Xingxiangyuan: Where Every Doctor Is an Entrepreneur Files for IPO

A 30-minute drive from Hangzhou East Railway Station brings you to the office of Xingxiangyuan Doctor Group (hereinafter referred to as “Xingxiangyuan”), located on Zijing Road in the Xihu District. On one side of the tree-lined street, a meandering path leads inward, where the first thing that catches the eye is the sign bearing the characters “Xingxiangyuan” in black on a yellow background. Shen Farong, founder of Xingxiangyuan, explained that this plaque was calligraphed by the abbot of Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou. Shen is a friend of the abbot. “Whenever I’m in a bad mood, a few cups of tea at Lingyin Temple instantly make my worries vanish,” he said.



Stepping inside, one is greeted by antique-style tables, chairs, doors, windows, and calligraphy paintings, along with a tranquil retreat area surrounded by flowing water and adorned with flowers and plants. Were it not for modern equipment such as computers placed on the desks, it would be difficult to associate this space with an office. In fact, this serene and elegant venue will soon be transformed into a clubhouse for Xingxiangyuan. To accommodate more employees, Shen Farong and his team have already selected a new, larger office space.

During an exclusive interview with VCBeat, Shen Farong was busy recruiting talent for Xingxiangyuan. With key executives such as the CEO, CFO, and HR Director successively in place, Xingxiangyuan’s pre-planned projects are set to officially launch.

Two years ago, Shen Farong bid farewell to his 29-year career as a physician within the public healthcare system and joined Zhejiang Greentown Cardiovascular Hospital (hereinafter referred to as “Greentown Hospital”), a specialized, non-profit private hospital. At that time, the 51-year-old Shen had already achieved considerable prominence. He was a renowned cardiovascular specialist in China, a recipient of the State Council’s Special Allowance, and listed among the “Top 100 Famous Physicians in China.” According to conventional wisdom, someone at this stage of life would typically prefer to remain within the public system for a more stable and lower-risk professional and personal life. However, Shen, who has an innate passion for trying new things and embracing challenges, was more drawn to the broader opportunities available outside the public system.

In just a few months, Shen Farong made the decision to leave his position at a public hospital. In fact, before joining Zhejiang Greentown Cardiovascular Hospital, Shen had his reservations: private hospitals often suffer from a poor reputation among the general public and have limited patient inflows; would moving to a private hospital tarnish his hard-earned reputation? As it turned out, Shen’s concerns were unfounded. Moreover, he has propelled Greentown Hospital to new heights of development.

First, leveraging the extensive professional network he had cultivated over many years, Shen Farong recruited a cohort of leading cardiovascular specialists from across China, thereby perfecting the comprehensive cardiovascular specialty system at Greentown Cardiovascular Hospital. Second, the patient-centric philosophy has been more effectively implemented and executed at Greentown Hospital. This year, Shen Farong has once again ventured into new territory by founding Xingxiangyuan, marking his cross-industry expansion into the internet healthcare sector.

Leaving the public sector, Shen Farong hoped to return to his original aspiration of “benevolent healing,” and founding Xingxiangyuan was likewise driven by this intent.

Doctor Co-Creation Platform

In June this year, Xingxiangyuan officially launched. In July, it secured angel-round investment worth tens of millions of yuan. Positioned as “an assistant and platform for physicians’ entrepreneurial ventures,” it is China’s first crowdsourcing platform for physicians. Its initial goal is to facilitate multi-site practice, particularly multi-disciplinary team-based multi-site practice, while providing legal protection and business support for physicians.

Shen Farong stated that the establishment of Xingxiangyuan benefited from favorable timing, geographical advantages, and strong human support.

First, national policies have begun to encourage and support physicians in practicing at multiple locations, with Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces adopting the most lenient regulations. Under Zhejiang’s new policy on multi-site physician practice, which officially took effect on March 1 this year, “medical institutions shall allow employed physicians to dedicate one day per week during statutory workdays to multi-site practice.” Physicians holding the title of associate chief physician or above, as well as medical technologists in key or scarce specialties, are permitted to practice at any medical institution within Zhejiang Province without needing to register for multi-site practice. It is reported that over 3,000 physicians in Zhejiang have registered for multi-site practice, more than 1,000 have registered for independent practice, and over 4,000 have been released from exclusive employment constraints with their original institutions.

Secondly, there is substantial objective demand for establishing such a platform. In Zhejiang Province alone, there are more than 500 private hospitals of considerable scale, while Hangzhou, the provincial capital, hosts over 70 physical examination centers and numerous health management centers. However, a pervasive issue is the scarcity of high-quality physician resources. With the establishment of the Xingxiangyuan platform, extensive expert resources can be integrated into the system, allowing for streamlined scheduling of physicians’ clinical consultations akin to arranging teachers’ class schedules. “Xingxiangyuan aims first to address the pain point of information asymmetry between physicians and practice locations,” stated Shen Farong. He noted that following the relaxation of regulatory policies, a major challenge facing physicians is determining where to engage in multi-site practice.

“Within the healthcare system, information barriers exist between hospitals’ staffing needs and talent mobility. A physician seeking to practice at multiple locations often spends considerable time learning about hospital demands, while a hospital in need of talent struggles to quickly assemble a team of multi-site practitioners.” Shen Farong, a veteran clinician, is deeply aware of this reality. A key prerequisite for truly empowering physicians as “free agents” is ensuring secure and guaranteed arrangements for their multi-site practice venues.

