Shuidi Mutual Aid Completes Nearly RMB 500 Million Series B Round, Gaorong Ventures Continues to Increase Stake
Safeguarding Hundreds of Millions of Families
On March 27, 2019, Waterdrop Inc. — the parent company of Waterdrop Mutual Aid, Shuidichou, and Waterdrop Insurance — officially announced the completion of its Series B funding round, raising nearly RMB 500 million. The round was led by Tencent, with participation from Gaorong Ventures, IDG Capital, and DST Global founder Yuri Milner, among other notable investors. Data from platforms including IT Juzi, Chuangtoupai, and Crunchbase showed that this was the largest financing round in China's internet health insurance and health protection sector since 2018.
Shen Peng, founder and CEO of Waterdrop Inc., stated: "In 2019, Shuidichou will continue to help more families impoverished by illness access medical care, while vigorously developing Waterdrop Mutual Aid and health insurance services to create a better user experience in health insurance and health protection. We will focus the proceeds from this round on building our health insurance expertise and applying artificial intelligence to our health insurance business."
Shen Peng, founder and CEO of Waterdrop Inc.
As a supporter of Waterdrop through its angel, Series A, and Series B rounds, Yu Haiyang, Executive Director of Tencent's Investment and M&A Division, said: "Tencent Investment adheres to a research-driven investment approach and is firmly optimistic about the market potential of internet health insurance. The Waterdrop founding team is highly capable, particularly in their learning ability and rapid organizational evolution. They have demonstrated industry-leading strength in China's tier-3, -4, and -5 city health insurance markets, and we will continue to strongly support Waterdrop's rapid growth."
After co-leading Waterdrop's angel round, Gaorong Ventures continued to participate in its Series A and B rounds. Chang Chen, founding partner of Gaorong Ventures, said: "Ensuring people have protection when healthy and help when sick — Waterdrop is doing work that stems from genuine goodwill. Shen Peng is an outstanding young entrepreneur who wants to use internet technology to do something meaningful for society. We believe that with the team's excellent capabilities, Waterdrop will become a leader in the internet health protection sector."
Over the past three years, Waterdrop's various businesses have grown rapidly across China's tier-3, -4, and -5 cities, making the company a near-unicorn in internet insurance and health protection and securing its position in the first tier of China's internet health insurance platforms. Starting in the second half of 2018, investment enthusiasm in the new economy sector cooled, but Waterdrop grew against the trend, attracting support from numerous top-tier investors with a significant valuation increase from its Series A round.
Waterdrop's core businesses include Shuidichou, Waterdrop Mutual Aid, and Waterdrop Insurance, currently operating primarily through official accounts and mini-programs within the WeChat ecosystem.
Shuidichou is China's leading personal critical illness fundraising platform, the pioneer of the zero-fee fundraising model, and the fastest-growing fundraising and targeted poverty alleviation platform in the country. As of the end of last year, it had successfully provided free fundraising services to nearly one million financially distressed patients with serious illnesses, with cumulative fundraising exceeding RMB 12 billion and over 400 million individual donations.
Waterdrop Mutual Aid is China's leading medical expense mutual aid community. By organizing members to help each other collectively guard against risks like cancer, it provides users with low-barrier, high-value, inclusive medical protection. Membership has now exceeded 75 million, with over RMB 350 million in mutual aid payments disbursed to more than 2,500 families.
Waterdrop Insurance is the internet health insurance selection platform that Waterdrop has built with full commitment. It has already established partnerships with over 50 well-known domestic insurance companies, launched more than 60 high-value insurance products, achieved monthly premium volume exceeding RMB 200 million, and serves nearly 10 million insured users. Its distinctive "traffic + scenario" model has enabled it to quickly stand out in the industry.
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