Editor's note: We at EqualOcean tracked the major funding rounds or industry events that took place in China’s healthcare space in May 2022. And the following is a list of deals that we have selected for you, based on a number of criteria including the funding amount, the financial backers, and the segments in which the startups operate.
Shanghai Beauty Farm
Shanghai Beauty Farm (Chinese: 上海美丽田园) filed for an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on May 6, with Morgan Stanley, Haitong International Securities and Huatai International Securities as its joint sponsors. Established in 1993, Beauty Farm is the largest daily facial and body care service provider in China, providing one-stop health and beauty management services covering body and skin care and anti-aging medicine.
ClinPlus
Clinical trial site management organization (SMO) service provider ClinPlus (Chinese: 普蕊斯) opened IPO subscription for new shares on May 7. According to media reports, ClinPlus is expected to become the first SMO company listed on the Chinese A-share market. Established in 2013, Hillhouse-backed ClinPlus is an enterprise focusing on clinical trial site management services. Its customers include Hengrui, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Bayer, AbbVie and other well-known domestic and overseas pharmaceutical companies and medical device companies.
YSB
The online pharmaceutical platform YSB Inc. (Chinese: 药师帮) submitted its listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on May 24. Since the establishment in 2015, the pharmaceutical trading platform YSB Inc. has raised funds worth over 3 billion CNY and is backed by pharamceutical industry leaders such as Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group. It ranked the first with 18.5% of the market share in Chinese pharmaceutical digital trading platform industry.
Ashermed
Ashermed (Chinese: 艾莎医学) netted over CNY 100 million (USD 14.74 million) from the Series B financing round in early May, led by Qiming Venture Partners (Chinese: 启明创投). Daohezhiyi (Chinese: 道禾志医), Score Capital (思科瑞新) and the existing shareholder Insight Capital (Chinese: 博行资本) also participated in this deal. Founded in 2013, Ashermed is a digital contract research organization (CRO) company that intergrates internet technology, big data, artificial intelligence and other technology to enable medical companies to shorten the drug development cycle, improve the quality of clinical data and reduce research and development costs.
Innovo Therapeutics
Innovo Therapeutics (Chinese: 医诺康) raised nearly CNY 100 million in the angel round of financing led by Ming Bioventures (Chinese: 聚明创投) and Chase Capital (Chinese: 呈益资本). Harmony Investment (Chinese: 和盟创投) and Jiangsu Industrial Technology Institute (Chinese: 江苏省产业研究院) also participated in this deal. Founded in 2021, Innovo Therapeutics is a Sino-US joint venture anti-cancer drug R&D company. Its core team has decades of successful drug development experience in total, especially in the field of targeted protein degradation.
ALIT Life Science
ALIT Life Science (Chinese: 艾力特生物科技) received more than CNY 100 million in the Series A financing round in mid May. The round was led by Loyal Valley Capital (Chinese: 正心谷资本), with participation from Addor Capital (Chinese: 毅达资本). Founded in 2005, ALIT has been committed to providing advanced biological lab equipment, technology and services. Its proprieytary high-throughput cell analyzer platform, Castor, is expected to be introduced to the market soon.
Senlang Bio
Cell therapy developer Hebei Senlang Bio (Chinese: 森朗生物) closed a financing round worth CNY 200 million in mid May. The round was exclusively invested by Qianhai FoF (Chinese: 前海母基金). Founded in 2016, Hebei Senlang Bio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to utilizing cell and gene engineering technologies to generate innovative and transformative cellular immunotherapies for solid and hematologic cancers.
AccuPulse
AccuPulse (Chinese: 艾科脉) snagged nearly CNY 100 million from the Series A financing round, led by Qianhai FOF (Chinese: 前海母基金) with follow-on participation from existing shareholders Shanghai Biomedical Industry Equity Investment (Chinese: 上海生物医药基金) and Bio Venture (Chinese: 元生创投). Founded in November 2020, AccuPulse is committed to becoming an international leading platform-based innovative cardiac electrophysiology company.
