Online doctor site from China's Ping An Group scores $500M Series A

An online site that joins doctors and patients together in China has secured a whopping $500 million in Series A funding from Chinese and overseas funds, putting it on track for a valuation of $3 billion.

In a release, Shanghai-based Ping An Haoyisheng (Good Doctor)--part of the Ping An Group--said the service that it labels as "online-to-offline" has garnered 77 million registered users since the launch in April 2015, with as many as 250,000 consultations recorded daily.

The numbers are staggering even for China, where such services have met demand from patients frustrated with service levels at public hospitals where doctors face increasing patient loads and low pay, while patients may have to endure long waiting times for a consultation.

The service grew out of a health and medical mobile app launched by Ping An Insurance, a flagship of the group.

"China's Internet healthcare industry is still in the preliminary stages of development," said Wang Tao, chairman and CEO of Ping An Health Cloud. The company formed in April 2014 with registered capital of $50 million.

"Ping An Good Doctor expects to take the lead in the construction of the healthcare ecosystem through the improvement of the supply chain in healthcare, the integration of online and offline resources, the promotion of big data in healthcare, and the establishment of the closed circle in insurance payments."

None of the investors were named in the release, but earlier interest in such ventures has seen state-owned companies in healthcare take part directly or through venture arms.

- here's the release
- read the story from China Money Network