For Shen Rui, 20 18 is an extraordinary year. Founded only one year ago, Shenrui completed the third round of financing in this year, with a total financing amount of 300 million, setting the highest financing speed in the industry. With the help of technology and capital, Shenrui has successfully become the head of artificial intelligence and an indispensable force in the research and development of medical artificial intelligence.
As one of the youngest medical AI companies, Shenrui has become the most dynamic enterprise of image AI in a short time, and its research and development strength ranks among the best in the whole industry. Is it talent that endows a deep soul? Or did the data forge its power? This road taken by Shen Rui is worth exploring.
Practitioners of life sciences need experience.
Medical care is different from other industries, and its huge knowledge structure requires practitioners to accumulate experience for a long time. Bridgette, CEO of Shenrui Medical, has more than 20 years of working experience in Siemens Medical Imaging Division, which enables him to deeply understand the real needs of each stage of enterprise development.
Bridgette said: "At this stage, the ability of artificial intelligence comes from people; It is a person who implants the wisdom in the human brain into the software step by step through sketching and programming. -its core is still people. Therefore, the core advantage of Shenrui comes from talents. "
"Since its establishment, Shenrui has put talents at the core. After a year's development, our research institute has reached 80 people, among which Professor Yu Yizhou, the leading figure, was recently elected as the outstanding scientist of 20 18 ACM and was selected as the IEEE Fellow of 20 19. Under his leadership, Shenrui Research Institute has grown and developed, constantly providing inexhaustible motive force for the development of Shenrui. "
Bridgette, CEO of Shenrui Medical, delivered a keynote speech at the 20 18 World Artificial Intelligence Conference.
Other members of the institute are also outstanding in the industry. Its intelligent professional model algorithm team consists of doctors and senior researchers from Peking University, China Academy of Sciences and Stanford University. 70% members have published articles in top conferences such as ICCV·AAAI·CVPR. In addition, the team also has many imaging experts and management experts who have worked in medical multinational companies for many years.
Lay an advantage with technology
To the outside world, Shen Rui doesn't seem to be exposed very often. He is more like a hermit who keeps practicing internal skills in order to accumulate wealth. Shenrui has invested more efforts in the direction of technology research and development, and the iterative update of technology is often not easily perceived by the outside world. It is precisely because of this way of development that Shenrui, which was established only one and a half years ago, launched seven AI-related product lines, including tumor, stroke, breast and image cloud ... Shenrui cut artificial intelligence products into various diseases with the highest incidence rate in China.
The frequent praise of frontline doctors helped Shen Rui submit the perfect answer sheet of 20 18. In the February special issue of 20th/KLOC-0th/8th China Daily on the 40th anniversary of reform and opening-up, Shenrui Medical, Ali and Geely Automobile, as representatives of private enterprises, showed the courage of private enterprises in China to seize the opportunity from the global intelligent transformation trend and compete fiercely with international competitors with independent research and development technology.
However, even Shenrui, which has seven product lines, has only opened a small hole in artificial intelligence medical care, and the areas it has developed are only the tip of the iceberg. This means that there is a huge space waiting for Shenrui to explore, and the hidden market in the field of artificial intelligence means that it is difficult for us to evaluate the potential of Shenrui.
Therefore, in the new year, the core strength of Shenrui will take into account the upgrading of existing products and the breakthrough of brand-new diseases. Although the existing products have been widely recognized by experts, there is still much room for improvement in AI technology. Shenrui Medical has a leading core algorithm team in the industry, which is the source of Shenrui's scientific research strength.
At the same time, Shenrui always regards innovation as the core of its operation. Bridgette believes that innovation is an inexhaustible motive force for the long-term survival of an enterprise, and it is the lifeline that determines the survival of an enterprise. Only by continuously introducing products can we gain the first-Mover advantage in the market, highlight the tight encirclement and occupy the strategic highland when the AI technology matures in the future.
Explore the unknown
Today, a new round of financing for Shenrui Medical is also in preparation. Bridgette said: "In the future financing and development, we will not easily accept the invitation of investors, but need to consider the strategic layout of investment institutions and understand what strategic value investors can bring to Shenrui."
By the end of 65438+February, Shenrui has put artificial intelligence products into nearly 300 hospitals. Shenrui's products are not only used in top three hospitals, but also in primary hospitals. Shenrui uses AI technology to benefit more people. At the same time, medical institutions are also an important direction of cooperation between Shenzhen and Switzerland, and the cooperation between the two sides has made significant progress recently.
Regarding the application scenario of physical examination, Bridgette thinks: "Physical examination and diagnosis are two different scenarios: diagnosis pays more attention to' analysis', while physical examination only pays attention to' detection'. However, this does not mean that the physical examination reduces the algorithm requirements of AI technology. In fact, the physical examination population has a huge base, and the physical examination requirements of different diseases are different. In order to ensure the success rate of physical examination, we must do more research to ensure the validity of its physical examination results, which actually improves our technical requirements. "
"Of course, its core lies in technology development. This is not a problem for Shen Rui. Shen Rui has a team that challenges all difficulties and solves all technical problems. This is the core competitiveness of Shenrui. "
Immeasurable value
The valuation of medical AI companies has always been a difficult problem. In the absence of a clear commercialization path, many enterprises can only estimate the possible profit space in the future through the total market size and possible market share, and even fail to understand the future cash flow standards. Therefore, the valuations brought by different valuation methods often vary greatly. Even if the same data is submitted, the data itself lacks a standardized process. Therefore, it is difficult to reach an accurate value at this stage.
The common way is to judge whether the valuation of existing enterprises is reasonable by seeking the valuation of enterprises in the same field. Although there is still a big error, it still has certain reference value. Taking intelligent driving with computer vision as the core technology as an example, the general valuation of the industry is above $6,543.8 billion, and the valuation of most enterprises is between $6,543.8+0,654,38+0-2 billion.
The valuation of artificial intelligence enterprises focusing on the medical field is generally low. As a symbolic indicator of enterprise development, valuation represents the development stage of this enterprise. As a reference index, many core values of enterprises, such as strong scientific research strength and huge development potential, cannot be reflected in the valuation, and Shenrui Medical has great potential and high room for improvement in this direction.
In addition, the application of AI technology in the medical field is still in the stage of rapid development, constantly expanding new fields. In the future, AI may be applied to pathology, surgery and rehabilitation. The gradual realization of all future scenarios will usher in more value for existing AI companies-they won at the starting line.
As the head of AI medical enterprise, Shenrui not only has the talent advantage to support sustainable development, but also has the support of external resources such as policies and capital. These wealth will lead Shen Rui to make continuous progress, deepen and be more wise in the future.
* The pictures in the article are provided by the enterprises interviewed.
Text | Zhao Hongwei
Wechat | qq850860074
Please indicate: Name-Company-Position when adding.
Send keywords backstage to get relevant good articles.
Reprint websites, official WeChat accounts, etc., please contact authorization.
The layout of foreign giants
Recent suggestions