Ping An raising $1bn for digital health investments
The venture arm of China's largest insurer, Ping An, has launched a $1bn overseas fund to invest in early-stage digital health and financial technology start-ups. As with the insurer's previous $500m investment in telemedicine service Good Doctor, Ping An's Global Voyager Fund will seek digital health products that complement and diversify its services. The fund will be led by Jonathan Larsen, who was recently appointed chief innovation officer at Ping An, according to CNBC.

China is keen to ramp up access to healthcare with digital health tech. So the news that the venture arm of the country’s largest insurer, Ping An, has launched a $1 billion overseas fund to invest in early stage digital health and financial technology shows that the company is seeking to supplement homegrown technology with digital health products that can complement and diversify its services.

One of Ping An’s largest healthcare investments to date was $500 million for Ping An insurance’s telemedicine service, Good Doctor. Another investment was Hong Kong-based DNA testing business Prenetics, in which the investor led the Series A round. It is also working with Samsung on digital health tools.

Ping An Global Voyager Fund will be led by Jonathan Larsen, who has joined Ping An Group as chief innovation officer, according to CNBC. He previously worked for Citigroup, but seems to lack any digital health investment experience if his LinkedIn profile is anything to go by.

Another China-based investor, Tencent, has backed India-based Practo and Clinicloud, which developed a connected stethoscope and thermometer and has offices in San Francisco and Melbourne.

Given that domestically grown digital health companies are having a tough time meeting expectations, it’s logical that Ping An would be interested in digital health companies outside of China.

Ping An said in 2016 that it planned to grow its overseas investments to 10 percent over the next three to five years, Reuters reported.

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