(Yicai Global) July 3 -- Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings has led a CNY250 million (USD36 million) C round in medical artificial intelligence firm Synyi AI as it eyes a digital future for hospital management

Synyi will use the funds, also coming from state-backed Sinopharm Capital, to explore the smart healthcare sector, lure in new medical and AI talent and ensure its products stay at the top of the Chinese market, Lieyun reported, citing Synyi founder Zhang Shaodian as saying in a Tencent statement.

Digital hospital systems will be patient-focused in the future and play a more important role in scientific research, clinical diagnosis and hospital management, said Jeffrey Li, managing partner of Tencent's investment arm. Synyi has strong data management capabilities and its smart analysis platform will add value along the entire industry chain, he added.

Founded in April 2016, the Shanghai-based target has amassed CNY550 million in investments to date. The firm specializes in natural language processing in Chinese and its research platform has reached more than 30 hospitals so far. 

There are great prospects for Ai in the medical sector as the industry is still in the early stages of commercialization, added Sinopharm's Managing Director Zou Min, who said Synyi is a head above the competition in terms of data governance and modeling for machine learning.

Editor: James Boynton