China-based medicine clinic operator Gu Sheng Tang has secured RMB1.01bn ($150m) in a series D round that included insurance firm China Life, China Money Network reported yesterday.
The round, which consisted of RMB510m in equity and RMB500m in debt, also featured financial services firm China Merchants Bank and state-owned entities including Capital Risk Investment Fund, China Orient Asset Management and two undisclosed government guidance funds.
Gu Sheng Tang runs 31 clinics across 13 Chinese cities which operate through a partnership franchise model. The company owns a 70% stake in each branch while the remaining 30% is held by local doctors.
The management and back-end operations for each clinic are handled by Gu Sheng Tang while the physicians are in charge of the treatment. The model also means medical equipment can be bought wholesale by the company.
Venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates provided an undisclosed amount of funding for Gu Sheng Tang in 2014 before joining Eight Roads Ventures, a VC branch of financial services group Fidelity, for a $25m series B round the following year.
Gu Sheng Tang subsequently raised $70m in a May 2016 series C round led by Starr Companies that included fellow insurance group Ping An Insurance, according to Asian Venture Capital Journal.