MedATC Secures Tens of Millions RMB Series A Funding from Sequoia China to Address Medical Equipment Management Challenges

In China, there are more than 28,000 specialized hospitals and nearly one million medical institutions, holding equipment assets worth trillions of yuan. However, the distribution of these devices across hospitals is fragmented, and their maintenance, repair, and quality control processes lack efficient management.

Shulian Yixin has addressed the long-standing pain point of medical equipment management by leveraging a mobile internet and big data approach. Currently, it collaborates with 349 hospitals, connecting 119,856 devices with a total value amounting to tens of billions of yuan.

Shulian Yixin secured tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing from Sequoia Capital China Fund (hereinafter referred to as “Sequoia China”) this September.

Shulian Yixin’s business model is clear, addressing the long-standing pain points of equipment management in the healthcare industry.

Hospitals possess a vast array of medical equipment, such as CT scanners in radiology departments and ventilators in intensive care units (ICUs). In China, there are over 28,000 specialized hospitals and nearly one million medical institutions, holding trillions of yuan worth of equipment assets. However, with equipment dispersed across these facilities, significant pain points persist, including fragmented distribution and inefficient management of maintenance, repair, and quality control processes. These issues cannot be fundamentally resolved by relying solely on traditional equipment management software. The formal implementation of the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Quality in the Use of Medical Devices in 2016 has imposed higher requirements on medical device management.

The emergence of Yixin Cloud Service™, a SaaS-based cloud platform for medical equipment management under Shulian Yixin, offers solutions to long-standing pain points in the healthcare industry. Yixin Cloud Service is currently the only cloud-based platform in China that integrates mobile internet, cloud computing, big data, and professional management services for medical equipment management. By leveraging mobile internet technologies, it dynamically links to cloud-based records, ensuring security and confidentiality while enabling unlimited expansion of data content.

For clinical department staff, MedCloud Services enables the digitization of equipment records and ensures traceability of maintenance processes, thereby minimizing disputes. For biomedical engineers, it facilitates immediate access to comprehensive repair request information and standardizes professional equipment services, enhancing efficiency. For hospital administrators, it provides real-time visibility into the status of all medical devices across the institution and intuitively presents equipment performance metrics, simplifying management.

Shulian Yixin leverages big data technology to provide forward-looking, precision services to healthcare institutions. For instance, Yang Zimo, Chief Data Officer at Shulian Yixin, accurately predicted the number of hospital equipment maintenance cases for May 2016 based on a subset of Shulian Yixin’s data prior to May 2016 (2,424 maintenance records from 5,871 devices), achieving a final accuracy rate of 91%.

Currently, Shulian Yixin has served Grade A tertiary hospitals and other medical institutions, including Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, Beijing Fuwai Hospital, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, and the Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, and has begun implementation within large-scale medical consortiums such as Meinian Onehealth Healthcare and Phoenix Medical Group.

Currently, Shulian Yixin has partnered with 21 provinces and municipalities, collaborating with 349 hospitals, connecting 119,856 medical devices, with a total equipment value amounting to tens of billions of yuan.

Meanwhile, Shulian Yixin has also attracted the favor of capital.

After the frenzy of capital investment, the capital market has become relatively calm in the past two years. Even during the "capital winter," Shulian Yixin received strategic investments from top-tier industry institutions such as Legend Star and Meinian Onehealth Healthcare shortly after its establishment. In September 2016, it secured tens of millions of RMB in Series A financing from Sequoia China, injecting strong resource momentum into funding, product development, technology, and other areas.

Sequoia China, established in 2005, has consistently ranked among the top firms in China’s venture capital and private equity (VC/PE) sector. Currently, Sequoia China manages funds totaling nearly RMB 50 billion. Over the past decade, the firm has closely tracked economic trends, focusing on four key sectors: Technology/Media, Healthcare, Consumer Goods/Services, and New Energy/Clean Technology/Advanced Manufacturing. It has invested in more than 500 high-growth companies characterized by distinct technological advantages, innovative business models, and strong potential for high returns. These portfolio companies include many well-known domestic enterprises such as Alibaba, Vipshop, Sina.com, JD.com, Ourpalm, Qihoo 360, Jumei, Momo, Sinnet, Dianping, Meituan, Meilishuo, Toutiao, AutoNavi, Ganji.com, DJI, Vantone IT Services, Noah Wealth Management, Wanda Cinemas, Alibaba Pictures, Deppon Logistics, ZTO Express, Betta Pharmaceuticals, Snibe Diagnostics, and BGI Genomics.

