Mengdong Launches 24/7 Fetal Monitoring Smart Device and Files for IPO
“The Full Two-Child Policy” was viewed as a positive development by entrepreneurs in the maternal and infant sector, yet the physical, psychological, and occupational pressures faced by pregnant women have not diminished.
On November 25, Chuanshi Weilai officially launched its smart pregnancy assistant, Mengdong—a small circular patch that enables pregnant women to monitor fetal heart rate and fetal movement data continuously around the clock, thereby providing greater peace of mind. At the launch event, Duan Tao, President of Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, outlined three key requirements physicians have for smart hardware. Subsequently, Mengdong announced that it would go live on JD.com’s crowdfunding platform on November 26, Thanksgiving Day.
Continuous Acquisition of Fetal Heart Rate and Fetal Movement Data
The "continuity" proposed by Mengdong refers to the ability for pregnant women to obtain continuous records of fetal movements over a 24-hour period, as well as high-frequency fetal heart rate monitoring at one-hour intervals.
Clinically, fetal heart rate and fetal movement are critical indicators of fetal well-being. Pregnant women undergo fetal heart rate monitoring during their 13 scheduled prenatal checkups, and physicians also instruct them to perform daily fetal movement counts.
However, Ma Jiliang, founder of Chuanshi Weilai, believes that pregnant women with heightened physical and psychological sensitivity, as well as advanced maternal age mothers, constantly worry about their fetus’s health. Coupled with busy work schedules, diligently recording fetal movements has become a challenging “must-do” task during pregnancy. Therefore, in addition to low-frequency prenatal checkups, they need ways to monitor the fetus’s current status at any time.
Therefore, by leveraging Mengdong’s continuous acquisition of fetal data, pregnant women can monitor their fetus’s long-term dynamic status while sleeping, sitting quietly, or working; they will also receive alerts from the Mengdong App in the event of any abnormalities.
Pregnant women can monitor fetal movements during sleep using Mengdong.
Dean Duan Tao: Ideal Smart Hardware for Physicians, Part 3Major Features
At the press conference, Chuanshi Future announced a partnership with the Mobile Medical Innovation Center of Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital. The two parties will subsequently collaborate on data, scientific research, and clinical initiatives.
Duan Tao stated that the prospects for collaboration with Mengdong stem from the future clinical value of big data. “As the partnership deepens, clinical practice will leverage Mengdong to collect extensive patient data, using big data algorithms to reverse-engineer several scenarios in which fetal complications may occur, thereby improving physicians’ ability to diagnose intrauterine hypoxia.”
“Although we collaborate with many software and hardware platforms, truly impressive products are exceedingly rare.” Duan Tao believes that the smart hardware physicians anticipate should feature consumer-grade aesthetics, medical-grade professionalism, and phenomenal application capabilities, forming a self-contained solution. “It was not until we discovered Mengdong that I felt we finally had a product basically meeting these three criteria, resembling smart hardware produced by an Industry 4.0 nation!”
Chuan Shi Wei Lai Founder Ma Jiliang and Dean Duan Tao Kick Off Partnership Ceremony
Technological Breakthroughs from Low to High Frequencies: Passive Principles
Doppler fetal heart rate monitors used in hospitals during prenatal checkups are classified as prescription-only devices requiring professional operation in the United States. For continuous fetal heart rate monitoring by pregnant women in a home setting, equipment with low operational barriers and proven technical safety is required.
To this end, Chuanshi Future has independently developed a passive acquisition technology. When the Mengdong device is applied to the pregnant woman’s abdomen, it eliminates internal maternal noise interference and passively receives fetal heart rate and movement signals without emitting ultrasound waves toward the fetus. Furthermore, Mengdong’s Bluetooth 4.0 communication protocol is recognized by national industry standards as a low-power technology.
During the on-site product presentation, Ma Jiliang stated, “Mengdong’s sensitive acoustic detection and precise algorithms function like the ears of a seasoned specialist. Of course, this is made possible only by a highly competent technical team.”
