Joelle Permut

BabyCare operates 20 centers in 16 cities and plans to expand to eight more cities in 2006. BabyCare is the brainchild of Matthew J. Estes, a 39-year-old San Diego native who has lived and worked in China for 15 years, part of that time as a sales manager for pharmaceutical maker SmithKline Beecham, now GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK ). He founded BabyCare to exploit what he saw as a big potential market in China for nutritional supplements for expectant mothers and infants. BabyCare's rapid growth has, predictably, attracted venture capitalists. The company has raised a total of $24 million in three rounds of funding since it began. Investors include Silicon Valley VC fund Sutter Hill Ventures, and Hong Kong's Pacific Group.

BabyCare operates 20 centers in 16 cities and plans to expand to eight more cities in 2006. BabyCare is the brainchild of Matthew J. Estes, a 39-year-old San Diego native who has lived and worked in China for 15 years, part of that time as a sales manager for pharmaceutical maker SmithKline Beecham, now GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK ). He founded BabyCare to exploit what he saw as a big potential market in China for nutritional supplements for expectant mothers and infants. BabyCare's rapid growth has, predictably, attracted venture capitalists. The company has raised a total of $24 million in three rounds of funding since it began. Investors include Silicon Valley VC fund Sutter Hill Ventures, and Hong Kong's Pacific Group.