Yaoshibang, a Guangzhou-based business-to-business (B2B) pharmaceutical trading platform, announced that it has completed a US$133 million new round of financing from Tiger Global Management, DCM Ventures and China’s H Capital.
The new funding comes on the heels of a RMB420 million (US$65.7 million) series C round led by Shunwei Capital and DCM Ventures in June, bringing the total capital raised by Yaoshibang in 2018 to nearly US$200 million.
Founded in January 2015 by Zhang Buzhen, former vice president of Chinese online real estate portal Soufang.com, Yaoshibang started as a B2B pharmaceutical trading platform. It also provides educational services, databases of diseases and drugs, and career services to pharmacists.
Yaoshibang has reached RMB10 billion (US$1.44 billion) gross merchandise volume in 2018, with its monthly pharmaceutical orders exceeding one million and its services reaching 200,000 drugstores and clinics, indicated CEO Zhang Buzhen, in an announcement released on the company’s website on December 16.
"With the rising demand of quality medicine, China’s pharmaceutical trading industry will see its online penetration rate continuously surge in the coming years," said Zhang in the announcement.
Proceeds of this round will be used in Yaoshibang’s two-stage business layout: Already, the company is on track to build a comprehensive pharmaceutical information platform by bridging retailers with primary medical institutions and upstream pharma businesses. Secondly, the company plans to develop and provide more efficient solutions to core participants along the industry chain.
Prior to this year, Yaoshibang completed a RMB110 million (US$15.94 million) series B round of financing led by Shenzhen-based Green Pine Capital Partners and Chinese conglomerate Fosun Group in February 2016.