In addition, Xingxiangyuan will serve as a platform for physician-led innovation. Innovation primarily encompasses two areas: first, education, such as providing continuing medical education and connecting young physicians with expert mentors through the platform; second, scientific research. Many registered physicians face challenges in finding suitable platforms for conducting research, including basic science and translational medicine. Xingxiangyuan has already signed strategic cooperation agreements with multiple pharmaceutical R&D enterprises and research institutions, including the Zhejiang University School of Medicine and the College of Life Sciences at Zhejiang University. In the future, physicians joining Xingxiangyuan will be able to directly access laboratories affiliated with these strategic partners through the platform to conduct scientific research.

As the President of Zhejiang Greentown Cardiovascular Hospital and Director of its Heart Center, Xingxiangyuan will also leverage Zhejiang Greentown Cardiovascular Hospital to facilitate physicians’ multi-site practice.

Group Operations

As planned, Xingxiangyuan will establish a multidisciplinary practice team, open to physicians from private hospitals, public hospitals, and even community health centers. Currently, all physicians on the Xingxiangyuan platform are associate chief physicians or above from Grade 3A hospitals in Hangzhou. The Xingxiangyuan Physician Group will primarily promote team-based practice, while also arranging individual practice based on physicians’ competencies.

“We only operate as a platform,” Shen Farong told VCBeat. Xingxiangyuan functions as a group entity that establishes small physician groups with doctors from various specialties, such as gastroenterology, ophthalmology, radiology, and maternal and child health. Each physician group operates as a small team, majority-controlled by Xingxiangyuan, with team members holding equity stakes. “Every doctor holds shares, making each one an entrepreneur, and all cooperation agreements are exclusive,” Shen explained. In his view, exclusive agreements are essential to achieving mutual benefits for both the platform and the physicians. “Non-exclusive agreements tend to dilute doctors’ focus.”

Shen Farong

Xingxiangyuan’s business model is clear: when the group assigns a team to be stationed in a hospital, not only do physicians earn service income, but the group also generates revenue from management fees.

Unlike WeDoctor Group and Ping An Good Doctor, Xingxiangyuan exclusively contracts with renowned specialists and senior physicians. For instance, in gastroenterology, it only partners with the top ten experts in Zhejiang Province. “Renowned doctors do not struggle to attract patients; as long as appropriate information promotion and publicity are carried out, patients will proactively seek their services.” This represents a key characteristic of Xingxiangyuan: prioritizing high-end resources before gradually penetrating the lower-tier market. “Starting with lower-tier resources would be overly asset-heavy, whereas the high-end segment is relatively easier to develop. Once this segment matures, expansion into the lower-tier market can follow,” Shen Farong told VCBeat.

To this end, Xingxiangyuan will assign a Director of Business Development and an Operations Director. The Director of Business Development will be responsible for project development, while the Operations Director will oversee the specific implementation and execution of projects. Physicians collaborating with Xingxiangyuan need only focus on their core clinical responsibilities.

As planned, Xingxiangyuan will first establish Hangzhou as a pilot market for its high-end segment, while targeting the low-end market by collaborating with the government to penetrate grassroots medical institutions such as community health centers.

Moreover, all physician groups under Xingxiangyuan have established partnerships with offline physical hospitals, including Zhejiang Greentown Cardiovascular Hospital, which serves as the offline practice site for its cardiovascular physician team. It is reported that, given the hospital’s current patient volume, the existing bed capacity at Zhejiang Greentown Cardiovascular Hospital is no longer sufficient to meet demand. Shen Farong introduced that “Greentown Cardiovascular Hospital will retain its comprehensive specialties—such as internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, and pediatrics—at its current location, while planning to construct a new specialized cardiovascular building on a newly acquired site in Chengxi (West Hangzhou). The 250 beds freed up by this relocation will be made available to physicians on the Xingxiangyuan platform.” Regarding assistant resources for surgeons, physicians may either choose their own assistants or have Xingxiangyuan arrange them.

“Now, others are proactively approaching us to discuss collaborations,” said Shen Farong. Currently, Xingxiangyuan has established teams in more than ten specialized fields, including a gastroenterology physician group and a medical imaging physician group, which have already settled in. Once the physician groups reach a certain stage of development, Xingxiangyuan will expand into chronic disease management.

Shen Farong told VCBeat that chronic disease management is also divided into high-end and low-end markets. “The profit model for the high-end market is relatively clear, such as designing somewhat personalized management services for this population; whereas the profit model for the low-end segment still requires further exploration.”

In addition, Xingxiangyuan is planning a mobile application focused on cardiovascular health and medical social networking. The developer of this app is a long-term partner of Xingxiangyuan, responsible for the development of all its internet-related products. Following the launch of Xingxiangyuan’s official website, the mobile app will soon be released as well. Notably, the IT company collaborating with Xingxiangyuan not only provides technical solutions but also conducts preliminary market research and analysis jointly with Xingxiangyuan. This ensures that the final app offers not only the convenience typical of internet products but also better aligns with the usage needs of healthcare-related user groups.