FemtoMarch Secures Nearly RMB 100 Million in Angel Funding to Accelerate Development of Domestic Personalized Femtosecond Refractive Platform
FemtoMarch Medical
Ophthalmic High-end Instrument R&D Manufacturer
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Shenzhen FemtoMarch Medical Technology Co., Ltd.("FemtoMarch Medical")CompletedNearly 100 million yuanAngel Round FinancingThis round of financing was led by Yuansheng Venture Capital, with follow-up investments from Zero2IPO Group, Zero2IPO University Student Entrepreneurship Fund, and Yingtong Lianchuang. The funds will be used forProduct Technology Iteration and Upgrade, Clinical Trials and Animal Experiments。
FemtoMarch Medical was founded in November 2022 by Dr. Zhang Yao in collaboration with the CAS Medical Femtosecond Laser Team. The core team has R&D experience in the ophthalmic device field. The company focuses on building the underlying platform capabilities for personalized femtosecond refractive systems, and its products are currently in the R&D stage, without yet obtaining medical device registration certificates.
FemtoMarch Medical's Femtosecond Refractive System Prototype
# Differentiation rather than substitution
A deeper technical layout is "Personalized Femtosecond". The current mainstream SMILE 3.0 procedure is standardized and does not support full personalization; the precise 4.0 version launched by Zeiss achieves Nomogram optimization through the VISULYZE system, but its core remains statistical correction based on big data.
FemtoMarch Medical emphasizes "personalization," which refers toTruly customized surgical plans based on individual parameters such as corneal morphology, wavefront aberration, and Kappa angle., which requires the deep coupling of the underlying optical system and software algorithms.
From the clinical trend,Personalization is indeed the direction of evolution for refractive surgery.。Personalized femtosecond surgery is increasingly chosen for its enhancement in visual quality, accounting for 66% of LASIK (Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis) procedures in 2023.The gradual popularization of technologies such as full optical shaping and corneal topography guidance marks the industry's transformation from "correcting vision" to "optimizing visual quality."
But technological differentiation faces the threshold of clinical validation. The global surgical volume of Carl Zeiss VisuMax has exceeded 10 million cases, with over 7 million cases contributed by China. The vast amount of clinical data has built strong usage habits among doctors and a trust barrier. As a latecomer, even though FemtoMarch Medical may have superior parameters, it still needs to prove its safety and effectiveness through rigorous clinical trials, a process that usually takes several years.
# The Dilemma of Monopoly in a Billion-Dollar Market
The femtosecond laser surgery equipment market has long exhibited a highly concentrated supply structure. Since Zeiss launched the VisuMax device in 2011, its SMILE procedure has rapidly gained popularity worldwide, particularly in the Chinese market. Statistics show that the number of VisuMax installations in China has exceeded 800, contributing to more than half of the global surgical volume.
This market structure has formed a significant patent barrier. ZEISS owns the patent protection for the SMILE procedure and related equipment, making it difficult for other manufacturers to directly replicate its technical route.The price of a single VisuMax device exceeds tens of millions of yuan, and each surgery requires a patent fee of nearly ten thousand yuan, constituting the rigid cost for medical institutions.。
The intervention of domestically produced equipment attempts to break this pattern. However, the development of femtosecond laser devices involves multiple technical fields such as ultrafast laser technology, precision optical systems, and real-time tracking navigation. Moreover, it must pass strict medical device registration and approval, which usually takes a long time.
# The Signal of Nearly 100 Million Yuan in the Angel Round
This round of financing was led by YuanSheng Ventures, with follow-up investments from Zero2IPO Group, Zero2IPO University Student Entrepreneurship Fund, and YingTong LianChuang.The angel round of nearly 100 million yuan in scale is not common in the ophthalmic equipment field, reflecting the high level of capital's optimism towards the FemtoMarch Medical track.。
The statement from YuanSheng Ventures reveals the investment logic: recognition of the company's technical accumulation in the ophthalmic equipment field, leading position in niche markets, and the advantages of its R&D team.
The essence of capital betting is "Time Window"The patent protection period, technology iteration cycle, and market education achievements of Carl Zeiss VisuMax together form a delicate balance. If domestically produced equipment can complete clinical validation and registration approval before the large-scale entry of Carl Zeiss's next-generation products (such as VisuMax 800) into hospitals, it is expected to seize a share in the new round of equipment renewal cycle."
But the risks are equally obvious.The research and development cycle of femtosecond equipment is long, the capital investment is large, and the regulatory threshold is high.Even if financing is completed, every step from product finalization to clinical trials, from registration approval to mass production and market launch, may encounter delays. Moreover, Zeiss will not wait idly by for competition – its SMILE 4.0 technology has been rapidly spreading in China, and SMILE Pro has reduced scanning time to within 10 seconds, accelerating the pace of technological iteration.
# From Breaking the Ice to Breaking the Deadlock
FemtoMarch Medical's nearly 100-million-yuan angel round of financing is an important milestone in the field of domestically produced femtosecond devices, but far from the endpoint.
The R&D difficulty of femtosecond laser equipment lies not only in the engineering implementation of the laser source and optical system but also in the accumulation of long-term clinical data, the cultivation of doctors' usage habits, and the establishment of brand trust. Zeiss's over two decades of market深耕 (deep cultivation) has constituted a higher conversion cost.
The Real Breakthrough for Chinese-Made Equipment Requires Crossing Three Thresholds: Technical threshold - converting parameter advantages into clinical advantages; Time threshold - completing large-scale, long-term follow-up clinical trials; Market threshold - building brand awareness among doctors and patients.
The challenge for FemtoMarch Medical has only just begun.
# Company Profile
FemtoMarch Medical, established in November 2022, is an innovative medical technology enterprise focusing on the research and application of femtosecond laser technology for ophthalmology. The company is committed to the independent development of ophthalmic femtosecond laser treatment systems, aiming to break the import monopoly and achieve the domestic production of high-end refractive surgery equipment in China. Its core product is the ophthalmic femtosecond laser treatment system, which has overcome key technologies such as high-precision 3D optical scanning, medical-grade femtosecond lasers, real-time closed-loop monitoring control, and customized refractive correction algorithms. The product stands out with differentiated advantages in core parameters like pulse energy and numerical aperture.
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