i.baby announces completion of Series-A funding worth tens of millions of RMB | Shunwei Investments

Shanghai, 3 November 2016. i.baby announced the completion of its Series-A round of funding. The round was led by Frontline Bioventures, and also includes Shunwei Capital which was also the lead investor in i.baby in the previous round. This round of funding is expected to be helpful as the company seeks to accelerate the establishment of its service network as well as build up and enhance its service capabilities. i.baby has previously received funding in a Pre-A series round in 2014 led by Shunwei Capital.

i.baby is a professional healthcare entity that works with patients expecting to, or seeking to, become pregnant. The team at i.baby comprises “returnee” physicians from Harvard University working alongside experts working in the areas of gynecology, endocrinology and assisted reproduction. i.baby, which holds the necessary healthcare institution license(s), uses a model that combines local outpatient services with online services. Services provided include: assistance from a private pregnancy consultant throughout the entire process, the provision of advice remotely, and premier customized services for the patient offline. These professional services allow the patient to undergo the process of becoming pregnant in a comfortable manner.

i.baby’s professional service team, which comprises of personnel from well-known high-end healthcare institutions, has established a multi-disciplinary collaborative system called the MLP (i.e., Medical, Life, Psychological) system. Patients are provided with guidance in biological, lifestyle and psychological aspects by assisted-reproduction specialists, nutritionists, psychologists, and fitness experts, etc.

The company employs Joint Commission International’s (JCI’s) system of quality management, and currently operates outpatient clinics in Shanghai and Shenzhen. At these clinics, highly-experienced practicing specialists provide patients with healthcare services in gynecology, reproductive health, the treatment of infertility, and traditional Chinese medicine services, etc. Work is currently being done to establish an outpatient clinic in Hangzhou. i.baby hopes to provide customers with a one-stop professional service experience for patients in a comfortable environment within its clinics.

On top of in-person outpatient services, i.baby’s professional team also provides online services designed to help patients get pregnant, including remote outpatient services, an online “pregnancy club” (evaluation of reproduction conditions, VIP consultation, the answering of online queries during working hours, case tracking and management), a fat-reduction “camp” for patients with polycystitis and hoping to become pregnant (diet and fitness guidance, treatment for polycystitis and guidance for body-fat reduction). i.baby hopes to deliver its professional and detail-oriented fertility services and solutions to users by online means.

At the same time, i.baby has already established close partnerships with renowned domestic and international institutions specializing in assisted reproduction, such as the Hanabusa Women Clinic of Japan and the Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Health Hospital. These partnerships are conducted in the areas of concept promotion, consultation and treatment, and assisted reproductive services at home and abroad. With i.baby a licensed healthcare institution, the company is also looking into the provision of new services such as the pre-pregnancy screening of hereditary diseases, a through-train PGS non-invasive tube monitoring service, and a service program targeted at “dads-to-be”.

As fertility problems gradually mount within the Chinese population, the scale of the Chinese fertility services market has achieved hundreds of billions of renminbi; the relaxation of the “one-child policy” is also expected to drive rapid market growth.

In the opinion of Shunwei Capital partner Li Rui: “In modern society, babies are increasingly becoming the center of attention in large and small families alike. The areas of pre-natal and post-natal care are also receiving growing attention from the market. Shunwei Capital has always paid high levels of attention to healthcare, and maternal and child healthcare is one of the key segments of this area. i.baby’s team is one of those rare teams with deep experience in clinical medicine and hospital management and which attach great importance to the user experience at the same time. We are very honored to be able to invest early in this outstanding team. At the same time, we congratulate i.baby on obtaining funding from a professional healthcare fund like Frontline Bioventures. We hope to be able to work together with Frontline Bioventures to establish i.baby as the platform of choice for childbearing and childrearing services.”

Bi Ye, founder, CEO and Chairman of i.baby said: “We are thrilled to receive joint funding from Frontline Bioventures and Shunwei Capital. This is recognition of our business model and the execution capabilities of our team. Additional funding can help us to accelerate the development of our business, and at the same time the resources and channels of these two institutions can also help us to optimize our business model, attract more talents, and access more partnership opportunities. My team and I take this as a great opportunity to further enhance our service capabilities and to expand our service network.”