Tencent, Jeneration Capital Lead $305 Million Series E1 Round for Medbanks

Tencent and Asia-based growth capital asset manager Jeneration Capital have jointly led an investment of nearly 2 billion yuan ($305.3 million) in the Chinese oncology medical service platform Medbanks.

The transaction is Medbanks’s Series E1 round and Tencent’s fifth investment in the firm. The Chinese social networking and gaming giant led the firm’s Series D+ round in November 2019, in which MedBanks raised about 1 billion yuan.

Tencent had first invested in the startup in 2016 and doubled down on its position by joining Medbanks’ Series C round totalling tens of millions of US dollars in early 2018, as well as its 400-million-yuan Series D round in January 2019.

The new round was also backed by 5Y Capital, an investment firm formerly known as Morningside Venture Capital; Forebright Capital, a spin-off from state-owned China Everbright Limited; and Wu Capital, the family office of Chinese real-estate mogul Wu Yajun.

An unnamed large-scale insurance private equity fund participated in the deal, said Beijing-based Taihecap, the exclusive financial adviser of the deal, in a statement on Monday.

Founded in 2014 and fully known as Medbanks Network Technology, the startup is a big data-based, one-stop medical and healthcare services provider. The firm helps medical institutions and pharmaceutical firms coordinate clinical trials for new drug application and facilitate their efforts in the promotion and commercialisation of approved products.

Medbanks claims to be one of China’s biggest oncology-focused site management organisations (SMOs), which refer to providers of clinical trial-related services. Its customers under this business line include contract research organisations, drug makers, biotech companies, medical device developers, and clinical sites.

The startup connects with over 20 insurance companies, through which it uses big data capabilities to design and deliver customised medical care & insurance products to individual and corporate clients. It also operates a network of nearly 80 pharmacies that span across 56 cities and 29 provinces in China, providing medicines, medical apparatus, and nutritional supplements to consumers.

Upon the completion of the Series E1 round, the startup aims to further strengthen this “closed-loop” ecosystem that serves major stakeholders in China’s medical treatment and healthcare industry.