According to reports, the head of hardware at Mengdong was formerly a top hardware and design expert at Nokia, while the software lead and algorithm engineers also possess many years of robust professional experience. Therefore, it can be said that Mengdong, developed over ten months, is built upon nearly two decades of professional expertise.
Mengdong Launches JD.com Crowdfunding Campaign
At the Mengdong launch event, maternity lifestyle photographs were on display, alongside video stories narrating the transformations women undergo during pregnancy. The event even opened with a creative micro-play exploring the relationships among expectant mothers, their fetuses, and fetal movements. The entire program was themed “Vibrant Pregnancy, New Beginnings,” highlighting the daily experiences and emotional journeys of pregnant women.
In response to the growing focus on pregnant women, Mengdong launched a 60-day crowdfunding campaign on JD.com at 10:00 a.m. on November 26, Thanksgiving Day. The crowdfunding price starts at RMB 599 per kit, nearly half of its market price of RMB 1,299 per kit. It is reported that Mengdong previously initiated an equity crowdfunding campaign on JD Finance on November 4, achieving over RMB 10 million in oversubscription within just six seconds.
About Mengdong Products
Mengdong connects to the app via directional Bluetooth, allowing users to view data on fetal heart rate, fetal movement, maternal heart rate, step count, respiration, and sleep.
Mengdong Hardware weighs less than 20g, with a thickness of 5mm and a diameter of 4cm. It features a metal core encased in medical-grade silicone, with an adhesive silicone pad on the bottom, allowing it to be attached to a pregnant woman's abdomen for collecting fetal and maternal health data.
Mengdong features a passively operated, radiation-free data acquisition technology independently developed by its team, along with 7*24-hour battery life, enabling pregnant women to use it anytime, around the clock.
Mengdong provides pregnant women with daily health data reports, which are clear, concise, and easy to understand on the app.
When Mengdong Hardware detects abnormalities in fetal heart rate or fetal movement, it prompts the pregnant woman to initiate an online consultation. With a single click, she can connect via voice call to a specialist, who will also have access to her complete daily health data. This provides the specialist with more relevant and practical information, facilitating the formulation of well-grounded recommendations.
Additionally, to promote a healthier pregnancy, Mengdong sets “personalized tasks” and provides recommendations such as health check-ups based on the pregnant woman’s daily data. The app also offers prenatal video tutorials to guide expectant mothers in engaging in scientifically sound and appropriate exercises at different stages of pregnancy.
About the Mengdong Team
Ma Jiliang — Founder, CEO
University of Wisconsin–Madison, Bachelor’s Degrees in Industrial and Systems Engineering and Applied Mathematics.
A founding core member of Mobvoi’s AI voice search team, which successfully secured tens of millions of dollars in financing from Sequoia Capital and SIG. Led the development of voice search products for wearable devices such as Google Glass and Android Wear.
Zhou Ying – Co-Founder, Chief Technology Officer
Top Hardware Design Expert and System Design Expert at Nokia, proficient in the full R&D process of smart hardware; 18 years of experience in hardware R&D. Holds two Chinese patents and one international patent.
Du Jiali – Co-Founder, Chief Architect
Tencent, Senior System Architect; Taobao (Hangzhou Headquarters), Senior Engineer. Extensive experience and practical expertise in big data, cloud computing, data analysis and mining, and recommendation systems. Served 200 million users and handled data mining and recommendation algorithms for a product catalog of over 6 billion items.
Shi Shenyang — Co-founder, Chief Product Officer
Founding member of Qunar.com’s core hotel business, formerly serving as Director of Hotel Products, Member of the Qunar.com Corporate Product Committee, and Head of the Inn Business.
Experienced the entire journey of building a hotel business from scratch to becoming the second-largest player in the industry, with extensive expertise in O2O implementation, platform-based supply chain management, UGC operations, and B2B & B2C product development.
The team has currently secured tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing from Tus-Holdings Venture Capital.