Maternal and Child Health Platform iBaby Secures Tens of Millions in Series A+ Funding, Expands into Family Health Services

VCBeat has learned that iBaby, a platform dedicated to maternal and infant services, has officially announced the completion of its tens-of-millions-yuan A+ round financing. The round was led by Yiqi Investment, with all investors from the angel and Series A rounds participating in the follow-on investment.

Public information shows that,iBaby was established in January 2015, focusing on Internet + medical education. Through three platforms—PC, APP, and WeChat Official Account—it provides obstetricians and gynecologists with continuingAn educational and social platform providing expectant mothers with health and medical science popularization during pregnancy.

iBaby has secured three rounds of financing in total,In October 2014, the company secured RMB 2 million in angel-round financing from individual investors;Raised tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing in February 2016; completed Pre-A financing in July 20155 million yuan.

Functionally, iBaby serves two user groups: expectant mothers and physicians, offering dedicated mobile applications for each. For physicians, the platform hosts online lectures by renowned experts, utilizing video-based continuing medical education to save time and enhance clinical standardization and professional competence among primary-care providers. It leverages physicians’ fragmented schedules to address doctor-patient communication issues online. The curriculum covers not only core clinical skills but also extended competencies, such as departmental management and financial management.

Targeting expectant mothers, iBaby has launched a series of educational videos that visualize frequently asked questions. Through three-minute videos, it provides accurate medical science popularization and health knowledge to expectant mothers, offering comprehensive health services throughout the entire journey of conception and child-rearing. This includes one-stop, personalized P2D (Pregnancy to Delivery) maternal and infant health services covering pre-conception eugenics, infertility (assisted reproductive technology), prenatal check-ups, weight management, nutrition, exercise, fetal heart rate monitoring, childbirth, postpartum rehabilitation (both physical and psychological), pediatric healthcare, and vaccination.

Currently, the iBaby platform boasts a network of over 100,000 obstetricians, gynecologists, and pediatricians, with more than 70,000 having completed real-name verification. Through online physician lectures and offline initiatives such as its Pregnancy Academy, the platform has cultivated a community of over one million expectant mothers and continues to experience rapid growth.

Consumption upgrades and the relaxation of the two-child policy have spurred the rapid growth of the maternal and infant market, attracting sustained capital inflows. Entrepreneurship in this sector has flourished in diverse forms. The landscape includes maternal and infant communities such as BabyTree, e-commerce platforms specializing in flash sales like Beibei.com and Mia.com, as well as science popularization platforms leveraging medical expertise to capture a share of the mother demographic.

Unlike other companies in the maternal and infant sector, iBaby positioned itself from the outset in the more specialized field of obstetrics, and as the company has grown, it has become increasingly focused on medical education.

In 2016, iBaby made significant efforts in content integration and production, resulting in a marked improvement in product experience. Following this round of financing, iBaby will strengthen platform development by, on one hand, building a big data platform,Accumulate big health data on expectant mothers and newborns to lay the foundation for in-depth collaboration with hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and insurance providers. Leveraging the boomingArtificial Intelligenceand other technologies, can also provide physicians withClinical Decision Support Systems: Enabling Higher-Value Precision Marketing.

Meanwhile, across the entire maternal and infant industry chain, iBaby will explore more possibilities for commercial monetization in 2017. In a word,Leveraging capital advantages to integrate the maternal and child health industry chain,Entering the home health services sector, atNew possibilities emerge in financial sectors such as insurance and wealth management.

As the company expands, iBaby will establish branch offices in four cities—Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming, and Xi’an—in 2017. The team currently comprises over 100 members.