DaTangYi Secures Tens of Millions in Series A Funding to Build China's Leading Professional Diabetes Management Platform

VCBeat (WeChat ID:vcbeat) It has recently been learned that the diabetes management platform “Da Tang Yi”APP”Announces tens of millions of RMB in fundingAround of financing, with the renowned Shenzhen Yingxin Investment Group as the investor. Previously, Datangyi had received angel investment from Huaying Capital.

It was revealed that this round of financing will be used for product research and development, market promotion, and team building. Da Tang Yi will build a professional and intelligent cloud platform for diabetes management and develop a digital-driven chronic disease management model.

Mobile health once ignited the capital market in 2013–2014, but due to challenges in profitability models, it began to cool down in the second half of 2015 and has since remained in a state of “capital winter.” The vertical sector for diabetes management has also gradually transitioned from the initial “Hundred Sugar Wars” into an era reminiscent of the “Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods,” marked by fragmented and intense competition. DaTangYi’s recent acquisition of tens of millions of yuan in financing has brought a ray of hope to this chilly landscape, further solidifying its competitive position.

“Da Tang Yi App” is owned by Huima Medical Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. Huima Medical’s vision is to build China’s most professional cloud platform for chronic disease management, starting with diabetes. “Da Tang Yi App” is the company’s product in the field of diabetes and has been online for two and a half years. Da Tang Yi currently has 25,000 registered doctors, 70% of whom are from endocrinology departments at public Grade A tertiary hospitals. Millions of diabetic patients have registered, with a significant portion referred by doctors.

Datangyi’s greatest distinction lies in its “patient-centric, physician-focused” approach, winning over institutional clients and individual users through professional services—a typical B2B2C business model. Establishing a comprehensive vertical ecosystem for diabetes management by collaborating with government bodies, insurance companies, pharmaceutical firms, and e-commerce platforms has been Datangyi’s consistent strategic direction.

The founding team of Datangyi possesses extensive expertise in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, along with a firm recognition of the scarcity and critical importance of physician resources. Wu Jingyu, CEO of Datangyi, believes that the essence of internet healthcare remains healthcare itself, while the internet serves merely as a tool to enhance efficiency. China has approximately 40,000 endocrinologists, and within the country’s trillion-yuan diabetes healthcare consumption market, 70% of expenditures are determined by physicians.

Guided by this understanding, Da Tang Yi has leveraged its team’s expertise in the medical field since its inception to develop customized, efficient diabetes management tools for endocrinologists. It also assists them in building their professional brands, generating compliant income, and enhancing their academic capabilities. By offering high-value products and employing strategies such as academic promotion, partnerships with pharmaceutical companies, and digital marketing, Da Tang Yi has rapidly accumulated a large base of high-quality, active physicians. Currently, Da Tang Yi ranks first in the diabetes-specific sector in terms of the number, quality, and engagement level of endocrinologists.

A physician-centric strategy is ultimately designed to help patients with diabetes improve their blood glucose management, thereby preventing complications. Upon their physicians’ recommendation, patients begin using DaTangYi, eliminating the frustration of having only a few minutes for consultation during hospital visits. After discharge, they can promptly upload health data and maintain close contact with their physicians. Having communicated with patients offline and gained a clear understanding of their conditions, physicians are better equipped to manage them online with greater ease. Underpinned by effective physician–patient interaction, patients can use DaTangYi to record key metrics, receive dietary and exercise guidance from DaTangYi’s diabetes care managers, and engage in social interactions with fellow individuals living with diabetes.

Through technological and model innovation, Da Tang Yi mobilizes physicians, diabetes care managers, peer supporters, and family members to form a support network around patients with diabetes. This approach helps them overcome inertia and psychological fears, enhances their professional capacity for glycemic control, and thereby reduces the risk of complications.

