Tencent's WeDoctor raises $500 mln, values firm at $5.5 bln pre-IPO (updated)

Ping An Healthcare and Technology Co

09/05/2018 04:45

* WeDoctor raises $500 mln led by AIA, NWS
    * Follows IPO by rival Ping An Good Doctor
    * China healthcare spend $1 trln by 2020
    * Private providers looking to tap market

 (Adds AIA statement, details, context, pictures)
    By Adam Jourdan
    SHANGHAI, May 9 (Reuters) - Chinese online healthcare
solutions platform WeDoctor, which is backed by tech giant
Tencent Holdings Ltd  0700.HK , said on Wednesday it had raised
$500 million from several investors, valuing the firm at $5.5
billion ahead of a listing this year.
    The investment round was led by AIA Company Ltd, part of
Hong Kong-listed insurer AIA Group Ltd  1299.HK , and
infrastructure and services group NWS Holdings Ltd  0659.HK .
    WeDoctor is among a spate of technology-driven firms looking
to shake up China's overburdened public healthcare market, with
increasingly affluent consumers willing to pay for ways to get
more convenient access to doctors and health services.
    Founded in 2010, WeDoctor provides diagnosis and online
appointment booking, an issue in China where patients often
queue outside hospitals from early morning to get an
appointment. Users can also consult doctors via the platform.
    The pre-IPO fund raising comes after rival Ping An Good
Doctor, formally known as Ping An Healthcare and Technology Co
Ltd  1833.HK , raised $1.1 billion in an IPO this month but saw
its shares tumble soon after as investors worried about its high
valuation.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1SE29D
    The firm said it would use the funds to accelerate its
expansion plans, helping it better tap into the country's 
"flourishing and enormous market".
    AIA said it had made a "minority equity investment" in
WeDoctor and had an agreement to be its "preferred provider" of
life and health insurance, a boost as insurers race to tap into
China's life insurance market, the world's third largest.
    Chinese healthcare spending is set to hit $1 trillion by
2020, up from $357 billion in 2011, according to consultancy
McKinsey & Co, with private healthcare providers and insurers
looking to take a larger slice of the market.
    WeDoctor, which has four main units focused on healthcare,
cloud, insurance and pharmaceuticals, said it has on its
platform over 2,700 hospitals, 220,000 doctors, 15,000
pharmacies and 27 million monthly active users.
    Deutsche Bank advised AIA and WeDoctor on the transaction.


 (Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Additional reporting by Sumeet
Chatterjee; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Kim Coghill)
 ((adam.jourdan@thomsonreuters.com; +86 21 6104 1778; Reuters
Messaging: adam.jourdan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))