ONLINE health-care solutions platform WeDoctor, which is backed by tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd., said yesterday it had raised US$500 million from several investors, valuing the firm at US$5.5 billion ahead of a public offering this year.

The investment round was led by AIA Co., part of Hong Kong-listed insurer AIA Group Ltd., and infrastructure and services group NWS Holdings Ltd.

WeDoctor is among a spate of technology-driven firms looking to shake up China’s public health-care market, with increasingly affluent consumers willing to pay for ways to get more convenient access to doctors and health services.

Founded in 2010, WeDoctor provides diagnosis and online appointment booking.

The pre-IPO fundraising comes after rival Ping An Good Doctor, formally known as Ping An Healthcare and Technology Co., raised US$1.1 billion in a share offering this month but saw its shares tumble soon after as investors worried about its high valuation.

The firm said it would use the funds to accelerate its expansion plans, helping it better tap into the country’s “flourishing and enormous market.”

AIA said it had made a “minority equity investment” in WeDoctor and had an agreement to be its “preferred provider” of life and health insurance, a boost as insurers race to tap into China’s life insurance market, the world’s third largest.

Chinese health-care spending is set to hit US$1 trillion by 2020, up from US$357 billion in 2011, according to consultancy McKinsey & Co.

WeDoctor, which has four main units focused on healthcare, cloud, insurance and pharmaceuticals, said it has on its platform over 2,700 hospitals, 220,000 doctors, 15,000 pharmacies and 27 million monthly active users.(SD-Agencies)