Yingkang Technology Secures Tens of Millions in Series A Funding to Advance Integrated Software and Product Strategy in Clinical and Community Nutrition Markets

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat)It is reported that in January 2018, Shanghai Yingkang Technology, a company with years of extensive experience in the field of nutrition and health, officially announced the completion of its tens-of-millions-yuan Series A financing round. The round was led by Chongshan Capital, with participation from Xianfeng Changqing and Chunyuan Capital.

Chen Yuxin, Founder and CEO of Yingkang Technology, stated that following the completion of its Series A financing, Yingkang would rapidly deploy and expand in the field of in-hospital nutrition services through a dual-driven strategy integrating software and products.

At its inception, Chen Yuxin aimed to enter the broader health industry by providing professional medical nutrition services, hence naming the company “Yingkang.” In his view, professional nutritional therapy or support is critically important for the vast populations of patients with diseases (such as cancer, diabetes, and kidney disease) and special groups (including pregnant and postpartum women, the elderly, and children), whether during in-hospital treatment or out-of-hospital rehabilitation. The core demand for such services extends to over 100 million people.

According to Chen Yuxin, Yingkang initially faced a choice between two development paths. The first was to leverage the internet as a platform to integrate professional nutritional services and directly target the consumer (C-end) market—what later became the once-booming internet healthcare sector (note that mobile internet had not yet become widespread in 2010). While this path offered relatively easier initial entry, it posed significant challenges in building core service barriers amid the absence of nutritional legislation and low public awareness of nutrition, making it even more difficult to persuade users to pay for such services.

Second, by directly addressing pain points and pursuing an offline strategy, hospital nutrition departments can serve as a stronghold for building and accumulating core service capabilities and brand equity. Based on the in-hospital market, services can then gradually expand from within to outside the hospital. Although this path presents significant challenges in the early stages, once the hospital nutrition service market is secured, it will establish irreplaceable core advantages in areas such as the accumulation of professional nutrition service data and the integration capacity of nutrition physicians. From this perspective, Yingkang ultimately chose to enter the in-hospital nutrition department market.

The Department of Clinical Nutrition is a highly specialized clinical unit within the hospital, providing systematic management of professional dietary nutrition, enteral nutrition, and parenteral nutrition for patients. It is the only department among all clinical departments in the hospital that can connect and manage patients across the entire institution.

At that time, in contrast to the booming development of healthcare informatization in China, the level of informatization in hospital nutrition departments was relatively lagging. The market offered only standalone software similar to nutrition calculators, which completely failed to meet the needs of clinical nutrition departments for managing the nutritional care of all hospitalized patients across the entire hospital. This pain point in the intra-hospital market became the core entry point for Yingkang to penetrate the professional medical nutrition services market.

According to Chen Yuxin, the medical informatics sector is characterized by high entry barriers and significant challenges in system transformation. Yingkang Technology’s team pioneered the independent development of the “Hospital Nutrition Information System (HNIS)” in China. Built upon standardized nutritional therapy workflows and supported by a specialized professional database for nutritional therapy, HNIS integrates with internal hospital systems such as HIS, LIS, and EMR. This integration enables nutritionists to carry out nutritional therapy more efficiently.

To date, Yingkang Technology has served over 500 Grade A tertiary hospitals across China, including renowned institutions such as Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Shanghai Ruijin Hospital, and Shanghai Huashan Hospital, the majority of which are its clients. Meanwhile, Yingkang also provides services to clinical nutrition quality control platforms in more than ten provinces and municipalities, including Beijing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hubei, Hebei, and Sichuan. With a market share exceeding 65%, the company has established significant brand recognition and influence in the field of clinical nutrition in China.

Regarding the prospects of nutritional health, Lu Dongcheng, Founding Executive Partner at Chongshan Capital, stated: “For a long time, hospital nutrition departments have occupied a relatively marginal position, with limited levels of informatization and digitalization, making revenue generation challenging. However, driven by rising public awareness, the broader trend of consumption upgrading, and new regulatory standards for the market access of Foods for Special Medical Purpose (FSMP), the field of nutritional health—particularly FSMP—is facing opportunities for large-scale, explosive growth in both in-hospital and out-of-hospital markets. This period of industry consolidation presents an ideal opportunity to cultivate benchmark enterprises, reshape industry standards, and build management platforms.”

