Pro-Health Raises Tens of Millions in Pre-A Round to Improve Survival Rates for 1.2 Million Premature Infants | FreeS Fund Investment News
Pro-Health hopes to eventually benefit more mothers and children at grassroots maternal and child health hospitals and children's hospitals in second- and third-tier cities.
Recently, Pro-Health (Kayoudi Medical Laboratory) announced that it has successfully spun off from its parent company, Kayoudi Biotechnology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., and completed a tens-of-millions RMB Pre-A funding round as an independent entity. The round was jointly invested by FreeS Fund and Lianli Capital.
Since its founding in 2015, Pro-Health has focused on precision medicine with microbiome as its core disciplinary strength, advocating for high-quality integrated diagnosis and treatment solutions. Its partners include a Chinese Academy of Engineering academician, DuPont, and multiple top-tier maternity hospitals such as Peking University People's Hospital, the PLA General Hospital, and Peking Union Medical College Hospital.
What the Investors Say
Feng Li, Founding Partner of FreeS Fund
Email: feng@freesvc.com
As research advances globally, the scientific and medical communities are increasingly recognizing the significance of the human microbiome in disease diagnosis, treatment, and personalized nutrition. In microbiome and genomics — whether in basic research, talent teams, platform development, or microbiome-based applications — China is keeping pace with the world.
We are closely watching and optimistic about application areas in the microbiome industry: microbial detection, fecal microbiota transplantation, and microbial formulations. Currently, using gut microbiota testing and diagnosis to regulate human health, and improving intestinal and related functions through probiotic supplementation — especially for women and children — represents a new blue ocean for the health industry.
Pro-Health is committed to building the world's best platform for preterm birth prevention and women's and children's health management. The founding team's experience and industry accumulation have enabled it to rapidly establish expert networks in specialized fields and build technological moats. We believe that capital support will accelerate the construction of Pro-Health's closed-loop business model.
▲ Kayoudi CEO Xiang Li.
Recently, three-year-old Pro-Health (Kayoudi Medical Laboratory) announced that it has successfully spun off from its parent company, Kayoudi Biotechnology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., and completed a tens-of-millions RMB Pre-A funding round as an independent entity. The round was jointly invested by FreeS Fund and Lianli Capital.
Following this round, Pro-Health will focus on microbiome-based precision health services for women and children in the broader health sector, supported by three industrial pillars: precision medical products for women and children, physician services, and preterm birth education and telemedicine. Its new business will center on medical laboratory testing and remote physician diagnosis services, AI and big data, and probiotic product solutions — completing a closed-loop layout for precision health services for women and children.
Kayoudi Medical Laboratory was registered and established in 2015, located in the Peking University Medical Industry Park. It is a nationally approved third-party testing service provider and a national high-tech enterprise. Since its founding, the company has consistently focused on precision medicine with microbiome as its core disciplinary strength, advocating for high-quality integrated diagnosis and treatment solutions. To date, Kayoudi Medical Laboratory has completed a closed-loop precision health management layout: precision testing as the entry point, professional physician team interpretation and guidance as support, and personalized intervention as the output.
Kayoudi specializes in cutting-edge microbiome research for women and children. Since 2017, Pro-Health has collaborated with authoritative experts including academician Honghao Zhou of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, a pioneer and leader in Chinese pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics, as well as multiple "Hundred Talents Program" awardees from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Microbiology. It has also partnered with top-tier maternity hospitals including Peking University People's Hospital, the PLA General Hospital, and Peking Union Medical College Hospital, accumulating over a thousand clinical data sets and establishing an exclusive preterm birth risk assessment microbiota database.
According to industry data from the National Health and Family Planning Commission, China sees 1.2 million preterm births annually — the second-highest globally — and preterm birth has become the leading cause of neonatal and infant mortality in the country. More than 50% of preterm births are associated with vaginal infections in women. Based on this, Kayoudi CEO Xiang Li believes that the microbiome-based precision medicine closed loop that the company has already established is an effective means of identifying preterm birth-related risk factors in women, reducing preterm birth incidence, and significantly improving survival rates for preterm infants. Beyond microbiome testing, Pro-Health also offers genomics-based services including pediatric precision medication guidance, pediatric genetic disease screening, and SMA (spinal muscular atrophy) screening.
Currently, Pro-Health provides hundreds of microbiome testing projects, typically priced from roughly one to two hundred yuan to over a thousand yuan. It primarily promotes through medical institutions, providing physicians with effective auxiliary screening tools. This is supplemented by partnerships with vertical online platforms such as Cui Yutao's Yuxueyuan, high-traffic platforms like Alipay, and complementary well-known third-party service providers to achieve precise coverage of target populations.
Pro-Health has exclusively partnered with renowned domestic pediatric expert Cui Yutao to develop world-class testing for children's gut microbiota, individualized medication, and related areas — creating the only online pediatric precision medicine promotion platform. This year, Pro-Health will complete partnership agreements with two branch laboratories: "Hehe Testing," currently China's top vitamin testing platform, and Huayin Health, one of the country's largest third-party pathology diagnosis centers.
Meanwhile, Pro-Health is also collaborating with DuPont, the world's largest probiotic contract manufacturer and supplier, to design and develop various personalized probiotic solutions for users.
Going forward, Pro-Health will continue upgrading its domestic pediatric precision medicine and obstetrics/gynecology microbiome products, and gradually expand the layout of preterm birth-related, individualized medication, and tumor-related products, as well as AI and integrated diagnosis and treatment, into overseas and eventually global markets.
CEO Xiang Li stated: "As a third-party testing service provider, Kayoudi hopes to enable more cutting-edge technologies and precision testing methods to be applied in clinical settings more quickly, and then普及到基层 [reach grassroots levels], accelerating the deployment of China's tiered diagnosis and treatment system in grassroots hospitals. Ultimately, we want more mothers and children in second- and third-tier cities — at grassroots maternal and child health hospitals and children's hospitals — to benefit. Kayoudi will also continue its previous philanthropic tradition, establishing a public welfare fund and participating more in charitable activities."
