Sequoia Pulls a Medical Insurance Developer to its China Portfolio: Nuanwa Science

Healthcare Author: Yusuf Tuna Aug 30, 2019 04:26 PM (GMT+8)

Nuanwa Science, a new-generation medical data processing platform for medical insurers, pulled over CNY 100 million in its angel round from Sequoia China.

Image: Credit to Pixabay

Nuanwa Science (暖哇科技) completed its angel round worth of CNY 100 million from Sequoia China and KuanPing Capital (宽平资本), elevating China's latecomer private insurance industry.

Incubated by Zhong An Insurance (6060: HK), Nuanwa Science was founded in October 2018, mainly serving insurance companies and online clinics. The company is aiming at processing the medical information and commercializing this database for the use of medical insurance providers, which is mainly a niche market and B2B solutions of Zhong An. 

Private health insurance accounts for only CNY 56 billion in annual gross written premiums (GWP) for China’s insurance companies, compared with CNY one trillion in the life insurance market, and CNY 79 billion in the accident insurance market, McKinsey estimates.

With the ongoing efforts in decreasing (Out of Pocket) OOP costs from the overall expenses and the demand-side increase from China's surging ageing population, the private-medical insurance business is expected a surge in China. "China’s Medicare or Healthcare Insurance sector is simply primitive and inefficient which will be regulated by the government for better," said Sun Wei, Partner at HosenCare Brothers, that is a Shanghai-based healthcare private-equity.

Ping An Insurance, Tencent and Alibaba have jointly founded Zhong An, China’s first only-digital insurer. The company is China’s first property insurance company that sells all its products online: and now accelerating its medical insurance arm in a rocketed medical insurance business. In 2018, the company served over 400 million people, in which born in the 1980s and 1990s comprise 51% of our customers, ZhongAn revealed. 

The parent company has incubated over 300 companies so far, including Nuanwa Science. The parent company integrates AI for better user experience as well, the proportion of artificial intelligence (AI) applied in online customer service reached 70%, achieving 61% of saving in manpower. The Robo-advisor served 300,000 users within one day at its peak, 2019, H1 filings showed.