Ping An Backs 'Dentist Butler Ecosystem' with Free Nationwide SaaS Platform Covering 30,000+ Clinics

Following “Ping An Good Doctor,” the Ping An group has made another significant move in the healthcare sector, this time focusing on dental care.

This investment round was led by Ping An Innovation Investment Fund (hereinafter referred to as “Ping An Venture Capital”), a subsidiary of Ping An Insurance Group. The fund took the lead in investing in Series A financing for “Dentist Manager,” a leading domestic dental healthcare enterprise. Housheng Capital and Chende Capital participated as co-investors, with the total investment amounting to over RMB 100 million.

Data shows that the “Dentist Steward” dental practice management system (SaaS-based), launched in 2014 with a focus on “dental clinics + internet,” has achieved the largest market share among dental practice management systems. It covers 34 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, over 400 cities, and more than 30,000 dental clinics, maintaining a significant lead in installed base within the industry.

The strategic layout in the healthcare sector stems from the vision of Ma Mingzhe, Chairman of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. In Ma Mingzhe’s view, “By securing assets on one hand and health on the other, individuals will remain lifelong clients of Ping An.” At the company’s first work conference in 2016, Ma Mingzhe unveiled a new strategy for the “Ping An 3.0 Era,” emphasizing Ping An Group’s goal to become an “internationally leading provider of personal financial and lifestyle services,” with a focus on two major industries: “big financial assets” and “big healthcare.”

Ping An Ventures, the venture capital fund under Ping An Insurance—China’s largest comprehensive financial group—shares common objectives with broader industry-focused VC funds. On one hand, it maintains connections with the startup ecosystem to track market trends; on the other, it seeks innovative companies that may generate synergies with its parent company’s businesses, establishing early-stage relationships to secure strategic positioning ahead of competitors.

As a key strategic investment by Ping An Ventures in the dental healthcare sector, Dental Steward focuses on the “dental clinic + internet” model and is the industry’s first enterprise to embark on ecosystem development. According to Mo Junqing, a partner at Dental Steward, unlike the conventional SaaS software model associated with “dental clinic + internet,” Dental Steward offers a comprehensive dental healthcare ecosystem. This integrated industrial system encompasses upstream and downstream businesses, including the “Dental Steward” practice management software, Business School, Fisen Imaging, financial services, an e-commerce marketplace, and supply chain solutions. The company has progressively achieved a seamless ecosystem build-out, spanning from software design to platform development, and from imaging R&D to mobile healthcare.

The company’s partnership team comprises experts in oral imaging, finance, software, healthcare, and related fields, bringing together professionals from renowned organizations such as Silicon Valley (USA), Lenovo, Sohu, Baidu, and Bybo. The team covers all key business areas within the Dental Steward ecosystem, including digital dental imaging, internet healthcare, clinical care, consumables supply chain, medical training, and education.

It is understood that there are currently over 100,000 small and medium-sized dental clinics in China, facing significant operational pain points: high customer churn rates, low staff efficiency, susceptibility to information leaks, high operating costs, and difficulties in performance evaluation. The overall level of digitalization and informatization in dental clinics remains low and urgently needs improvement.

As a core component of the ecosystem, the Yayi Guanjia Dental Practice Management System is designed for small and medium-sized dental clinics, providing an all-in-one solution for management, marketing, and procurement. With its user-friendly interface, the system is accessible via PC, mobile, and WeChat platforms. It offers comprehensive basic functionalities, including patient appointment scheduling, follow-ups, billing, electronic medical records, imaging, statistical analysis, and inventory management, significantly enhancing clinic operational efficiency. The system has amassed a portfolio of high-quality clients, such as Changshu Yuhui Stomatological Hospital, Beijing Happy Ruisha, Chengdu Haoya Dental, Xiamen Dente Dental, Shangqiu Ya Boshi Dental, and Meoway Dental Chain.

Feedback from dentists at Yiyah Dental Chain: The modules of the "Dentist Steward" dental practice management system are simple and easy to operate, with comprehensive functionality. The appointment scheduling feature is particularly user-friendly, and the statistics module is highly intuitive. Patient registration and medical record documentation are also very convenient. Notably, the smart phone box for patient communication is exceptionally handy and impressive.

Addressing user concerns regarding data security in SaaS software, particularly with respect to data ownership, He Weihua, the head of Yayi Guanjia (Dentist Manager) software, pointed out that the industry currently lacks unified security standards. The common practice is to store data in the cloud and access it via web interfaces. This approach has inherent drawbacks: users cannot obtain local copies of their data, rendering the system unusable during internet outages. Furthermore, there are frequent instances where users’ requests for their data from SaaS providers are unreasonably denied. The recurrence of such incidents has, to some extent, undermined the sense of security among small and medium-sized dental clinics toward SaaS management software, representing a major challenge in the industry’s data security landscape.

