Oranger Family Secures RMB 70 Million Series B Funding to Build a Closed-loop Remote Management System for Chronic Respiratory Diseases

Recently, Fitbit, the leader in wearable devices, has seen a sharp decline in performance, and Pebble, the pioneer of smartwatches, has been acquired. Consumer-oriented smart wearable devices are facing difficulties. However, smart wearable devices in the medical field present a different scenario. Orange Family, which has developed multiple smart wearable devices and remote portable medical devices for chronic respiratory diseases, recently announced the completion of its Series B financing round of 70 million RMB, led by Zhongwei Fund, with participation from Xinjun Capital, Ruigao Capital, and Qiaojing Capital.

Chengyi Jiaren, founded in 2014, launched its first product, a smart snoring monitoring watch, which garnered significant attention.From the initial three founders at the company’s inception to over 60 employees today, Chengyi Jiaren has now become an expert in the management of chronic respiratory diseases.

Zhang Dan, founder of Chengyi Jiaren, discussed his entrepreneurial journey in an exclusive interview with VCBeat prior to the completion of this round of financing. After being hospitalized due to an unexpected health issue, Zhang identified a business opportunity within the healthcare industry: hospitals are unable to manage the entire continuum of disease care, leaving room for enterprises to make significant strides in chronic disease management. Subsequently, Zhang connected with Dr. Liu Xiaocheng, President of TEDA International Cardiovascular Hospital, and chose to focus on chronic disease management in the cardiovascular field for his first venture.

After three years of continuous exploration and trial-and-error, Zhang Dan discovered that both data collection and subsequent management for cardiovascular diseases must be conducted in clinical settings, leaving enterprises unable to take a leading role. Although numerous chronic disease-related data points—such as blood pressure, blood glucose, and electrocardiograms (ECG)—were collected for exploratory research, no effective breakthrough was achieved.

In 2014, Zhang Dan learned that snoring, also known as obstructive sleep apnea, can also pose risks to cardiovascular health. During nighttime snoring, oxygen levels in the blood decrease, which over time can affect other organs in the body, including the cardiovascular system. However, among the general public,SnoringIt is not considered a disease.

In fact, snoring is a key manifestation of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), a conditionofTreatment is highly mature and standardized, but diagnosis remains a challenge. Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) is a prevalent condition with significant potential health risks. Polysomnography (PSG) is the recognized gold standard for detecting OSAS; however, it is costly and has low accessibility. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a screening method that minimizes sleep disruption, is cost-effective, easy to administer, and suitable for large-scale population screening.

In the guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of OSAS, simplified diagnostic methods and criteria for primary care settings have been proposed, with the most critical requirement being the monitoring trend chart of blood oxygen saturation indicators. Due to the scarcity of polysomnography (PSG) devices at the primary care level, the state encourages enterprises to develop portable diagnostic devices for OSAS.

Upon recognizing these circumstances, Zhang Dan identified an opportunity in the diagnostic testing for sleep apnea syndrome and decided to start with portable diagnostic devices for Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS). In March 2014, Zhang Dan embarked on her second entrepreneurial venture, giving birth to “Chengyi Jiaren.” The name “Chengyi” is a homophone for “sincerity” in Chinese. Zhang Dan stated, “Since we are providing services, we must serve every patient with wholehearted sincerity. The term ‘Jiaren’ (family members) reflects our hope to bring patients a warmth akin to that of family.” Zhang Dan’s greatest reflection was that this venture avoided many pitfalls, as she had drawn valuable lessons from her first entrepreneurial experience.

“The team is at“During my first venture in the management of chronic cardiovascular diseases, I accumulated substantial experience, particularly in remote data transmission and the precision of data acquisition, which laid the foundation for the development of a snoring monitoring watch in my second startup,” said Zhang Dan.

For any chronic disease, there is a critical indicator—such as blood glucose for patients with diabetes or blood pressure for those with hypertension. Only by accurately monitoring these key parameters and generating continuous data can they be effectively applied in clinical practice to optimize chronic disease management. For obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), this key indicator is blood oxygen saturation.