GenEditBio
GenEditBio (Chinese: 引正基因) raised tens of millions of USD from its angel and pre-Series A financing rounds in late May. This round was led by Qiming Venture (Chinese: 启明创投), with participation from FountainVest Partners (Chinese: 方源资本). GenEditBio, founded in 2021, is a biotech start-up specializing in providing gene editing-based solutions for genetic diseases that have no cures or lack simple treatments.
Weiyuan Synthetic Biotechnology
Weiyuan Synthetic Biotechnology (Chinese: 微元合成生物技术) bagged nearly CNY 100 million from an angel round of financing which was led by Matrix Partners China (Chinese: 经纬创投) in late May. BioTrack Capital (Chinese: 博远资本), Henan Investment Group Huirong Fund (Chinese: 河南投资集团汇融基金), K2VC (Chinese: 险峰长青) and Hoshi Capital (Chinese: 红什资本) also participated in this round. Founded in December 2021, Weiyuan Synthetic Biotech is committed to producing various compounds in a low-carbon, energy-saving, and sustainable manner.
Unimed
Matrix-backed Unimed (Chinese: 同心智医) snagged CNY 100 million from the strategic financing round in late May. This round was led by China Merchants Capital (Chinese: 招商局资本) with participation from Bojia Capital (Chinese: 博佳资本) and Foresight Capital (Chinese: 博见资本). Founded in 2014, Unimed specializes in empowering the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in brain science diagnosis and treatment. Up to now, Unimed has provided services to more than 500 imaging centers and medical institutions across 26 provinces in China. It has served over 330 thousand patients with more than 39 billion medical records.
Calibra
Calibra (Chinese: 凯莱谱), a precision health testing platform, netted CNY 220 million from the Series B+ financing round which was led by CICC Jiatai Fund (Chinese:中金佳泰基金) in early May. Fosun Health Capital (Chinese: 复健资本), Qishen Venture Capital (Chinese:启申创投), Xihu Venture Capital (Chinese:西湖科创投) and CICC Pucheng Investment (Chinese:中金浦成) also pumped money into this deal. Founded in 2016, Calibra has made key progress and breakthroughs in the construction of multi-omics platform. Its new generation of high-end clinical mass spectrometry, CalQuant-S, was approved by NMPA in March 2022.
Starna Therapeutics
Starna Therapeutics gathered CNY 150 million from its Series A financing round in mid May The round was led by LYFE Capital (Chinese: 洲嶺资本). Source Code Capital (Chinese: 源码资本), Hony Capital (Chinese: 弘毅投资), Primavera Venture Partners (Chinese: 春华创投) and the existing investors Hillhouse Capital (Chinese: 高瓴创投) and Sherpa Healthcare Partners (Chinese: 夏尔巴投资) also participated in this round. Founded in 2021, Starna Therapeutics specializes in developing RNA innovative drugs to address unmet clincial needs in the area of infectious diseases, tumor immunology and metablic diseases. It has constructed both mRNA design and sythesis platform and mRNA lipid nanopartical (LNP) delivery platform with proprietary intellectual property.
Innomed Medical Device
Suzhou Innomed Medical Device Co., Ltd. (Chinese: 茵络医疗) received over CNY 100 million in a Series C+ financing round led by Innoval Capital in early May. Founded in 2013, Innomed is an innovative technology enterprise engaged in the development and manufacturing of interventional and implantable medical devices, and is committed to creating world-leading endovascular implantation interventional products.
Full Life Technologies
Sequoia-backed radiatioon therapy Shanghai Full Life Technologies (Chinese: 上海辐联医药) raised CNY 250 Million from the Series A financing round in late May. This round of funding was led by Sequoia China, with the participation of Yinglian Health Fund (Chinese: 楹联健康基金), Junson Capital (Chinese: 佳辰资本), CDBI Partners (Chinese: 辰德资本) and Kunlun Capital (Chinese:昆仑资本). Founded in 2021, Full Life develops the platform to enhance the ability to produce high-quality and quantitative radioisotopes and to meet the unmet needs of radiopharmaceutical treatments.