Digital molecular imaging equipment R&D company Light Pulse Medical recently announced the completion of a multi-billion yuan scale Series A financing, led by Shanghai Biomedical Fund and followed by Eastern Rich Sea.
Shanghai Light Pulse Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Light Pulse Medical") recently announced the completion of a multi-billion yuan Series A financing, with Shanghai Biomedical Fund leading the investment and Eastern Rich Sea following. The company stated that the main use of this round of financing is for the innovation and R&D of digital molecular imaging equipment, the improvement of the supply chain system, and the expansion of the global market.
Public information shows that Light Pulse Medical is a digital molecular imaging equipment R&D company, established its group parent company and global production headquarters in Shanghai Lingang in 2021, and officially started production in July 2022. The company first launched a medical imaging system in 2007, and currently, its products have obtained certifications such as FDA.
Currently, due to the overall capital market environment, financing for startups in the medical health sector faces unfavorable factors. However, the active intervention of government-guided funds has provided assistance to technology startups that still require significant R&D investment. Shanghai Biomedical Fund, the lead investor in this round for Light Pulse Medical, is a Shanghai municipal industry fund with a target size of 50 billion yuan.
According to sources close to the current round of financing, one of the LPs of Shanghai Biomedical Fund, Lingang New Area Fund, has provided significant support for Light Pulse Medical to achieve counter-cyclical financing. "Light Pulse Medical's headquarters is located in Lingang, besides providing financial support to companies through private equity funds, in recent years, to effectively support the development of startups, Lingang has taken a series of measures such as building the Lingang New Area Dishui Lake Science and Technology Financial Center, and has initially formed a complete science and technology empowerment ecosystem."
Core team composed of multinational, cross-disciplinary talents
According to individuals from Light Pulse Medical who spoke to reporters from the "STAR Market Daily", the company was previously known as Spectrum Dynamics and has gathered a multinational, cross-disciplinary team of medical imaging technology talents, mainly researching, developing, and selling personalized molecular imaging devices. In 2007, its core product D-SPECT entered the global market, enabling the company to achieve a breakthrough in the field of cardiac nuclear medicine. In 2015, the product entered the Chinese market and was installed at Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing, marking the company's market layout in China. By 2021, with the establishment of its China headquarters, Light Pulse Medical officially entered the domestic market.
In the business field, Light Pulse Medical focuses on the localization of high-end molecular imaging equipment, filling the domestic technological gap. According to the above-mentioned company sources, the company currently holds over 100 patents for inventions and utility models, including core technologies such as BroadView intelligent targeted tracking technology and photon detectors.
Currently, Guangmai Medical has two main products, namely D-SPECT and VERITON-CT, both of which have obtained FDA, CE, and NMPA certifications. It is expected that the domestic certification of the above-mentioned products will be achieved by the end of 2024. According to Guangmai Medical, the traditional dual-panel equipment faces great challenges in acquiring 3D images due to limitations in detector materials and physical structures, resulting in slow scanning speed and low image quality. In contrast, VERITON-CT, the company's product, uses a brand-new digital detector that directly converts light into electricity, significantly improving detection efficiency. It also features a 360° full-circle design, with automatic detector extension and maximum adaption to the patient's contour, greatly enhancing system sensitivity and spatial resolution.
In terms of production capacity, Guangmai Medical has installed over 600 devices worldwide, covering more than 400 hospitals globally. The company's factory in Shanghai Lingang can add a capacity of 100 devices per year.
Since its establishment in China, Guangmai Medical has completed two rounds of financing. In addition to the latest round of investment from Shanghai Biomedical Fund and Dongfang Fu Haiwai, the angel round was funded by CPE Yuanfeng.
For the company's future business plans, Guangmai Medical told reporters that integrated diagnosis and treatment is one of the company's current focus markets. Additionally, the company has invested heavily in artificial intelligence and software development, exploring the cross-fusion of medical imaging technology with computer science, artificial intelligence, and other fields to bring new possibilities for disease diagnosis and treatment.
