(Yicai Global) June 26 -- The co-founder of Meituan, who stepped down as vice president in 2020, is relinquishing his remaining roles in the Chinese meal delivery behemoth, and will no longer serve as non-executive director and other key positions from today because of poor health, the company said yesterday.

44-year-old Wang Huiwen has been in ill-health since the middle of May, with symptoms similar to that of depression, and he is leaving his job to seek medical treatment, The Paper reported, citing people familiar with the matter. He is being accompanied by another company veteran and former executive, Lai Binqiang, at hospital.

The news casts doubt on Wang Huiwen’s plan to turn his tech company Beijing Guangnianwai Technology into the next Open AI. In February the business mogul, who was the force behind Meituan and several other internet startups such as social networking site Renren and phone charging station firm Laidian, said that he planned to invest USD50 million of his own money into the company, which has a market valuation of USD200 million.

Guangnianwai was rumored in June to have raised USD230 million in a new funding round, boosting its valuation to USD1 billion. Wang Huiwen said at the time that both the financing amount and valuation were inaccurate.

Beijing-based Meituan continues to be led by another co-founder, Wang Xing, who was a classmate of Wang Huiwen at Tsinghua University.

Meituan’s stock price [HKG:3690] was trading down 0.8 percent at HKD123.60 (USD15) as of 2 p.m. China time today.

Editor: Kim Taylor