In one of the largest digital health funding deals of the year, DXY, an online community for clinicians in China, announced the completion of a $500 million financing round. Private equity firm Trustbridge Partners led the funding round, along with Tencent and GL Ventures.
The Hangzhou-based company was founded 20 years ago by Li Tiantian, DXY’s current chairman. DXY started as an online platform for the medical community. In July 2020, the company released a “dual-core strategy” that connects its brand focusing on the public DX Doctor with its brand targeting physicians DXY.cn to gather professional strength and offer reliable products.
The company’s competitors include SoftBank-backed PingAn Good Doctor and WeDoctor. According to the company, its website has more than 8.6 billion views.
DXY has raised over $680 million to date. Its earlier investors include Xiaomi founder Lei Jun’s Shunwei Capital and DCM. Since its inception, the site has attracted some 130 million consumers, more than 9,000 medical institutions, and 50,000 doctors who have provided online consultation. According to Techcrunch, the platform has a current user base of 20 million and counts Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca among its major clients.
As the pandemic took hold, hospitals and people around the world rushed to shift their activities online, spurring demand for healthcare apps. DXY was among the first in China to introduce a real-time COVID-19 tracker at the beginning of the outbreak.
DXY plans to use the funds to build out both its physician-facing and consumer-facing efforts. With this financing, the company also plans to keep consolidating its core pillar – physicians’ expertise, supporting the growth of Chinese doctors.
Digital Health companies in the first nine months (9M) of 2020 raised $10.3 billion.