Currently, the domestication rate of high-end molecular imaging equipment is still low. According to public information, there are approximately 0.02 million county-level and above hospitals in China that need to be equipped with SPECT/CT devices. However, due to various reasons, the actual market inventory is only about 1,000 units, compared to the huge gap with the market inventory of approximately 0.014 million units in developed countries such as the United States.
Shanghai Lingang supports projects to raise funds against the trend
Currently, the primary market in the medical and healthcare field is facing headwinds due to multiple factors. However, medical and healthcare projects require funding to overcome a relatively long development cycle. Therefore, solving the problem of difficult financing is crucial for the sustainable development of start-up projects.
According to insiders close to Guangmai Medical's current round of financing, the project was able to achieve financing against the trend with the assistance of Lingang. It can be seen that the Shanghai Biomedical Fund, the lead investor in Guangmai Medical's Series A financing, is one of the LPs of the Lingang New Area Fund.
According to public information, the Lingang New Area Fund was officially established in March 2023, with a fund size of 20 billion yuan. It is worth mentioning that at the fund release conference, the "Policies for Accelerating the Promotion of Technological Innovation to Support and Lead the High-Quality Development of Industries in Lingang New Area" were also released simultaneously. According to the policy, Lingang supports the development of technological innovation platforms with a maximum support of 0.1 billion yuan; innovative headquarters establishment, increased research and development investment, technology transfer, and application for high-tech enterprises are provided with a maximum support of 5 million yuan.
According to the medical professionals at Guangmai Medical Group, the decision to establish the group's parent company and global headquarters in Lingang is also related to a series of factors such as policy support for companies in Lingang. "The decision to establish the group's parent company and global headquarters in Lingang is based on strategic positioning, policy support, industrial agglomeration, talent resources, innovation environment, and geographical location. Lingang New Area has provided strong support and assistance to the company's development in terms of policy support, service guarantees, infrastructure construction, and industrial ecological construction."
Currently, Lingang is still continuously improving its empowerment and support for the science and technology innovation industry. In addition to the above-mentioned policies and funds for start-ups, Lingang is also building the Dishui Lake Science and Technology Innovation Financial Center. According to officials from Lingang New Area, Dishui Lake Science and Technology Innovation Financial Center will establish a comprehensive service mechanism for innovative private equity investment institutions, explore new models for equity financing and trading in the equity aggregation area, improve the level of market-oriented operation, and build a professional, comprehensive, and international private equity investment service platform.
"By gathering key elements of private equity investment institutions, private equity science and technology projects, private equity investment talents, and private equity service institutions, we will promote the deep integration and linkage of innovation chain, industrial chain, capital chain, and talent chain within Lingang New Area and integrate with external resources for integrated development."
The reporter of the Science and Technology Innovation Daily noticed that in May this year, the multimedia system construction project on the 6th to 9th floors of Dishui Lake Science and Technology Innovation Financial Center issued a tender notice. The bidding party is Lingang Economic Development Co., Ltd., and the project funds are self-raised funds of about 3.2 million yuan. It can be seen that the construction of the Dishui Lake Science and Technology Innovation Financial Center is currently in full swing.
In addition, at the end of last year, the private equity investment aggregation area in Lingang New Area was officially launched. As of July this year, there have been more than 200 private equity investment institutions with international competitiveness and influence gathered in Lingang New Area, with a cumulative fund size of 350 billion yuan.
Since its establishment five years ago, Lingang New Area has made significant achievements in supporting the development of technological innovation enterprises. Official data shows that up to now, Lingang has signed contracts for more than 570 cutting-edge technology industry projects, involving an investment of about 620 billion yuan. From 2019 to 2023, the total output value of the integrated circuit, biomedical, artificial intelligence, and civil aviation industries, the four major cutting-edge industries, has grown at an average annual rate of 34.1%. The total output value of large-scale industries has increased from nearly 100 billion yuan to over 400 billion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 34.6%.