Supporting the Fight Against the Novel Coronavirus: Our Actions and Call to Action | FreeS Fund

The novel coronavirus outbreak remains urgent, and FreeS Fund has already launched and initiated multiple relief efforts. We are focusing on small and medium-sized hospitals in Hubei — the epicenter where the situation is particularly complex and severe, and where attention and support are desperately needed — providing them with free medical supplies to fight the epidemic.

FreeS Fund is taking the following measures:

1. On January 28, FreeS Fund announced plans to donate funds and supplies totaling 1 million RMB

This money will be used to purchase urgently needed materials for hospitals in key outbreak cities and prefectures across Hubei, including surgical masks, disinfectants, medical latex gloves, and infrared thermometers. We are paying special attention to smaller hospitals that still face severe supply shortages.

Over the past 24 hours, FreeS Fund's special task force "Hearts with Hubei, Fighting the Epidemic" has contacted 19 local medical and related service organizations in Hubei (16 municipal and county-level epidemic treatment hospitals, 2 district/county Red Cross societies, and 1 town government), covering Wuhan, Xiaogan, Huanggang, Xianning, Ezhou, Jingzhou, and Enshi. We gained in-depth understanding of their medical supply gaps — including scarce items, urgency levels, and quantities.

On the supply side, we have mobilized and matched production capacity both domestically and abroad, coordinating the procurement and production of medical supplies. As of 6 PM on January 29, we have purchased 100,000 surgical masks, 70,000 medical latex gloves, 6,500 bottles of disinfectant, and other medical protective equipment.

All of these supplies have been dispatched and are being coordinated for delivery. The first batch is already in transit. We continue to search for medical masks, protective suits, and goggles that meet required standards.

2. FreeS Fund portfolio companies join forces

Since the outbreak began, many FreeS Fund portfolio companies have contributed to the fight against the epidemic in their own ways — we will summarize these briefly at the end of this post. On the evening of January 28, we once again called on more CEOs and portfolio companies in the FreeS Fund CEO group to join the relief effort.

• After our appeal, Huasheng Haoche (花生好车) immediately pledged 1 million RMB in funds and supplies, and mobilized its entire company to find and connect with domestic and international channels to procure scarce materials for the outbreak zone;
• Momself immediately decided to donate 5,600 surgical masks through FreeS Fund, which we have already connected to two hospitals in Xiaogan and Huangshi;
• Shenzhen Hande Network (深圳汉德网络), together with its partner AnserX International Logistics, is providing logistics support for FreeS Fund's donated materials, ensuring efficient and smooth delivery to the outbreak zone;
• 2:10 Animation (两点十分动漫), headquartered in Wuhan — founder Shiyong Wang and three colleagues — is providing donation strategy, experience, and on-the-ground support regarding material types, quality, pricing, and distribution;
• Another Wuhan-based portfolio company, ZhiHua Technology (智化科技), is helping compile medical supply needs from local Hubei hospitals;
• Yangcong Academy (洋葱学院) founder Linfeng Yang, ZhiGuan (植观) founder Liang Tang, Bike Network Technology (比可网络科技) founder Junxian Huang, and industry friend Xiao Liu are actively coordinating domestic and overseas suppliers of medical materials and sharing customs clearance advice...

3. The relief effort needs more help

At this critical moment, the 16 hospitals and 2 Red Cross societies we are in contact with have enormous needs for medical supplies — some of which we currently cannot meet ourselves. We have listed them below, and welcome readers with resources to reach out directly and offer support.

• Masks (N95 plus standard-compliant surgical masks)
• Protective equipment (GB-standard protective suits, goggles, gloves)
• Disinfection equipment (84 disinfectant, disinfection machines)
• Infrared thermometers

Of course, you are also welcome to contact FreeS Xiao Rui anytime (WeChat ID: freesfund) or call FreeS Fund at +86-10-85315180.

The epidemic has highlighted human vulnerability and fragility, but also magnified human resilience and kindness. Let us work together to help the people of Hubei through this difficult time.

4. Follow-up plans

In the days ahead, we will take responsibility for and continue to follow up on medical supply needs assessment and tracking, procurement and delivery of medical supplies, and the use of funds. We will also record every enterprise and individual who participates and helps, and with their permission, share the stories behind these acts of kindness.

5. Finally, we want to share the spontaneous relief efforts that FreeS Fund portfolio companies have undertaken in recent days.

Beyond commercial value, they have consistently worked to create social value. Specifically, they have contributed their care and energy to outbreak-zone hospitals and residents through medical diagnosis, medical supplies, medical insurance services, online education, and more.

• 2:10 Animation donated 200,000 medical masks to support epidemic prevention and control efforts.

• Food brand Three Squirrels has donated bread, instant noodles, and self-heating hot pot worth over 2 million RMB to the Hubei Provincial Charity Federation. Meanwhile, Three Squirrels will procure 1 million RMB worth of specialized masks, protective suits, and other scarce medical supplies, and will subsequently reach out to upstream companies to contribute further.

• 360 Finance, together with the 360 Public Welfare Foundation, has donated 15 million RMB. The 1 million medical masks and 200,000 medical gloves already procured have arrived in Wuhan. In addition, 360 Finance has partnered with China Continent Property & Casualty Insurance to provide frontline medical staff and their immediate family members with 20 billion RMB in total coverage of free exclusive insurance — each person can claim 200,000 RMB in coverage for free.

• As a point-of-care rapid molecular diagnostics company with core technology, on January 20, 2020, Coyote Diagnostics (卡尤迪) successfully developed a nucleic acid extraction-free RNA detection kit for the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) that received validation from authoritative institutions. It enables rapid screening of the novel coronavirus with sample loading in 1 minute, with results available within 1 hour of an outbreak case arriving (30 minutes at fastest).

• Haalthy, which exists "to improve lung cancer cure rates," has partnered with clinical experts from Beijing Chest Hospital, Chongqing Daping Hospital, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, and others to establish an online consultation community for the novel coronavirus. Currently, some patients in self-isolation have shown improvement. Haalthy founder Weini Qiu has also organized fundraising and logistics coordination activities with MIT and Harvard alumni networks, and the first wave of supplies has already been delivered to medical staff and public security personnel in Wuhan.

• Online education company Qingqing Education has decided to make its online teaching platform and tools freely available to all K-12 education individual practitioners and institutions, and to provide operational support services at no cost, until the epidemic ends.

• Full-subject online learning platform Yangcong Academy is providing free school-synchronized online courses to primary and secondary school teachers and students nationwide, and to children of medical staff.

• Mobile English learning platform Shanbay is giving all Hubei users 30 days of free "Reading + Listening" membership service.

• Immune regulation innovative biopharmaceutical developer LuoSheng Biomedical and other industry professionals have helped Wuhan Tongji Hospital, Shanghai Dongfang Hospital, and Zhejiang University Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital procure masks, protective suits, and other urgently needed supplies from the US and domestically, with total purchases exceeding $10,000.

• Women's growth platform Momself has donated nearly 10,000 "mindful rest courses" valued at 99 RMB each; over 6,000 have already been claimed, with some users being Wuhan medical staff.

This is an incomplete list compiled mainly from CEO chat groups and public reports. We will update it when appropriate, as well as report on the specific delivery of medical supplies.

Stay strong, Hubei! When this epidemic ends, the beauty we feel will be the beauty we have fiercely defended.