Zhongke Yuechuang • Primary Care Innovation Incubator Launched with RMB 1 Billion Fund, Backed by Industry and Capital

In 2016, the internet healthcare sector experienced a sudden capital winter. The various incubators that had emerged amid the investment boom rose and fell in tandem with funding trends, remaining a frequent focus of discussion throughout the first half of 2016—unfortunately, much of this attention was negative.

The controversy began in April this year with rumors of the collapse of “Peacock Agency,” a Shenzhen-based co-working space. The incident immediately drew widespread industry attention, as Peacock Agency ranked among the top in Shenzhen across multiple metrics, including brand recognition, office occupancy rate, quality of tenant companies, and speed of fundraising.

There are numerous incubators in China, but most offer uneven levels of incubation services and lack profitability, making it difficult to escape the “sublessor” trap. This challenge is particularly acute in the healthcare sector, where incubator operators face even greater hurdles due to industry-specific characteristics such as the high specialization of projects and long exit cycles.

However, in the face of a trillion-dollar health and wellness industry, there are always those who continue to enter the market.

On December 27, 2016, the Zhongke Yuechuang General Practice Entrepreneurship Incubation Base—a new “Internet + Healthcare” ecosystem incubation system jointly established by the Guangdong Family Doctors Association and Guangzhou Zhongke Yuechuang Incubator Investment Management Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Zhongke Merchants—was unveiled in Guangzhou. It was reported that the initial fund size amounted to approximately RMB 1 billion.

Established in 2014, the Guangdong Family Doctors Association has consistently focused on primary healthcare, aiming to enhance the service capabilities of grassroots physicians and medical institutions through new technologies and models. By strengthening primary care, the association seeks to promote tiered diagnosis and treatment, a topic previously covered in a dedicated report by VCBeat.

Wu Yuxiong, Executive Vice President of the Guangdong Family Doctors Association, stated to VCBeat, “The establishment of the incubator base aims to cultivate a cohort of enterprises that possess both technological advantages and a sense of social responsibility, enabling them not only to compete globally but also to contribute to the health of the entire population.”

The Guangdong Family Doctors Association has not only launched its self-developed General Practice Information System, the “U-Care” home-based medical and nursing service platform, and the “Guardian” mental health cloud service platform to help build the foundational ecosystem of primary healthcare services, but is also actively seeking and collaborating on new technologies and products conducive to the development of primary care on a global scale. Given its ongoing efforts to identify and integrate innovative technologies and products that advance primary healthcare, establishing an incubation base has become a strategic business necessity.

When discussing the value-added services of the Zhongke Yuechuang • General Practice Entrepreneurship Incubation Base, Wu Yuxiong stated, “The primary care solutions offered by the Guangdong Family Doctors Association have been well received by many local governments across China, and collaborations with local governments have already commenced in multiple provinces and municipalities. These markets will be shared with the enterprises stationed at the incubation base. Meanwhile, through the promotion of numerous proprietary and third-party products, the Association has gained profound insights into the demands of the grassroots medical market, which can help founding teams further refine their products and business models.”

In other words, the Guangdong Family Doctors Association has accumulated extensive industry resources through its years of deep engagement in the healthcare sector, while the other major investor, Guangzhou Zhongke Yuechuang Incubator Investment Management Co., Ltd., along with its backer Zhongke Merchants Group, provides robust support and services to the incubation base from a capital perspective.

Dr. Li Wei, Executive Vice President of CAS Capital, stated that CAS Capital will continue to support the “Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation” strategy and promote supply-side structural reform in accordance with the State Council’s 13th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Strategic Emerging Industries. The firm is committed to supporting a cohort of entrepreneurs who are “dream-driven, passionate, wise, and well-grounded,” while introducing projects characterized by “new models, new technologies, new services, and large markets.” Its goal is to develop its entrepreneurship incubation bases into platforms for business creation and growth, information exchange, and resource integration.

Dr. Li Wei also serves as the Executive Dean of the Guangdong Wotu Enterprise Growth Research Institute and has been continuously operating virtual incubation projects. Unlike physical incubation spaces, virtual incubation focuses more on soft services, such as technology support, resource matchmaking, and financing assistance—areas that precisely represent the incubation service capabilities that physical incubators need to strengthen.

Equity investment relationships established through capital are being consolidated by investors into complete industrial chains and even entire industry ecosystems across various sectors, thereby positioning investment institutions as efficient catalysts for fostering collaboration among enterprises.

Zhongke Zhaoshang’s total assets under management have exceeded RMB 100 billion, establishing it as a leading investment group in China. The firm has invested in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies such as Xiangxue Pharmaceutical, and currently serves as the largest shareholder of multiple listed companies. For enterprises stationed at its incubation base, there is significant potential to share resources within Zhongke Zhaoshang’s broader investment ecosystem and achieve greater synergies within industrial clusters formed through the integration of industry and capital.