Online Insurer Waterdrop Gets $230 Million Injection
The health-care crowdfunding and online insurance sales site Waterdrop, or "Shuidi" in Chinese, has raised $230 million in its D series of funding. The new injection was led by the insurance giant Swiss Re-Insurance and existing backer Tencent Holdings, tech media 36Kr reported.
This is Swiss Re-Insurance's first investment in an insurance startup in China. The other investors in this funding round included IDG Capital and Wisdom Choice Global Fund, which both participated in previous funding rounds, according to Waterdrop's announcement.
The new investment will go toward bulking up Waterdrop's AI, big data and new technologies, said Waterdrop founder Shen Peng, who was a former executive of the online in-demand delivery giant Meituan Dianping.
Prior to this, the company raised 500 million yuan ($72.3 9 million) in B-round funding in March and over 1 billion yuan in C-round funding in May. The company operates medical crowdfunding platforms Shuidichou and Shudi Huzhu, as well as commercial insurance brokerage platform Waterdrop Insurance Mall, Yicai Global reported.
On Tencent's WeChat platform, Waterdrop claims since its establishment in 2016 to have raised nearly 20 billion yuan for patients with severe diseases like cancer and leukemia. Over 250 million people have donated money online through the crowdfunding platform.
Waterdrop Insurance Mall has cooperated with more than 60 insurance companies with up to 6 billion yuan in signed insurance fees, said its general manager, Yang Huang, and it is expected to reach 14 billion yuan in signed insurance fees by the end of this year.
The company was exposed in December for encouraging staff to sign up patients to fill quotas, exaggerating their stories and failing to check their financial details. Shen apologized and claimed the company would investigate the team's service, the South China Morning Post reported.
Facial Recognition Start-up To Go Public
Artificial intelligence start-up CloudWalk Technology, a developer of facial recognition software, plans to go public by the end of 2020, aiming to become the first Chinese AI startup listed on Shanghai's Sci-Tech innovation board (STAR Market), The Paper reported.
As of this Thursday, the Guangdong branch of China Securities regulatory Commission disclosed that CloudWalk, under the guidance of investment bank and brokerage firm China Securities, had completed the registration work for pre-listing. The disclosure didn't refer to a listing date.
A source with CloudWalk indicated that it's likely the company will go public by the end of this year and that an incremental investment of 600 million yuan ($86.79 million) in registration capital this January was an indication of the firm preparing for its IPO.
The company raised $260 million in its latest funding round in May, according to public data.
Established in 2015 as an incubator of the Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, CloudWalk specializes in developing facial recognition technologies. It competes with other major domestic artificial intelligent startups including SenseTime, Megvii Technology and Yitu Technology as well as other international competitors, in the face recognition market, which is projected to grow from its $3.2 billion value last year to $7 billion by 2024, according to data provider Marketsandmarkets.
In May, the U.S. Department of Commerce added CloudWalk Technology to its entity list for its role in aiding the Chinese government in the mass surveillance of China's ethnic minority Uyghur population, The Wall Street Journal reported.
A-Share Listed Companies Report Profits
More than a thousand A-share listed companies disclosed their first-half fiscal results this week, reporting a total of 3.38 trillion yuan in revenues. 613 of the 1,100 companies reported net profit growth compared with one year earlier, and 124 of those reported that their profits had increased by over 100 percent, China Securities Journal reported.
Companies in the integrated circuits, food processing, computing equipment, medical instruments and telecommuting sectors reported the most profitable growth, partially benefiting from the "stay-home' economy during the COVID-19 pandemic and government incentives supporting the IC industry.
Aside from increasing revenues, many listed companies managed to reduce costs during the pandemic and also gained extra income by selling out assets, said the report.
Some high-profile companies, including artificial intelligence chipmaker Cambricon Technologies and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, are expected to release their first-half fiscal reports on August 28.
NetEase Boosts Southwestern Digital Development
Internet Technology Company NetEase Inc., plans to partner with the Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, to build a digital industry innovation base with a total investment of 13 billion yuan ($1.88 billion). It is intended to develop the digital economy in the southwestern region of China, Sichuan Daily reported.
The base will be located in the Singapore-Sichuan Science and Technology Innovation Park, a high-end industrial and residential township in Chengdu's Gaoxin District that had attracted $6.8 billion in investments from Singapore companies and their counterparts in Sichuan province from 2011 through 2018.
This is the second digital innovation base that NetEase has partnered to build in conjunction with municipal governments. On April 2019, NetEase signed an agreement with Nanjing Jiangbei New District to cooperate in the "Technology, Culture and Creative Industry Base," which promotes cloud computing, big data, technological innovation and cultural creativity in the local area.
Both regional bases are backed by NetEase Hangzhou Research Institute, an incubator established in 2006 that supports innovation through combined functions including introducing talent, attracting investment and bolstering industries, said Wang Yuan, vice president and executive dean of the institute.
Tangshan to Host International Logistics Conference
The city of Tangshan, in the northern province of Hebei, will hold the seventh China International Logistics Development Conference on September 14-15, with its focus on the theme of joint response to challenges, mutual learning and innovative development, China Business Network reported.
Nearly 200 international delegates across 80 countries have been invited to participate in an online version of the conference, while about 600 domestic industry and government representatives are expected to attend the conference in person. Registration will open on September 13 and the leaders of Tangshan's Municipal Government will meet with guests in the evening.
The two-day forum will cover various topics including international and domestic development of the logistics industry, as well as port cooperation and construction. The forums will also focus on China's Belt and Road infrastructure plan and Beijing-Tianjin-Heibei coordinated strategies on transportations and logistics.
Tangshan will set the stage by promoting its own modern developments in logistics, its path to further opening-up and efforts in deepening international cooperation, said the spokesman of the Municipal government of Tangshan.
The first China International Logistics Development Conference took place in Beijing.
Sichuan, Jiangsu, Hunan and Hebei provinces have hosted over the past five years.