He has overseen financial software development and overall architecture at top-tier financial institutions, including Bank of America, the largest bank in the United States, and U.S. Bank, the fifth-largest bank, bringing over two decades of experience in system security.

He explained that by leveraging its independently developed “cloud storage + distributed architecture” model, Yayi Guanjia (Dentist Steward) employs a dual backup strategy combining local and cloud storage. All data are backed up locally, allowing for on-demand downloads, and the system remains fully operational via the local database even during internet outages. For cross-clinic access, users must first verify the registrant’s mobile phone number before logging in, thereby mitigating security risks associated with data migration and providing users with a truly trustworthy, time-tested security framework.

In addition, the Yayi Guanjia software supports integration with imaging devices via the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) standard protocol; its cloud synchronization feature enables cross-clinic viewing of 3D images. The software also uniquely integrates 241 exclusive 1080P patient-doctor communication videos.

It is also understood that, as an ecosystem gateway, the Dental Steward Oral Care Management System commits to being permanently free of charge, dedicating itself to serving 100,000 small and medium-sized dental clinics across China by providing a comprehensive digital dental clinic solution. With enhancing user experience at its core, the system continuously iterates its products and updates features, striving to become the most user-friendly oral care management system in China.

As the hardware entry point in the Yayi Guanjia ecosystem, Fisen Imaging represents one of the core technological barriers of the ecosystem, according to Liu Jinchi, Head of Hardware at Yayi Guanjia.

Fussen Imaging provides dental clinics with a comprehensive range of imaging and diagnostic equipment, including Cone Beam CT (CBCT) systems, intraoral endoscopes, intraoral sensors, and intraoral 3D scanners. The key imaging technologies involved are mastered by only a few manufacturers worldwide. Leveraging its leading R&D platform, Fussen has successfully achieved domestic substitution for dental imaging equipment in China and is the sole R&D team in the country to possess this core technology.

The imaging team was established in 2010. After years of technological accumulation, it has brought together leading figures in dental imaging R&D, focusing on the development of hardware-based dental imaging technologies. From core imaging technologies to imaging system platform development, the team has broken through technological bottlenecks in China’s dental industry through independent R&D.

Among these, Fisen Imaging’s independently developed CBCT has completed its 3.0 technological upgrade, enabling 360-degree comprehensive scanning and delivering superior image quality. Leveraging multi-engine, multi-core parallel reconstruction acceleration technology across both GPU and CPU, the system completes image reconstruction and 3D processing within 15 seconds, achieving an internationally leading technical standard.

According to Liu, Fisen’s hardware technology is mature and its product portfolio is becoming increasingly comprehensive. The company has not only secured a leading position in the domestic market but also successfully exported its products to more than a dozen countries, including the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Bulgaria, indicating substantial market potential.

Currently, leveraging Fussen Imaging, the Dental Steward ecosystem has begun to take shape in its effort to build digital dental clinics: the entire chain—comprising hardware, software, clinic big data, and dental laboratory/consumables marketplace—has been fully integrated.

For denture fabrication, 65% of clinics in China still rely on silicone impression-taking. Leveraging the Dental Steward ecosystem, they can rapidly transition to digital impressions. By directly transmitting intraoral scanning 3D imaging data to denture laboratories and placing orders with a single click, the need to mail physical silicone impressions is eliminated, significantly reducing overall turnaround time and improving processing efficiency.

“The quality of digital 3D models is far superior to that of manually obtained silicone molds, which can reduce the rework rate for denture processing in the current manufacturing industry by approximately 20%,” said Liu Jinchi.

After years of technological R&D and iterative optimization, the Yayi Guanjia Dental Practice Management System and Fisen Imaging have solidified their market foundation and entered a phase of scaled-up deployment. Regarding the other business segments within the ecosystem, partner Mo Junqing stated that various initiatives—including the Yayi Guanjia Business School focused on medical education, Guanjia Financial Services targeting healthcare consumption, and the Guanjia Mall serving as a consumables integration platform—are all progressing in an orderly manner.

Notably, the business school segment has taken the lead in achieving rapid growth. By targeting a vast market of millions of dental healthcare professionals, it has significantly enriched dental medical education, particularly by filling the gap in commercial training for the healthcare sector.

“Steward Finance” benefits from strong backing, with the potential to gradually onboard Ping An Group’s 280 million individual customers. For Ping An Group, Dental Steward provides a valuable financial scenario and accumulates user credit data. Its services can be bundled with Ping An’s health insurance and other insurance products, as well as financial offerings such as credit cards and installment plans, and delivered to Ping An’s customers across various scenarios.

Zhang Jiang, Managing Partner of Ping An Capital, stated, “We are optimistic about the growth prospects of the dental healthcare industry, with the dividends from digitalization poised for release. The Dentist Manager team possesses a profound understanding and extensive long-term accumulation in this field. We are delighted to join them in contributing to the industrial upgrade of China’s dental healthcare sector.”