LinkingMed Secures RMB 50 Million Series A Funding to Enhance AI-Powered Radiotherapy Cloud Platform and Expand Oncology Capabilities in Grassroots Hospitals

VCBeat learned that in early April 2018, Lianxin Medical successfully completed its Series A financing round, raising a total of RMB 50 million from Danhua Capital. This marks the third round of funding secured by Lianxin Medical since its establishment in March 2016.

The previous two instances were:

December 2016, Angel Round: Guoke Jiahe, Anlong Fund, and Zhongke Chuangxing; RMB 12 million;

July 2017, Pre-A round, Linear Capital, several million U.S. dollars.

Since the Pre-A financing round, Lianxin Medical has made significant progress in both its business and technology. InTechnical Aspects, a certain amount of training data accumulated before the previous round of financing. After the financing, the functions of the radiotherapy cloud platform were further improved, and the research and development of automatic contouring algorithms were accelerated. Currently, automatic contouring has been fully completed for 13 organs at risk (including left and right sides) and target volumes in the head and neck region. Research and development for thoracic organs at risk is ongoing, covering structures such as the esophagus, trachea, lungs, spinal cord, heart, and breasts.

InBusiness Aspects, there are approximately 1,700 radiation oncology departments in China, with 100 of them being top-tier. To date, Lianxin’s intelligent target delineation system has been deployed in the radiation oncology departments of 17 leading cancer hospitals. By the end of 2018, our team aims to increase this number to over 40.

AtTeam, Defiled Medical has expanded its entire team to 80 members, with technical and R&D personnel accounting for 75%. The company’s algorithm team is led by eight PhDs. Leveraging over 15,000 highly standardized tumor treatment cases curated by the company, it has developed 23 AI models and filed 34 invention patents.

Founded in 2016, Defiled Medical is an AI-driven radiotherapy and cloud services provider. It offers artificial intelligence-based technical tools—such as automatic organ segmentation, target volume delineation, adaptive radiotherapy planning, and radiotherapy quality control—along with a cloud service platform to hospital radiotherapy departments and third-party imaging and radiotherapy centers. The company provides professional remote collaboration and radiotherapy operational network services for a broad user base of radiation oncologists and medical physicists.

Lianxin Medical has integrated artificial intelligence into the treatment process from the outset. The company’s goal is to leverage AI technology to help oncologists improve treatment efficiency and quality, while utilizing internet-based collaboration to enable physicians at large tertiary hospitals to provide high-quality treatment plans, recommendations, and technical support for remote medical quality control to doctors at prefecture- and city-level hospitals. This approach allows large tertiary hospitals to enhance their own efficiency while extending their expertise to a broader reach.

In addition, Defiled Medical has been committed to providing cloud-based solutions. Its products are primarily deployed in hospitals via a hybrid cloud model, featuring comprehensive technologies and solutions for data encryption, distributed storage and computing, and mobile interaction.

Zhang Hua, Founder and CEO of Lianxin Medical, stated that there are three main reasons for securing this round of financing:First, we have established long-term accumulation and comprehensive reserves in core radiotherapy technologies, including dose calculation, treatment planning optimization, and artificial intelligence, securing a portfolio of 34 core invention patents. Second, we have strategically initiated the regulatory submission process with the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), which is currently progressing smoothly. Third, after two years of development, we have built a cohesive and complete technical and marketing team, supporting a comprehensive product portfolio.。

Compared with other AI startups, Lianxin Medical has many unique characteristics and advantages.First is the uniqueness of its technology and application scenarios. As one of the few AI companies focused on therapeutic applications, the company has devoted substantial resources to R&D in high-barrier technologies, thereby establishing a distinctive technological foundation and accumulating a large portfolio of high-quality intellectual property rights.

Secondly, its forward-looking layout on the cloud platform has established a comprehensive product model ranging from departmental management to internet-based collaboration, offering significant scalability. In addition, Lianxin Medical has developed the capability to deliver on-the-ground medical services, providing relevant healthcare services rather than merely software products.。

Zhang Hua stated that the funds obtained this time will mainly be used for four purposes:

1. Further expand the range of diseases covered by “AI+Therapy” horizontally, continue to broaden collaborations with more hospitals, and plan to complete automatic delineation of whole-body organs at risk and target volumes—including the thorax, abdomen, pelvis, and other regions—by the end of 2018.

2. Defiled Medical plans to jointly establish an Oncology Artificial Intelligence Research Center with domestic research institutions. By leveraging artificial intelligence technology and information-based process control, the company aims to rapidly deploy a high-speed, precise “intelligent brain” into hospital radiation oncology departments. This will fully automate the planning of radiotherapy and surgical protocols, as well as evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of simulated radiotherapy or surgical plans.

3. Top-tier institutions such as the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Harvard Medical School have strengthened their collaborations, deepening partnerships with leading international radiotherapy research institutions and AI technology providers, while attracting more R&D professionals and business elites with international backgrounds to join the team.

4. Provide services to chain radiotherapy centers, plan to cooperate with domestic third-party radiotherapy equipment providers, offer an AI-based service platform, and help primary hospitals enhance their capabilities in oncology diagnosis and treatment.