Orange Family’s first product, the snoring monitoring watch, isNovel Portable Diagnostic Device Developed for OSAS.By monitoring patients' blood oxygen levels during sleep, continuous oxygen saturation metrics are generated to form monitoring reports, facilitating a transition from respiratory disease management to chronic disease management.

Compared with traditional medical devices, Chengyi Jiaren’s products feature internet connectivity, enabling remote data transmission and collection. In contrast to ordinary wearable devices, the snoring monitoring smartwatch not only captures patients’ physiological data via sensors but also aligns this information with established diagnostic criteria to facilitate disease diagnosis, thereby possessing medical-grade attributes.

From project initiation, design, and manufacturing to validation, clinical testing, and CFDA certification, the entire process took two years. During the R&D phase, the snoring monitoring watch gained recognition from leading experts in respiratory diseases, which facilitated the smooth expansion of subsequent clinical trials into hospitals. Within just two months of its market launch, the device was adopted by more than 20 hospitals, far exceeding expectations.

All these advantages stem from the product’s innovative design: compact in size and easy to use, it intelligently generates continuous blood oxygen reports, facilitating physicians’ subsequent data retrieval and assessment of patients’ hypoxia severity. Patients can wear the device for monitoring during nighttime sleep at home, and upload the data to specialists via the app upon waking in the morning. Currently, the snoring monitoring smartwatch has been adopted by the respiratory departments of more than 200 Grade A tertiary hospitals across 22 provinces and municipalities in China.

After accumulating expertise in the field of chronic respiratory diseases, Orange Family launched its second flagship product in the second half of 2016—the remote portable spirometer. The research and development of medical devices for chronic respiratory conditions has become Orange Family’s specialty. In addition to snoring monitoring watches and spirometers, the company has also introduced a range of telemedicine products related to respiratory diseases, including end-tidal CO₂ monitors, nebulizers, and oxygen concentrators.

Pulmonary function testers are primarily used for the definitive diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a chronic respiratory condition with a global prevalence of 14%. When snoring-monitoring smartwatches were launched, their primary target market was tertiary hospitals; in contrast, remote portable pulmonary function testers are mainly intended for use in community-level and primary care hospitals. COPD has been included in the national catalog for chronic disease prevention and control. The “Administrative Measures for the Construction of National Comprehensive Prevention and Control Demonstration Zones for Chronic Diseases,” issued in 2016, requires community health service centers and township health centers to provide simple pulmonary function testing and to conduct screening and early diagnosis of COPD.

Historically, the reality in China has been that pulmonary function testing rates are extremely low, and primary care community hospitals lack scientific diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma. Factors such as the high cost of large-scale spirometers, cumbersome operating procedures, severe inadequacy in training for community physicians, and the absence of user big data management have significantly hindered the implementation of COPD disease management programs.

Chengyi Jiaren’s remote portable spirometer is compact, generates reports rapidly, is easy for primary care physicians to operate, and allows data upload to tertiary hospitals. Compared with traditional pulmonary function testing, it is well suited for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) screening at the primary care level. During clinical testing, the device received positive evaluation from Academician Wang Chen at China-Japan Friendship Hospital. Academician Wang Chen has long been a strong advocate for COPD prevention and control as well as tiered diagnosis and treatment. In public interviews, he has repeatedly emphasized that, similar to hypertension, early detection of COPD relies not on the appearance of symptoms but on screening tests.

China-Japan Friendship Hospital also conducted a specialized functional comparison between clinical remote portable spirometers and conventional spirometers. By assessing pulmonary ventilation function in a cohort of patients using Jaeger devices, patient data were collected to analyze the concordance of key parameters between the two types of instruments. The results demonstrated that the agreement between the remote portable spirometer and the conventional spirometer exceeded 90%, with a sensitivity of 93.2% and a specificity of 89.8%.

