Youlai Doctor Secures Tens of Millions in Series A Funding to Pioneer 'Internet + Precision Health Education'

VCBeat (WeChat: vcbeat) has learned that Youlai Doctor, a leading and authoritative health science education platform in China, has officially announced the completion of its tens-of-millions-of-yuan RMB Series A financing round, with Jiangyu Capital as the investor. It is reported that Youlai Doctor will leverage technologies such as big data analytics and artificial intelligence to build a new model of “Internet + Precision Health Science Popularization,” further driving innovative upgrades in the entities, content, formats, and carriers of health science communication.

It is reported that Youlai Doctor is headquartered in Beijing and has established branches in 11 cities, including Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, with over 200 employees currently on staff.

“As a health science education platform born with an internet DNA, Youlai Doctor’s CEO Ruan Shengtie stated that health science popularization must adopt a user-centric mindset and adhere to the principles of being ‘public-oriented, practical, life-relevant, scientifically accessible, and easy to disseminate.’”

Ruan Shengtie, founder of Youlai Doctor (photo provided by the company)

Youlai Doctor will further strengthen its investment in and application of technologies such as the Internet, big data, and artificial intelligence for health science popularization. By leveraging big data analytics and mining, we will gain deep insights into public health needs, accurately profile users of health education content, and construct comprehensive disease atlases and health maps covering the entire population and all regions, thereby enabling precise delivery of health knowledge and services. Integrating technologies such as 3D, 4D, VR, and intelligent voice recognition with science popularization efforts will enhance user engagement and interactivity, creating health education content that is more appealing, easier to understand, simpler to learn, and more shareable for the general public.

“Our founding mission is to ensure that people around the world either avoid falling ill or suffer from fewer diseases,” said Ruan Shengtie. “To realize this vision, we must extend the spectrum of disease management at both ends—toward prevention on one side and rehabilitation on the other—with health science communication as the key. At the heart of effective health science communication are the communicators themselves. We must find ways to incentivize and mobilize more authoritative and professional experts to join the cause of public health education.”

Currently, the main force behind health science popularization consists of medical institutions and physicians. Hospitals possess abundant medical resources, while physicians bring specialized medical knowledge and extensive clinical experience. Although an increasing number of hospitals and physicians are engaging in health science popularization efforts, both the breadth and depth of their involvement remain far from sufficient to meet the multi-level, diversified, and high-quality demands of the general public.

In the future, Youlai Doctor will cultivate physicians across multiple dimensions—including public education advocacy, training in science communication skills, design of educational content, and packaging of presentation formats—to strengthen their awareness and capabilities in health science popularization. Additionally, a physician support fund will be established specifically for doctors who contribute to health science popularization, providing them with charitable support such as funding, continuing education, and insurance coverage, thereby incentivizing and enabling more physicians to devote themselves wholeheartedly to science communication.

For a long time, the concept of “seeking treatment only when ill and neglecting prevention when healthy” has been deeply entrenched among the Chinese public, resulting in weak health awareness and limited capacity for disease prevention and control. In accordance with the strategic deployment of the “Healthy China” initiative, the focus must shift from “disease treatment-centered” to “people’s health-centered,” with the goal of achieving universal health coverage. The core of this transition lies in moving the gateway forward and prioritizing prevention.

On April 28, 2018, the General Office of the State Council issued the “Opinions on Promoting the Development of ‘Internet + Medical Health’” (Guo Ban Fa [2018] No. 26), which explicitly proposed to “strengthen ‘Internet +’ medical education and popular science services,” and to “leverage the Internet to provide precise health education, promote healthy lifestyles, and enhance residents’ self-health management capabilities and health literacy.”

Ruan Shengtie believes that the public’s demand for health is an essential need and is unending.

The market for popularizing health knowledge is vast and holds unlimited potential. However, advancing public health cannot be achieved by any single entity alone; it requires comprehensive collaboration among government departments, industry organizations, medical institutions, physicians, enterprises, media, and other stakeholders to leverage complementary strengths and work together. He stated that the dissemination of health information is entering a period of explosive growth. Youlai Doctor will maintain an open mindset, willing to engage in exchange and cooperation with all parties to jointly promote public health.

Jiangyu Capital is an RMB-denominated investment institution focused on technological and business model innovation in traditional industries. It is committed to exploring how emerging technologies can transform and improve modern commerce and human life, promoting the organic integration of the internet with traditional sectors, and helping outstanding entrepreneurs realize their value and dreams.

Leveraging abundant industrial resources and diversified project channels, Jiangyu Capital focuses on new consumer demographics, new scenarios, new ideologies, big data, and artificial intelligence. With commercial value at its core, the firm keenly identifies investment opportunities across various sectors, including healthcare, education, and culture and entertainment.

“We are highly optimistic about the founding team of Youlai Doctor, as they possess the outstanding qualities essential for a successful enterprise.” Regarding this investment, Zhao Wenting, Founding Partner of Jiangyu Capital, stated, “Following rigorous and meticulous market analysis and due diligence, we firmly believe that Youlai Doctor will emerge as a dark horse in the industry and join the ranks of unicorns in the near future.”