Saint Bella Closes Nearly RMB 200 Million Series C1 Round to Build Maternal and Infant Care Platform for New-Generation Families
Dedicated to providing better maternal and infant care services for new-generation families.
Recently, Saint Bella and its parent company Becom International announced the completion of a nearly RMB 200 million Series C1 funding round, led by Tencent with continued participation from Gaorong Ventures. This round represents the largest single financing in China's maternal and infant care services industry. Gaorong Ventures had previously invested in the company's Pre-A round in early 2018 and continued to increase its stake in subsequent rounds. The proceeds will reportedly be used primarily to deepen R&D on intelligent back-end service systems, upgrade customer service experiences, recruit top-tier talent, and continuously expand market share, while also collaborating with authoritative institutions to establish industry standards for the postpartum care sector.
Founded in 2017, Becom International is dedicated to providing better maternal and infant care services for new-generation families. Its flagship luxury postpartum care brand, Saint Bella, is the only brand partnered with global luxury hotels. Combining 24-hour one-on-one nursing care with art therapy, it has captured over 90% of awareness and mindshare among China's high-end user base. In less than four years since 2017, Saint Bella has completed four funding rounds with investors including Tencent, Gaorong Ventures, and listed company Sun Hung Kai Properties.
To date, Becom International has completed nationwide coverage through its luxury postpartum care brand and extended upstream and downstream, including the affordable luxury brand BabyBELLA and the at-home care brand Beihu Home. It has become a lifestyle brand encompassing more care service categories, covering pregnancy care, postpartum care, in-home nursing services, and online health management, maintaining 300% annual growth across its business lines.
According to the 2016-2022 China Postpartum Center Industry Research and Investment Prospect Analysis Report published by Industry Information Network, China's postpartum center market reached approximately RMB 15 billion in 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 42.45%. From 2013 to 2018, the number of postpartum centers in China grew more than sevenfold, from 550 to 4,050. Penetration rates in first-tier cities have continued to exceed 20%, while demand in prefecture-level cities has also been increasing year by year. Within this sector, Becom International has established not only professional nursing capabilities and teams and strong brand marketing acumen, but also a sustainable business model that uses data to support and improve front-end services.
"New Services" Model: Upgrading the Digital-Intelligent Experience
Going forward, Becom International will further strengthen its "new services" model, upgrading the digital-intelligent experience across three dimensions: interaction, operations, and experience. Digital transformation is the inevitable path to overcoming the difficulty of standardizing traditional services. As Becom International executes its nationwide expansion, the company is committed to achieving full-chain online, digital, and intelligent capabilities — enabling intelligent allocation of stores and logistics, as well as standardized, precise, and efficient service systems. Both of Becom International's postpartum care brands, Saint Bella and Baby BELLA, have reportedly achieved full digitization of services, sales, and training.
In the service process, Becom International uses data collected from smart devices, analyzes it through its database, and then customizes precise service workflows executed by professional nursing staff. Digitization makes extreme standardization and 100% safe care possible. Combined with its existing nursing staff training system, this will significantly ensure standardized brand chain expansion. In the future, this digital system can be replicated into more family care fields, such as in-home infant care and elder care.
Innovative Business Model, Building a High-BARRIER Service System
Becom International notes that after nearly four years of operations, its more than 20 nationwide stores have achieved a 99.1% service satisfaction rate, with cumulative reach exceeding 200 million people in 2020. Saint Bella and BabyBELLA have rapidly expanded into core business districts of first- and second-tier cities, securing long-term exclusive partnerships with Rosewood Hotels, The Peninsula Hotels, Park Hyatt, Waldorf Astoria and their groups, achieving average occupancy rates above 85%.
As demand grows exponentially, Becom International will select partnerships with more high-quality major property groups, explore more creative new cooperation models, and integrate into commercial real estate as well as hospital-in-hospital models, continuously building competitive moats. The company also reportedly plans to launch overseas store expansion.
Collaborating with Authoritative Institutions to Establish Industry Standards
Becom International is currently the first domestic institution to build a comprehensive training system. Its Becom Nursing Academy is dedicated to maternal and infant care service education and collaborates with authoritative institutions to participate in formulating relevant industry standards.
All Saint Bella and Baby BELLA stores nationwide now employ the largest number of highest-quality nurses in the postpartum industry, all of whom have completed foundational training at the nursing academy and obtained dual-certification credentials. Becom International guides with standardized service from the training stage, ensuring both the quality and quantity of its own postpartum center staff, while also optimizing and integrating the service industry's supply chain, laying a talent foundation for simultaneous chain expansion and service standardization.
A Lifestyle Brand Continuously Capturing User Mindshare
Next, Becom International will continue improving operational efficiency at the digital level. As it expands its nationwide store footprint, it will gradually connect its online mall and store membership points system, using data for deep user insights to enable more efficient member operations and refined user experiences. It will also increase R&D investment in products and expand brand influence. Becom International continues building brand awareness among young users through collaborations with top brands, celebrities, and KOLs.
In the future, Becom International will gradually build a maternal and infant care service platform with a complete ecological closed loop — spanning pregnancy and postpartum care, in-home infant care, family health management, and the data-driven support chain behind it — becoming the preferred brand for maternal and infant lifestyle.
A Gaorong Ventures project lead commented: "Gaorong has accompanied the company from its first funding round through multiple rounds of increased investment, based partly on endgame thinking and early预判 of the long-term evolution of the postpartum care industry, and partly on recognition of the founding team's continuous growth and exploratory spirit. As a field where healthcare and consumption intersect, and tradition and modernity alternate, postpartum care centers still have much room for extension beyond imagination. We wish the company success in its new chapter, and look forward to Saint Bella bringing beautiful experiences to more new-generation Chinese families."
Source: 36Kr (edited and compiled)
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