China has been continuously promoting tiered diagnosis and treatment while strengthening the development of primary healthcare institutions. Orange Family’s flagship products are remote, portable medical devices, making primary care settings an ideal market for their offerings. With a product portfolio that includes pulse oximeters, spirometers, end-tidal CO2 monitors, oxygen concentrators, ventilators, and nebulizers, Orange Family is fully committed to advancing remote healthcare and tiered diagnosis and treatment initiatives for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

In October 2016, the Sichuan Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission signed a strategic cooperation agreement with WeDoctor. The two parties will engage in in-depth collaboration in areas such as the construction of internet hospitals, the promotion and application of cloud-based resident health cards, the enhancement of general practitioners’ service capabilities, and the advancement of family doctor contract services. As part of this strategic partnership, Chengyi Jiaren was selected as a key project and integrated into the departments of the internet hospital.

Chengyi Jia Ren has established a full-process closed-loop system at the primary care level, starting with telemedicine for chronic respiratory diseases.

Application Model for COPD Screening at the Primary Care Level

From 2014 to 2016, Chengyi Jiaren focused on strengthening its core capabilities, completing product research and development, validation, and promotion. The year 2017 will mark a breakthrough phase for the company. In 2017, Chengyi Jiaren aims to achieve sales revenue growth of over 300%, driven by revenue from its new remote portable spirometer and the expansion of its service offerings.

In November of its founding year, Chengyi Jiaren secured Series A financing from Honghui Capital.Recently, Chengyi Jiaren announced that it has secured RMB 70 million in Series B financing. This round was led by Zhongwei Fund, with participation from Xinjun Capital, Ruigao Capital, and Qiaojing Capital. Following the completion of the Series B financing, Chengyi Jiaren will continue to refine its closed-loop management system for chronic respiratory diseases and expand its service offerings.

In addition to collaborating with hospitals and primary healthcare institutions, Chengyi Jiaren has also partnered with Meinian Onehealth, a leading health checkup provider, to establish sleep centers equipped with multiple products at Meinian Onehealth’s facilities across various regions. By leveraging health screenings as an entry point, the company rapidly identifies high-risk patients with positive findings. Furthermore, through integration with commercial insurance, it has completed a closed-loop model for treatment and rehabilitation. This closed-loop system incorporates Chengyi Jiaren’s mature comprehensive chronic disease management services—covering initial screening, referral, treatment, and rehabilitation—and innovatively integrates commercial insurance to offer China’s first and only healthcare coverage product specifically tailored for respiratory chronic diseases. This approach truly establishes a holistic, comprehensive management solution for both chronic and critical illnesses.

The reporter interviewed Mr. Li Wengang, Founding Partner of Zhongwei Fund, the lead investor in the Series B financing round. He commented, “Orange Family has a very comprehensive layout in the field of chronic respiratory diseases,“Major products effectively address the pain points of patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) in the respiratory field. This disease is similar to diabetes, with a large patient population; however, the vast majority lack understanding of such conditions, and even fewer receive effective treatment.” — Zhongwei FundXiong Xingchi, Deputy Investment Director, stated: “In the future, physical examination centers will identify high-risk individuals and patients with mild conditions through services provided by Chengyi Jiaren, and offer effective solutions for comprehensive management.Directly triage critically ill patients to hospitals,"Establish effective synergy with physical examination centers and hospitals to provide a broader platform for the Chengyi family."

Currently, companies such as Linde and Air Liquide abroad have already adopted commercial insurance customers as their primary entry point to provide comprehensive home care solutions for respiratory diseases. Meanwhile, Chengyi Jiaren will, based on the current status of chronic respiratory diseases in China,，Future initiatives will span multiple domains, including the management and treatment of respiratory diseases and symptoms; sales and leasing of ventilators and oxygen concentrators; daily life guidance for patients and their families; and clinical guidance and equipment provision services delivered by professional healthcare personnel.，To establish the company as a specialized home care service provider in the field of chronic respiratory diseases.。