The Center for Chronic and Non-communicable Disease Control, under the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), carefully selected Da Tang Yi as the research subject after extensive evaluations. In 2016, it launched the “Project on Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Appropriate Technologies for Mobile Internet-Based Management of Diabetes in Communities,” which has undergone a one-year double-blind controlled observation with the glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) target attainment rate as the primary endpoint. The research findings are scheduled to be released in the second half of 2017. Through such initiatives, Da Tang Yi is also poised to strengthen its collaboration with the National Health and Family Planning Commission and the CDC, thereby enhancing the efficiency of community-based diabetes management.

The integration of diabetes care and insurance has remained a hot topic. Da Te Bao, the first insurer to launch diabetes-specific insurance policies, selected Da Tang Yi as its exclusive service partner. Furthermore, Da Tang Yi has entered into strategic collaborations with health insurance giants such as Fosun and Ping An, jointly exploring the overseas HMO model—combining insurance, healthcare, and data—to provide comprehensive online and offline patient management.

In the e-commerce sector, Da Tang Yi is also JD Health’s exclusive strategic partner in the diabetes vertical. The two parties collaborate in diabetes medical services and pharmaceutical e-commerce to create a closed-loop system for diabetes management.

In terms of collaboration with pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, Da Tang Yi currently partners with over a dozen renowned companies. The most representative initiative is the “Power+ Postprandial Blood Glucose Optimization Management Project,” jointly launched with the Chinese Red Cross Foundation and Bayer Pharma Germany, which has already benefited nearly 100,000 individuals with diabetes.

Da Tang Yi has excelled in the specialized task of blood sugar management. So, what is Da Tang Yi’s answer to the widely criticized “lack of a profitable business model” in the internet healthcare sector?

Regarding the “profit model,” the founding team of DaTangYi has reached a consensus: “DaTangYi’s mission is to help patients with diabetes live longer, healthier, and more fulfilling lives through innovation in products, technology, and business models. A sense of mission is the fundamental driving force behind our entrepreneurial journey; however, before this mission can be realized, the company must ensure its own survival, which requires returning to the essence of business.”

Group Photo of the Datangyi Team

Wu Jingyu, CEO of Datangyi, holds an MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and spent six years working at multinational pharmaceutical companies before founding his own venture. COO Xie Feifei is also highly accomplished, holding an MBA from Duke University and bringing four years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.Another partner, Gu Bin, is a veteran of the pharmaceutical industry who previously served as General Manager of Eli Lilly’s Diabetes Business Unit in the United States. Driven by an original commitment to serving diabetes patients and fueled by bursts of passionate ambition, the team once fell into the trap of the internet sector’s cash-burning model. Fortunately, this pragmatic team quickly recognized the issue, adjusted its strategy in time as the economic winter approached, and resiliently weathered the capital freeze. This experience has proven that the team possesses extensive practical expertise.

According to Wu Jingyu, CEO of DaTangYi, the company currently has three components to its revenue model:

Part I: Providing blood glucose management services to diabetic patients through the platform’s physicians and an in-house team of diabetes care managers, with enterprises or individuals as the payers;

Part II: Providing data and value-added services to governments, pharmaceutical companies, and insurance companies, such as physician/patient education, data analytics, and the design and servicing of insurance products, with enterprises serving as the paying clients;

Part III: Commercial distribution partnerships with major pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, providing patients with high-quality, affordable diabetes-related products to become a vertical e-commerce platform for pharmaceuticals, with individuals as the paying customers.

Regarding these three revenue models, CEO Wu Jingyu acknowledged that the market for services is not yet mature, but it holds the greatest potential for future explosive growth. Da Tang Yi must ensure the professionalism of its services, making it just a matter of time before it capitalizes on this potential when the market springs to life. The collaboration with pharmaceutical companies to provide patient-physician education services has already established a clear revenue model. The vertical e-commerce segment aims to meet patients’ daily needs for blood glucose control. Unlike most cash-burning internet companies, Da Tang Yi has basically achieved break-even status and possesses significant growth potential, which was one of the primary reasons why Yingxin Capital chose to invest in Da Tang Yi.