It's no secret that investors are desperate to grab a slice of China's vastly promising healthcare sector – a point underlined by an Rmb1 billion ($147 million) funding round for Tencent-backed Medlinker.
The size of the series-D round marks a big step forward for the four-year-old company, which had report just $100 million in earlier funding.
Like other startups in the healthcare sector, Medlinker is planning to use its funding to tap the latest technology, particularly the emerging areas of artificial intelligence and big data, to improve China's underdeveloped healthcare sector. Intriguingly, the company also said in its announcement on its official WeChat page that it planned to explore mergers and acquisitions opportunities.
Medlinker, originally founded in 2014 as a provider of’ social networking services for doctors, later extended its business to provide online-to-offline healthcare solutions, and hospital information system products. It claims more than 500,000 certified doctor are registered on its platform.
This round was led by China Capital Zhongcai Fund Management, a subsidiary of China Investment Securities, followed by multiple existing investors including Sequoia Capital China and China Renaissance New Economy Fund, the company said.
John Hsin, a member of Medlinker's board and a managing director at China Renaissance, said: “Medlinker focuses on delivering value added services to doctors as a group and developing its network of doctors to become its core asset. The CEO has done a great job of forming strategic partnerships with key players in the Internet healthcare industry.”
Among previous backers of Medlinker was Tencent, which participated in the series-C funding round. Pony Ma's company is a prolific investor in startups across emerging sectors in China and boasts WeDoctor, China's biggest privately owned healthcare platform, as one of its portfolio companies.
REGULATORY BACKING
The growth of the healthcare sector reflects strong backing from regulators.
China's State Council in late April published guidance on facilitating internet-based healthcare development, with an emphasis on encouraging collaboration in the sector.
According to National Bureau of Statistics, there were 2.65 million certified doctors as of end-2016, serving the country’s 1.3 billion population. That means for every 10,000 people, there are 20 doctors in China.
The State Council underscored in its new policy that one key value to accelerate the development of internet healthcare is to redistribute the country’s limited medical care resources to benefit more people from relatively remote areas.
This is when technology has a vital role to play.
Online platforms allow doctors from big hospitals in major cities to make basic diagnosis for patients from rural areas. Also, with assistance from technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data, high-quality medical capabilities can be replicated.
Given the fast-improving internet infrastructure and related technology development, online healthcare players seem to be very optimistic despite the fact few startups in the sector generate profits.
