Robin Doctor Files IPO Prospectus: Asthma-Focused Digital Health Platform Backed by Tencent Co-Founder

Dr. Robin’s co-founder, Tan Jiaan, previously worked in the Product Marketing Department of Taiping Life Insurance. Later, Tan Jiaan returned to Guangzhou from Shanghai. Sharing common interests, he joined forces with two other alumni from Sun Yat-sen University, one of whom isITR&DAn engineer and a clinician began to consider co-founding a startup.

By September 2014, the three founders had begun working full-time on startup preparations. Leveraging their respective backgrounds, they quickly determined their business direction: to leverage big data analytics and predictive modeling of patient healthcare-seeking behavior to accurately calculate medical costs, thereby providing patients with health management and medical insurance services.

Dr. Robin’s three co-founders (from left): Wu Dawei, Tan Zongyu, and Tan Jiaan

Compared to the current “capital winter,” the timing of Tan Jiaan’s team’s decision to start a business coincided with the “capital summer” of internet healthcare investment. However, given the myriad of entrepreneurial projects on the market, selecting a breakthrough point was no easy task.

This team, which is clearly technology-focused (with each of the three members specializing in a distinct domain), still aims to leverage technology to address the challenge of selection. Their approach involves first building a generalized data model to analyze and predict healthcare-seeking behavior within health data, with the expectation of identifying single disease conditions that offer significant potential for cost savings or health improvements under internet-based interventions. Ideally, these would be disease areas not yet addressed by existing market players.

Actual health data modeling efforts began in early 2015. Following multiple rounds of testing and iteration, the data model reached preliminary maturity, enabling the assessment and screening of healthcare-seeking behaviors for a single disease type. Ultimately, the company decided to focus its entry point on “Asthma Health Management Services.”

The populations most susceptible to asthma are primarily children and adolescents under the age of 15, as well as middle-aged and elderly individuals over the age of 50. According to a survey released by the Chinese Asthma Alliance in 2013, the prevalence of asthma in China nearly doubled over the previous decade, with the number of patients approaching 30 million. Industry experts believe this figure is likely a conservative estimate.

Another survey conducted by the Chinese Asthma Alliance revealed that approximately 66% of patients in China experienced asthma exacerbations in the past year, 26.8% required acute treatment due to asthma exacerbations, and an additional 16.2% needed hospitalization.

Another crucial piece of information is the significant discrepancy between patients’ self-perception and their actual clinical condition. Approximately 70% of patients believe their asthma is well-controlled; however, according to the international GINA guidelines, only 2% achieve complete control, 51% have partial control, and nearly half of the patients are, in fact, uncontrolled.

However, in fact, according to Academician Zhong Nanshan, Director of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases, clinical evidence has confirmed that "asthma can be controlled over the long term, and certain cases of asthma can achieve clinical cure." Data show that 80% of asthma cases can remain asymptomatic with proper control, eliminating the need for additional medication. The key lies in "continuous monitoring, timely control, and standardized treatment."

Under Dr. Robin’s “Asthma Health Management Service,” asthma patients need only use Dr. Robin’s mobile peak flow meter to accurately measure PEF, FEV1, and FVC, with the device directly uploading data to the cloud. The data center backend instantly analyzes the data transmitted from the terminal, predicts the probability of an asthma attack, and enables early intervention by Dr. Robin’s medical team for control. Alternatively, contracted physicians on the Dr. Robin platform can conduct online follow-ups for their assigned patients, providing precautions or treatment guidance, and scheduling hospital visits as needed.

Tan Jiaan told VCBeat that just the day before, a mother had specifically visited the company with her child to express gratitude. The seven-year-old, who had just started elementary school, suffered from frequent asthma attacks, which forced him to take frequent leave of absence. As a result, he fell behind in his studies due to excessive absences, was unable to participate in physical education classes, and could not play with peers of the same age.

Subsequently, upon a friend’s recommendation, the child’s mother purchased a service plan. Under Dr. Robin’s continuous follow-up and guidance, they made every effort to avoid ubiquitous risk factors. During seasonal transitions, the platform promptly detected any abnormalities, enabling effective control through minimal treatment. As a result, the child no longer fell behind in schoolwork and gradually resumed participation in various sports activities. The child became increasingly cheerful, and the mother felt significantly more at ease.

For internet healthcare companies, achieving deep integration with the insurance industry is an unavoidable challenge. This is particularly noteworthy for a founding team that includes actuaries as core members, as their approach to leveraging complementary services and resources, as well as mutually enhancing business value with the insurance sector, holds significant promise.

According to Tan Jiaan, Dr. Robin has already established partnerships with the Guangdong Family Doctor Association and Sino-UK Life Insurance, among others.

When asked whether Dr. Robin’s internet healthcare platform would be used as an online marketing channel for insurance companies, Tan Jiaan gave a negative answer. He believes that since insurance is a non-essential, low-frequency need, consumers find it difficult to maintain long-term attention and high engagement with a single channel; therefore, he is not optimistic about the effectiveness of online sales.

So, for internet healthcare companies that possess big health data and precise user targeting, what is the greatest value proposition they offer to insurance companies?

Tan Jiaan believes that there are two aspects: the design of health insurance products in the early stage and the operations after the insurance is sold.

In 2015, the premium volume of health insurance in China exceeded RMB 200 billion, representing a year-on-year growth of over 50%. Data projections suggest that the commercial health insurance market could surpass RMB 1 trillion within four years. However, actuaries in the health insurance sector remain in short supply.

Historical factors include the fact that domestic insurers initially offered full product lines; however, given the significantly larger market size of investment-linked and life insurance, the development space for health insurance was internally constrained. Today, with the advent of an aging society, health needs have become impossible to ignore, and the specialized development model for health insurance has gained broad recognition.

Dr. Robin is currently designing insurance products based on asthma health management for insurance companies, a product development capability that is highly attractive to insurers at present.

Another aspect is that after clients acquire insurance companies, Dr. Robin can provide operational services based on a health management platform to minimize the likelihood of claims, improve patients’ quality of life, and help insurers control risks and enhance profit margins.

Currently, Dr. Robin has launched the Asthma Worry-Free Plan. Users follow a specified medical consultation process, with each cycle lasting 90 days. By purchasing the Asthma Worry-Free Plan for RMB 300, users can receive reimbursement of up to RMB 1,000 for outpatient medical expenses per cycle, even covering medications not included in the social insurance formulary. This product has been officially promoted in Guangzhou for two months and has already attracted thousands of paying users.

Dr. Robin plans to build a company focused on HMO operations, initially targeting asthma. Once the business model and closed-loop system in this area are refined and matured, expansion to other disease categories will be considered.

According to Tan Jiaan, the company had recently secured angel investment from one of Tencent’s co-founders.