FSMP (Foods for Special Medical Purposes, abbreviated as medical foods) is a category of food with independent medical applications, distinct from pharmaceuticals and health supplements, and subject to registration and supervision by the China Food and Drug Administration (the Measures for the Administration of FSMP Registration in China officially took effect on July 1, 2016).

The global market size for Foods for Special Medical Purposes (FSMP) is USD 56–64 billion annually, growing steadily at a rate of 5–6% per year. China, home to 20% of the world’s population, currently has a market size of only RMB 400–500 million. Although still in its early stages, the Chinese FSMP market has been expanding rapidly in recent years at an annual growth rate of no less than 30%.

Regarding the FSMP market in China, Chen Yuxin has his own unique insights into the trends. He believes that:

1. China's FSMP market is certain to exceed RMB 100 billion, with a particularly rapid growth rate; it will accomplish in 8–10 years what took overseas markets more than 20 years to achieve;

2. The FSMP market will be medically driven and primarily hospital-based in the first 3–5 years, later transitioning to a consumer-driven market dominated by out-of-hospital channels. This evolution represents a natural extension from in-hospital to out-of-hospital settings, with the out-of-hospital market ultimately far surpassing the in-hospital market in size.

3. The core competitiveness of the FSMP market in the future will undoubtedly hinge on brand strength, distribution channels, and professional nutritional services.

Against this market backdrop, Yingkang leverages the in-hospital management resources of clinical nutrition departments at hundreds of Grade 3A hospitals to secure channel advantages in promoting FSMP. Furthermore, Yingkang enjoys high brand recognition in the field of clinical nutrition. In addition, its extensive and professional nutrition database, accumulated over years of specialized medical nutrition services, will serve as a core strategic asset for Yingkang to capture the out-of-hospital FSMP market.

Regarding this financing round, Lu Dongcheng stated, “Yingkang Technology is a leader in the in-hospital medical nutrition information services market, leveraging the channel advantages of its systems to promote FSMP (Foods for Special Medical Purpose) products. Meanwhile, Yingkang utilizes its brand and expert resources to expand into out-of-hospital markets, gradually forming a complete closed loop spanning nutrition systems, nutrition services, and nutrition products, thereby creating an integrated platform that links nutrition management with product sales.”

New Vision Ventures is an investment firm focused on the healthcare sector. Its fund management team comprises seasoned industry professionals with robust capabilities in resource integration and post-investment management. The New Vision Yuanzhi Healthcare Fund, a RMB-denominated fund under New Vision Ventures, specializes in investing in healthcare projects. It is dedicated to identifying and nurturing China’s most outstanding and high-growth healthcare entrepreneurial teams and enterprises, driving the development and transformation of the healthcare industry through an “industry + capital” model.

Xianfeng Changqing (formerly Xianfeng Huaxing), founded in 2010, is an early-stage investment firm focused on Chinese tech startups. Over the past seven years, it has invested in a portfolio of star companies including Jumei Youpin, Youyuan.com, Mia.com, Zhaogang.com, Moji Weather, Lama Bang, Meiyou, Dongqiudi, Fenqile, Caifuqiao, and Niuguwang, many of which have achieved unicorn status with valuations exceeding $1 billion. Backed by substantial fund size, Xianfeng Changqing manages both RMB and USD funds. The firm’s philosophy emphasizes post-investment support; over its more than seven-year history, it has built a robust post-investment service system that provides portfolio companies with systematic assistance in areas such as recruitment, publicity, and operations, committed to accompanying entrepreneurs on their path to success.

Chunyuan Capital is a professional investment and asset management firm specializing in equity investments. Its mission is to provide investors with superior fund management services and deliver substantial, sustainable returns. Adhering to the investment principle of “selecting the best among the best and cultivating with meticulous care,” Chunyuan Capital embraces an investment philosophy that balances value and growth. It identifies outstanding enterprises in niche sectors and dedicates significant post-investment resources to supporting their growth, placing great emphasis on the success of each portfolio company. The professional team at Chunyuan Capital possesses complementary expertise in investment and industrial operations, combining global perspective with hands-on local investment experience. Its track record includes investments in Kaitai Medical Technology, Xiatai Biologics, Partel Medical, Maide Medical, Edong Medicine, Jialin Pharmaceutical, Guifaxiang, HollySys Automation Technologies, and United Insurance. Healthcare is a key focus area for Chunyuan Capital.