Shukun Technology Secures RMB 100 Million Series A Funding to Accelerate AI-Driven Integrated Diagnosis and Treatment Platform for Cardio-Cerebrovascular Diseases

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that SHUKUN recently announced the completion of its RMB 100 million Series A financing round, co-led by Huagai Capital and Morningside Venture Capital, with continued participation from Yuan Yi Capital, its angel-round investor.

Following this round of financing, SHUKUN will continue to intensify its R&D efforts, expand its product portfolio, and establish a more comprehensive and robust hospital-enterprise collaboration mechanism. The company aims to advance the development of an integrated AI platform for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diagnosis and treatment, achieving end-to-end, full-scenario intelligent care that encompasses big data-driven early warning, AI-based imaging screening, AI-enabled multidisciplinary precise diagnosis, as well as personalized treatment planning and risk prediction. Currently, SHUKUN has signed collaboration agreements with over 50 hospitals, 90% of which are Grade A tertiary hospitals.

Regarding this financing round, the joint lead investors Huagai Capital and Morningside Venture Capital, along with angel investor Yuanyi Capital, also shared their perspectives.

Mr. Yang Ruirong, Founding Partner of Yuan Yi Capital, which served as SHUKUN’s angel investor and participated in this follow-on round, stated: “Yuan Yi Capital focuses on investments in healthcare and innovative finance, dedicated to identifying the most innovative rising stars globally. We prioritize companies’ growth opportunities, team quality, and core competitiveness. SHUKUN’s founding team possesses profound expertise in artificial intelligence, big data, and medical imaging. The team demonstrates outstanding strategic and execution capabilities; within less than a year, its AI product for coronary heart disease progressed from R&D to clinical deployment in large tertiary Grade A hospitals, earning acclaim from experts and practicing physicians. While many current AI products address only fragmented issues within a single diagnostic scenario, SHUKUN’s coronary AI solution covers an entire medical imaging diagnostic workflow, spanning from image acquisition to report generation. This represents the future of AI applications as we see it.”

Mr. Liu Qin, Founding Partner of Morningside Venture Capital, the co-lead investor in this round, stated: “Morningside Venture Capital believes that the global healthcare industry will continue to present significant opportunities for transformation over the coming decades. A series of technological innovations, including gene technology and computational science, will continually drive the rapid advancement of the global healthcare sector. Meanwhile, China’s healthcare industry will also face substantial transformative opportunities in the next decade, driven by factors such as consumption upgrades and population aging. In this field, technology leverage will be one of the most critical means of addressing healthcare challenges. Therefore, comprehensive teams like SHUKUN, which think from the perspective of the future of healthcare, rely on strong technological capabilities as their core driving force, and base their business models on the upgrading and transformation of the existing healthcare system, are precisely what Morningside seeks when positioning itself in the healthcare industry. We believe that SHUKUN will become a vital innovative force in the future healthcare landscape.”

As a co-lead investor in this round, Mr. Zeng Zhiqiang, Managing Partner of Huagai Capital’s Healthcare Fund, stated: “Huagai Healthcare is an equity investment fund dedicated to the healthcare industry, with a focus on biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, and healthcare services. In the field of medical imaging, we have already established a comprehensive portfolio covering most major product lines, including CT, MRI, DSA, and color Doppler ultrasound. We are highly confident in the future application of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies within the medical imaging sector. Our evaluation of AI projects is primarily based on three dimensions: commercialization, data, and algorithms. SHUKUN has avoided entering highly competitive ‘red ocean’ markets such as pulmonary nodule detection, breast cancer screening, bone age assessment, and diabetic retinopathy diagnosis. Instead, it has chosen to address cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, which affect a growing patient population. The company’s products have been deployed in top-tier tertiary hospitals, including Beijing Friendship Hospital and the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, receiving positive feedback from medical experts. Regarding data, SHUKUN maintains in-depth collaborations with numerous renowned hospitals. This enables the company to acquire high-quality datasets annotated with clinical diagnostic gold standards for deep learning during its early R&D phases. Furthermore, the company has established robust workflows and quality control mechanisms for data annotation. In terms of algorithms, the core team comprises interdisciplinary talents from the fields of biomedicine and computer science, including former members of IBM Watson, Nobel Prize-winning teams, and world champions in AI competitions. This demonstrates strong capabilities in original algorithm development. We believe SHUKUN will play a significant role in the future of smart healthcare.”

As an industry-leading AI healthcare technology company, SHUKUN has charted a unique course from the outset. Leveraging its robust scientific research capabilities, it has chosen to focus intensively on major disease areas such as cerebrovascular and cardiovascular conditions. The company has already launched CoronaryDoc, the world’s first AI-powered diagnostic product for cardiovascular diseases, enabling “instant” generation of coronary diagnosis reports.

