YingGuan Dental's Guo Dapeng: Building a Globally Distributed, Closed-Loop Denture Manufacturing Ecosystem
Driven by accelerating population aging, consumption upgrades, and heightened health awareness among Chinese consumers, coupled with the consumer-oriented nature of dental care and its fully competitive market dynamics, the immense potential of the oral healthcare industry has become a market consensus. Companies and startups in the sector are accelerating their development, continuously garnering substantial investment and validation from the capital markets.
According to incomplete statistics from VCBeat, in recent years, there have been as many as twenty to thirty "Internet + Oral Care" startup projects, among which quite a few have secured investments at the tens of millions level. Notably, several have attracted significant capital interest; for instance, Legend Holdings invested over RMB 1 billion in the dental chain group Bybo Dental in 2014, while Arrail Dental completed its USD 70 million Series C financing round from Qiming Venture Partners in the same year. Dental companies that have gone public one after another include: Keen Dental (listed on the New Third Board in 2014), Amond (listed on the New Third Board in 2015), Huge Dental (listed on the New Third Board in 2015), Dazhong Dental (listed on the New Third Board in 2015), Huamei Dental (listed on the New Third Board in 2015), Dermaveil (listed on the New Third Board in 2015), Modern Dental (listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2015), Jiahong Dental (listed on the New Third Board in 2016), and Yingguan Dental (listed on the New Third Board in 2016).
Driven by strong capital and technological forces, the dental industry is undergoing comprehensive transformation, restructuring, and upgrading. For instance, in the dental prosthesis manufacturing sector, although the vast majority of processing plants still operate as small-scale workshops, a select few enterprises have introduced digital technologies such as CAD/CAM to optimize their processes, significantly enhancing both the production quality and efficiency of dental prostheses.
However, merely introducing digitalization into the production process is far from sufficient, according to Guo Dapeng, founder of Yingguan Dental, which was just listed on the New Third Board this August. Guo founded Yingguan Dental in 2002 and has accumulated 14 years of industry experience, giving him an in-depth understanding of the development trajectory of China’s dental prosthetics processing industry. In his view, digitalized production is only the first step in the industry’s transformation and upgrading. The true future of the sector lies in vertically integrating the dental prosthetics processing demands of offline clinics to create a closed-loop ecosystem encompassing services, design, manufacturing, and distribution, while horizontally consolidating small and medium-sized dental prosthetics manufacturers both domestically and overseas to establish a globally distributed manufacturing landscape.
The Denture Processing Industry Is Entering Its Third Phase: Compressing 10 Days into 25 Minutes
Regarding China's dental prosthetics manufacturing industry, Guo Dapeng believes that it has undergone two stages of development and is currently transitioning into a third stage:
Phase I — The patient has damaged teeth, and the dentist fabricates dentures for the patient;
Phase II – The emergence of specialized denture processing laboratories, which fabricate dentures according to the requirements of patients and dentists;
Phase III — Comprehensively upgrade the precision, speed, and patient satisfaction of the denture processing industry through new technologies such as digitalization, the internet, and the Internet of Things.
Guo Dapeng told VCBeat that there are currently around 4,000 to 5,000 dental prosthetics processing factories across China. The vast majority operate as small-scale workshops with outdated processing capabilities, characterized by long turnaround times and low precision. As a result, patients fail to receive high-quality dental prosthetic products despite their expenditures, which has, to some extent, exacerbated the doctor-patient tensions between dental clinics and patients.
In 2013, Yingguan Dental established a CAD/CAM digital processing center to comprehensively upgrade the denture manufacturing process with digital technology, and in the following years, developed the Yingguan Denture Processing System and the Yingguan Denture Positioning System, both featuring independent intellectual property rights.
So, how significant is the improvement that digitization has brought to denture processing? Guo Dapeng recalls an experience from ten years ago, when a foreign client approached him with a request for a custom-made denture featuring a five-pointed star pattern. Under the technological conditions at that time, the manufacturing difficulty was extremely high; even with the best equipment and manual labor, it took more than ten days to complete. In contrast, with the application of digital processing technology, a denture of similar complexity can now be fabricated in just 25 minutes.