This time, Sequoia has set its sights on the medical device services sector in the internet era.

“The future development of medical devices will focus on ‘minimally invasive, non-invasive, digital, networked, simplified, and intelligent solutions.’” Ms. Yang Yunxia, Managing Director at Sequoia China, presented this forecast on the future direction of medical devices while discussing investment trends in the healthcare industry. Her insights were based on an analysis of the changing trends in total domestic and international medical device investment since 2000, as well as a comparative analysis of emerging niche investment sectors within the industry.

Yang Yunxia shared three major guiding principles for investment logic in the medical device sector: demand-driven, timeline-driven, and exit-driven. She clearly pointed out that diagnostics and medical treatment, which directly serve disease control, are the current focus of attention. In the next phase, prevention and rehabilitation will emerge as the rising stars of the healthcare industry.

Industry shifts and asset allocation have drawn significant attention from investors, serving as key criteria in their investment decisions. Bullish on the prospects of healthcare big data and artificial intelligence in the new internet era, Sequoia China cited this optimism as a major reason for its investment in Shulian Yixin.

Shulian Yixin’s team integrates resources from big data scientists and medical device industry experts. Its core team members hail from GE Healthcare, Siemens Healthineers, Sinopharm Holdings, Alibaba, Alipay, Tencent, the Big Data Research Center of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, and Ruijin Hospital, bringing extensive industry experience and a strong capability for service innovation.

Ma Xiao, CEO of Shulian Yixin

Serves as Deputy Director of the Big Data Research Center at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, with 11 years of experience in the healthcare and telecommunications industries.

Qiu Tao, Co-CEO of Shulian Yixin

Six Sigma Master Black Belt and senior expert in the healthcare industry. Served at GE Healthcare in China and the United States for 15 years, with comprehensive experience spanning operations, R&D, sales, marketing, and services. Completed the Operational Leadership Program, the Senior Commercial Leader Development Program, and the Senior Leadership Development Program.

Yang Zimo, CDO (Chief Data Officer)

Published more than ten papers in international SCI-indexed journals, and achieved the best performance in the over 30-year history of Chinese participation in the Mathematical Contest in Modeling/Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (MCM/ICM), ranking first globally. Previously led projects including Alibaba Group’s precision email marketing (Taobao), offline Taobao search and recommendation systems (Koubei.com), and personalized Alipay homepage (Alipay), holding multiple internal algorithm patents at Alibaba.

Duanmu Heng CPO (Chief Product Officer)

Formerly served as Project Manager for Global Developer Partnerships, Asia Strategic Development, and the Education Marketing Department at Apple Inc., as well as an Independent Project Consultant. During his tenure at Tencent, he oversaw the product lines for the Weibo and QQ mobile clients.

On October 27, at the “2016 Medical Devices and Data Intelligence Summit,” Shulian Yixin announced two major developments: the completion of its Series A financing and the launch of its version 2.0 product.

Hosted by the Chengdu Big Data Alliance and organized by Shulian Yixin, the summit drew high-level attention from leaders of the Sichuan Provincial and Chengdu Municipal Governments, attracting hundreds of industry experts, hospital partners, and senior consultants from across China.

Ms. Yang Yunxia, Managing Director of Sequoia Capital China; Lu Gang, Partner of Legend Star; and Qian Jianguo, Chairman of the Shanghai Branch of Medical Engineering under the Chinese Medical Association, attended the event and delivered remarks.

Meanwhile, the “Medical Devices and Data Intelligence Laboratory,” jointly established by the Big Data Center of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China and Shulian Yixin, was unveiled as a demonstration application unit of the National Health and Family Planning Commission’s Research Institute on Medical Health Big Data. The two parties will leverage their professional research capabilities and innovative service models to jointly explore new frontiers in innovative services for medical devices.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the National Health and Family Planning Commission will vigorously promote the development of emerging internet healthcare models and facilitate the deep integration of information technologies—such as cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things, and mobile internet—with health services. The “Special Plan for Scientific and Technological Innovation in the Health Industry during the 13th Five-Year Plan Period (Draft for Comments)” is expected to be officially released within the year.

Guojin Securities’ research report states that strong national policy support is ushering in the era of big data in healthcare. In the short term, it remains optimistic about the construction and operation of regional health and medical big data platforms; in the long term, it favors the integration of health and medical big data with artificial intelligence. For the capital markets, once the special plan for technological innovation in the health industry is implemented, a trillion-yuan investment boom will be unleashed.