“As the aging population accelerates, the number of patients with coronary heart disease is increasing, while coronary imaging diagnosis is highly time- and labor-intensive. For a single patient, the process from image acquisition to post-processing, preliminary report drafting, and final review takes at least half an hour under ideal conditions, and reports are typically not available until the next day. SHUKUN’s coronary AI product was introduced to our hospital at the end of last year and has since achieved excellent clinical outcomes. First, the entire diagnostic workflow has been fully automated and intelligentized, with AI handling most of the post-processing and preliminary report generation. Second, leveraging AI’s inherent advantages in quantitative analysis, the system meets many needs of the cardiology department, enabling the radiology department to provide better clinical support. Finally, the structured reports generated by SHUKUN’s coronary AI comply with international standards, improving report consistency, standardizing criteria, and facilitating review by attending physicians. We also look forward to deepening our collaboration with SHUKUN on other diseases to jointly promote the clinical implementation of AI in imaging diagnosis,” said Yang Zhenghan, Director of the Department of Radiology at Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University.

“In fact, compared to other visible AI imaging products, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular AI has higher entry barriers and greater technical challenges, which is why hardly anyone is working in this field. We chose these diseases as our entry point for two reasons: first, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases are the leading causes of death and disability, creating clear demand from both doctors and patients; second, the diagnostic process for cardiovascular diseases is complex, with high technical thresholds that limit their widespread adoption—many primary-care hospitals are unable to offer such services. To address this, we have developed an expert-level, end-to-end auxiliary diagnosis platform that will generate substantial social value by improving diagnostic efficiency at large hospitals and promoting the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases,” said Ma Chun’e, CEO of SHUKUN.

Today, this product has been adopted for clinical use in hospitals across China, including Beijing Friendship Hospital affiliated with Capital Medical University, the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Wuhan Central Hospital, and Hanzhong Central Hospital. It has significantly improved physicians’ work efficiency and diagnostic effectiveness, while directly enhancing the diagnosis and treatment capabilities of primary-care hospitals. The contracted hospitals include leading institutions in core cities such as Beijing, Shijiazhuang, Tianjin, Shenyang, Wuhan, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, as well as prefecture-level hospitals in places like Hanzhong, Yongzhou, and Aksu, achieving a multi-dimensional business layout that spans regions and healthcare tiers.

Following the completion of its financing round, SHUKUN will continue to extensively expand its network of partner medical institutions across China, deploying its products in more hospitals to effectively assist clinical practice in addressing challenges such as unequal distribution of medical resources and significant disparities in diagnostic capabilities. Meanwhile, SHUKUN will leverage its full-cycle cardiovascular product portfolio to advance the development of “Medical Consortia,” enabling interoperability of medical data and facilitating the flow of high-quality medical resources from developed regions to primary care hospitals, thereby allowing patients at county-level hospitals to access expert-level imaging diagnostic services.

“Regarding our product portfolio, we have expanded vertically from cardiovascular diseases to AI-based diagnosis of comprehensive cardio-cerebrovascular conditions, including the development of products for diagnosing head and neck vascular diseases, neurological disorders, coronary FFRct, aortic diseases, and renal and pulmonary artery conditions,” introduced Ma Chun’e. “We leverage advanced artificial intelligence technologies to build an intelligent healthcare platform that enables precision medicine and personalized health management. The platform offers an integrated, full-process, and all-scenario intelligent diagnosis and treatment solution, encompassing big data-driven early warning, AI-powered imaging screening, AI-assisted multidisciplinary precise diagnosis, as well as personalized treatment planning and risk prediction.”

Ma Chun’e stated, “SHUKUN tackles major disease categories as holistic units, rather than focusing on isolated, narrow segments within a disease pathway, thereby truly realizing the concept of a ‘Disease Brain.’” For instance, SHUKUN’s AI products currently cover the entire continuum of coronary heart disease management—from early detection, diagnosis, and treatment to post-discharge follow-up—offering integrated diagnostic and therapeutic solutions centered on patients and their conditions. According to her, SHUKUN planned to expand its product portfolio from cardiac diseases to cerebrovascular diseases in the second half of 2018.

In addition, SHUKUN will collaborate closely with medical service companies to leverage artificial intelligence technology in creating greater added value for their products. Meanwhile, SHUKUN’s products can tap into the multi-channel networks of these enterprises to gain access to more hospitals. Ma Chun’e stated, “SHUKUN’s collaborations with other companies are based on a value-added service model, enabling both parties’ products to achieve a synergistic effect where 1+1>2. Moreover, the greater the amplification factor, the more beneficial it is for both partners.”

Regarding the commercialization of AI, Ma Chun’e also shared her perspective: “Why is it so difficult for artificial intelligence companies to achieve commercial success today? Because the value you create has not yet reached a level that customers are willing to pay for. A product that fails to foster customer dependency has no viable business model.”

She believes that the commercialization of any industry goes through three stages: technology validation, business model validation, and innovation in new service models. Currently, medical AI is still in the first stage, making it premature to discuss commercialization. “The healthcare industry operates at a different pace than the internet sector; companies cannot achieve economies of scale rapidly through a few rounds of quick financing, as seen in ride-hailing or food delivery services,” said Ma Chun’e.

“Seeing the Universe in Data”: In the future, SHUKUN will leverage its proprietary robust medical data center and artificial intelligence research platform to collaborate with academic institutions and healthcare providers, continuously optimizing and upgrading its products to realize an internet-based smart healthcare model featuring human-AI collaborative intelligence. Meanwhile, by leveraging comprehensive patient data, SHUKUN will provide personalized health management solutions, truly achieving integrated smart healthcare and facilitating the advancement of medical services and the improvement of public health standards.