In terms of pricing, for such highly complex dentures, the channel price using conventional manufacturing processes is approximately RMB 1,500 per unit. With the adoption of digital technologies, the price can be reduced to RMB 500 per unit, while precision improves by at least 20%, significantly enhancing user experience and satisfaction.
Guo Dapeng stated that Yingguan Dental is not only introducing digital technologies into its production processes but also aims to expand the development space of the dental prosthetics processing industry both vertically and horizontally. Vertically, Yingguan Dental has chosen to be an early adopter on the “Qiezi Dental Cloud” ecosystem cooperation open platform, which specializes in providing information management services for dental hospitals and clinics across China, to jointly realize an integrated industrial closed loop for dental prosthetics encompassing service, design, processing, and distribution.
Step onto “Qiezi Dental Cloud” to seamlessly tap into vast demand
Traditional denture processing factories face their biggest challenge, beyond low processing efficiency and precision, in securing orders. Guo Dapeng explained that constrained by their operational capabilities and technical expertise, most processing factories can only seek dental hospitals and clinics as clients within a limited geographic radius. This results in small order volumes and limited revenue, leaving them with no financial capacity to invest in technological, human resource, and managerial improvements.
Even for a company like Yingguan Dental, which has a workforce of over 200 employees, relying on sales representatives to visit hospitals and clinics one by one to develop the market and secure orders would not yield particularly impressive order volumes. However, at the beginning of this year, Yingguan Dental identified an excellent sales channel for dental prosthetics: the well-known domestic dental SaaS platform, “Qiezi Kouqiang Yun.”
Guo Dapeng told VCBeat that when he first encountered “Qiezi Dental Cloud,” he thought it was merely a software solution providing information management services for dental clinics. However, as he gained deeper insights, he became thrilled by the channel value “Qiezi Dental Cloud” offers to the dental laboratory industry.
According to the official website of “Qiezi Dental Cloud,” more than 20,000 dental hospitals and clinics have registered to use its services. Building on this foundation, “Qiezi Dental Cloud” is striving to create an ecosystem collaboration platform for the dental industry, actively introducing a wide range of upstream suppliers to dental hospitals and clinics, including those providing equipment, consumables, financial and insurance services, and dental laboratories. This means that by joining the open platform of “Qiezi Dental Cloud,” Beijing Yingguan Dental Technology Co., Ltd. immediately gains access to 20,000 potential B-side customers across China.
Currently, "Qiezi Dental Cloud" is piloting a digital denture processing project on its open ecosystem cooperation platform, connecting dental clinics with dental laboratories. Beijing Yingguan Dental Technology Co., Ltd. has successfully become one of the first batch of dental laboratories to join "Qiezi Dental Cloud." The platform's 20,000 registered dental hospitals and clinics are expected to generate substantial orders for Yingguan Dental. The remaining question is: As an open ecosystem cooperation platform linking clinics with various upstream suppliers, how can "Qiezi Dental Cloud" seamlessly channel the massive offline demand for denture processing from clinics to dental laboratories like Yingguan Dental?
To address this question, VCBeat conducted a special interview with Cui Wei, founder of “Qiezi Dental Cloud.” Cui Wei told VCBeat that Beijing Yingguan Dental Technology Co., Ltd. was willing to be among the first to join the open ecosystem cooperation platform of “Qiezi Dental Cloud” not only because of its SaaS-based dental ecosystem platform, but also because “Qiezi Dental Cloud” has established a ground promotion team of more than 100 members across major provinces and cities in China. Supported by online marketing efforts, this professional ground promotion team rapidly expanded its reach to 20,000 dental hospitals and clinics nationwide within one year. In the future, it will also serve as a key force for “Qiezi Dental Cloud” to deliver a wide range of value-added services to offline clinics.
“Qiezi Dental Cloud” has equipped this ground promotion team with professionally customized intraoral scanning devices. Once dental hospitals and clinics submit appointment requests on the “Qiezi Dental Cloud” platform, the ground promotion staff will arrive punctually with the equipment to perform high-precision intraoral scans for patients. The scan data is transmitted in real time to the backend system of Yingguan Dental, where it undergoes an efficient digital manufacturing process. Dentures can be fabricated within 25 minutes, and delivered to patients as early as the next day.
