tencent.
In September 2016, Weimai secured RMB 120 million in Series A financing, led by Matrix Partners China and with participation from existing shareholders.
This September, Weimai once again garnered favor from investors, with new shareholder Qianji Capital joining to provide sustained momentum for the continued deepening of its localized trust-based healthcare model.
Qianji Capital is one of the first healthcare and medical funds in China initiated and invested in by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), with current assets under management exceeding RMB 5 billion.When discussing the rationale behind the investment, Shen Xiaoyin, Vice President of Qianji Capital, stated that Qianji has always maintained a strong focus on the internet healthcare sector. The firm believes that current internet healthcare initiatives should integrate with public healthcare systems, serving as assistants and operators for hospitals. Meanwhile, medical services should return to hospitals and the physicians within them; this represents the true essence of “Internet Plus.”Indeed, Weimai is the only platform-based service provider we have observed that centers on cities to integrate local medical resources. By establishing deep partnerships with hospitals and streamlining every step of the care journey, it enhances both patient experience and hospital operational efficiency.
Qianji also strongly endorses Weimai’s overall strategy of targeting second- and third-tier cities as its entry point. Shen Xiaoyin believes that medical resources in first-tier cities are highly fragmented; Beijing alone has more than 60 Grade A tertiary hospitals. Institutions such as Beijing’s 301 Hospital and Peking Union Medical College Hospital serve not only local residents but also patients from across China, who primarily seek treatment for serious and complex conditions. Therefore, their primary objective is to continuously advance medical expertise. In contrast, medical resources in second- and third-tier cities are highly concentrated, and patient populations are predominantly local. Two or three Grade A tertiary hospitals typically meet approximately 70% of local healthcare demand. Consequently, these hospitals have a greater need to leverage internet-based solutions to improve patient experience and enhance operational efficiency.
He also believes that Weimai will become the most core component of Qianji Medical’s new economy landscape. Currently, Weimai has set a very high barrier to entry for newcomers through its urbanized operational strategy. Following the completion of the investment, Qianji will integrate additional medical resources into Weimai, such as a physician education platform, a medical distribution platform, China’s largest third-party insurance claims processing platform, and a third-party health examination service platform for public hospitals. These initiatives will further expand the dimensions of services Weimai provides to hospitals, physicians, and patients, thereby establishing a second moat for the company.
Shen Xiaoyin also believes that Weimai will serve as a catalyst for the development of China’s commercial health insurance system. Commercial insurance relies heavily on services and data; therefore, it is essential to improve the quality of medical care and establish trustworthy doctor-patient relationships within the existing framework, while simultaneously accumulating vast amounts of personalized diagnosis and treatment data. These objectives can be achieved through internet healthcare operational platforms. In the future, Weimai has the potential to become the largest operational platform connecting both in-hospital and out-of-hospital markets, truly transforming China’s healthcare ecosystem by introducing diverse service providers.
Furthermore, Shen Xiaoyin is also confident in the long-term performance of Weimai’s model within China’s primary healthcare ecosystem. Demonstrating robust service integration and operational capabilities, Weimai has seen its market share and financial performance grow exponentially, positioning it to soon become an industry leader.
In response, Qiu Jialin expressed even greater confidence: “By leveraging technology to innovate service offerings and extend the scope of services, we will undoubtedly unlock substantial demand, further expanding the scale of the medical and broader health sector, which is poised to become a market worth ten trillion yuan in the future.”“The state has recently issued policy documents with high frequency to encourage the development of the internet healthcare industry, precisely targeting future growth opportunities in the broader health sector, with the aim of leveraging internet-based approaches to unlock greater access to high-quality medical and health services.”