This approach will accumulate a comprehensive dental big data repository, including electronic health records and oral imaging. Such data not only enables patients to track their medical history and facilitates the provision of superior diagnosis and treatment plans, but also continuously optimizes denture fabrication processes and enhances the quality of denture production.
The seamless integration of massive denture demand is achieved through participation in the open ecosystem cooperation platform of “Qiezi Dental Cloud.” However, how much denture processing demand can Beijing Yingguan Dental Technology Co., Ltd. handle alone? Guo Dapeng’s answer is to leverage denture ERP systems and investment mergers and acquisitions to integrate small and medium-sized processing factories across China and even overseas, forming a global distributed denture processing landscape and leading industry partners to “take off together.”
Integrating Small and Medium-Sized Processing Plants Worldwide to Help Our Team “Soar Together”
Guo Dapeng told VCBeat that Yingguan Dental has developed an ERP system specifically designed for dental prosthetics processing plants. This system is not only used internally at Yingguan Dental but will also support its strategy of acquiring and integrating small and medium-sized dental prosthetics manufacturers, evolving into a nationwide network of dental prosthetics processing facilities.
The denture ERP system developed by Yingguan Dental will deliver its highly efficient workflows, digital production methods, and the substantial denture demand generated through its integration with the “Qiezi Dental Cloud” ecosystem’s open cooperation platform to numerous small and medium-sized denture processing factories. This initiative not only significantly enhances their production and processing capabilities but also breaks through the geographical radius limitations of traditional denture laboratories, thereby greatly expanding market coverage and order volume.
Guo Dapeng stated that small and medium-sized dental laboratory manufacturers are filled with anxiety amid the tide of digitalization and “Internet Plus.” They deeply feel that traditional business models are no longer suited to the rapidly evolving oral healthcare industry, yet they remain highly uncertain about how to execute such a transformation. Moreover, they severely lack essential resources for transition, including capital and talent. Consequently, Yingguan Dental’s strategy of integrating the dental laboratory sector through ERP systems has attracted a surge of interest from numerous small and medium-sized manufacturers. Furthermore, Guo Dapeng told VCBeat that after successfully listing on the New Third Board, Yingguan Dental further expanded its financing channels, laying a solid foundation for subsequent industry consolidation at the capital level.
Yingguan Dental’s integration of the denture processing industry extends beyond China. Guo Dapeng told VCBeat that acquisitions and consolidation of European and American denture manufacturers are underway, and Yingguan Dental’s comprehensive business and production model has demonstrated distinct advantages in its global expansion.
According to Guo Dapeng, the channel price for a single dental crown in Europe and the United States is approximately €500. In terms of delivery time, since most dental crown orders are fulfilled through overseas contract manufacturing, it takes about one month for dental clinics in Europe and the United States to deliver crowns to patients. Regarding workforce size, even the largest processing plants in Europe and the United States employ only around 50 people.
After acquiring dental laboratories in Europe and the United States, Beijing Yingguan Dental Technology Co., Ltd. will comprehensively restructure its denture manufacturing workflow. For instance, after a U.S. dental clinic performs an intraoral scan on a patient, the data is immediately transmitted to Yingguan’s backend system for design. The fabrication plan is then sent to a U.S.-based denture laboratory for production and distribution. This streamlined process significantly reduces time and labor costs, potentially lowering the channel price per single denture from €500 to ¥500 RMB.
To facilitate the integration of overseas dental prosthesis manufacturing facilities, “Qiezi Dental Cloud” plans to expand globally, exporting its oral health ecosystem collaboration platform model to markets worldwide.
By vertically integrating into the “Qiezi Dental Cloud” ecosystem cooperation open platform and horizontally acquiring and consolidating domestic and international processing plants, Yingguan Dental is poised to exert a profound influence on China’s dental prosthesis manufacturing industry in the coming years. VCBeat will continue to monitor this development closely.
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