TuPai Medical Secures RMB 500 Million Series E Funding, the Largest Single Investment in China's Ophthalmic Device Primary Market

Mar 12, 2025 07:59 CST Updated 08:00

TowardPi

High-end Ophthalmic Medical Device Developer

Qiming Venture Partners

Healthcare Investment Institutions

Recently, there is another significant news in the field of investment in China's ophthalmic medical equipment. TowardPi has completedSocial Security Fund Zhongguan Village Independent Innovation Special Fund (managed by Legend Capital), Beijing Robotics Industry Investment Fund, Qiming Venture PartnersTotal Scale of Joint InvestmentRMB 500 million Series E financing. This is the company's achievement following the completion in June 2024.Series D FinancingLater, it was favored by top-tier investment institutions again within a year. This is also the first publicly disclosed equity financing event in China's ophthalmic medical device sector.The highest single amount of financing,The funds raised will continue to be used for TowardPi to enrich its product portfolio and strengthen its market presence globally, among other initiatives.

TowardPi, hailed by the internationally renowned research institution Frost & Sullivan as "a representative brand of China-produced ophthalmic diagnostic and treatment equipment across all categories," will aim to become the "first stock" in the ophthalmic medical device sector on the STAR Market after completing this Series E round of financing.

Starting from ophthalmic OCT

TowardPi originated from the transformation of scientific and technological achievements of the Department of Electronic Engineering at Tsinghua University.Founder of the company, Professor Li Huo of Tsinghua UniversityIn 2008, during his postdoctoral studies at Johns Hopkins University, he began conducting research on swept-source OCT under the guidance of Professor Xingde Li, who is...Inventor of OCTA student of Professor James G. Fujimoto.With the support of multiple scientific research projects, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China，Professor Huo Li led the team to achieve a series of breakthroughs and indigenizations in key underlying technologies.

After its establishment, TowardPi quickly completed the product technology iteration from 0 to 1 and from 1 to 100 in the ophthalmic OCT field within the medical-engineering transformation system of Tsinghua Industrial R&D Institute in Beijing. Rooted in strong underlying technology, TowardPi has been able to maintain the highest R&D efficiency and technical leadership in the industry.

TowardPi's ophthalmic OCT product was approved as an "innovative medical device" in Beijing in 2019, becoming the first innovative product in this field to be approved in China.

In November 2020, TowardPi Medical released the full-field swept-source OCT "Beiming·Kun" and the panoramic anterior-posterior integrated OCT "Yaoguang·Star" at the China National Ophthalmology Annual Meeting in Xiamen. Especially, the technical parameters that were unique globally at the time, such as the scanning speed of 400,000 times, imaging depth of 14mm, and imaging range of 18×18mm, caused a great sensation in the industry once they were unveiled.。

TowardPi's ophthalmic OCT product has been on the market for four years, with a total installed base of over 500 units in China.Market share remains leading, and the average sales price far exceeds imported products.`, laying a high-end brand image of "excellent in both quality and price." In July 2024, after TowardPi obtained the first EU CE-MDR certification for an OCT product in China, it quickly captured the European market, with sales exceeding 60 units within half a year,`Market Share in EU Countries Surges to Top Five, becoming a popular "blockbuster" in the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy.

Ophthalmic Surgical Microscopes Open Up the Second Growth Curve

Following the completion of ophthalmic OCT product development, TowardPi Medical initiated an ophthalmic surgical microscope project in early 2021. The R&D plan, codenamed "Pangu," aims toPioneering the High-End Ophthalmic Surgical Microscope Market in China。

In September 2024, after nearly four years of research and development, TowardPi's "Boyun" and "Fuxue" ophthalmic surgical microscopes were震撼 launched, breaking the decades-long monopoly in the high-end surgical microscope market held by optical giants such as Zeiss and Leica.

The "TowardPi" model has pioneered a global first, integrating...4D Intraoperative OCT Navigation + 3D-4K Digital Display + 3A-Class Optical ImagingThe multi-modal surgical model provides a new definition for the future of ophthalmic surgery from Chinese technology.

In the field of ophthalmic equipment (excluding配套耗材)One of the markets with the largest single-product scaleThe localization rate of ophthalmic surgical microscopes is less than 3% in China.The high-end market is completely blank., which marks the beginning of TowardPi's second growth curve.

Ultra-Wide Camera and Biometer Complete Pipeline Integrity

TowardPi's ultra-wide-angle camera and biometer products are set to obtain certification and launch in 2024. Whether it’s the ultra-wide-angle camera model "Zhuzhao" with 150° four-band full-color imaging + fluorescein angiography, or the biometer model "Ziwu" featuring dynamic panoramic axial length imaging + comprehensive refractive cataract measurement, both leverage their powerful performance advantages to make a strong impact on imported high-end products right from the start of their market entry.

More importantly, based on the full product line layout, TowardPi has developed the "Yunjing" Imaging System, which is capable of analyzing and processing images and data from all TowardPi diagnostic and therapeutic products on the client software of any device, enabling truly efficient multimodal diagnosis before and during surgery.

Phacoemulsification and femtosecond laser cataract products are set to launch.

TowardPi's phacoemulsification and vitrectomy device, as well as its femtosecond laser cataract product, have entered the late stage of development. These two medium-to-large surgical devices will complete the final pieces of TowardPi's ophthalmic equipment portfolio, enabling TowardPi to become a "full pipeline" industry giant comparable to Carl Zeiss. Reportedly, both products are benchmarked against international top-tier standards and are expected to complete prototype development by the end of 2025.

Medical-Engineering Transformation and Cross-Department Layout are Underway

Not only in ophthalmology, but TowardPi, relying on its strong full self-research and development capabilities in core components, is continuously incubating new products and technologies.

January 16, 2024International Intelligent Medical Engineering Innovation Center Established at TowardPi's Beijing Headquarters, the center was jointly established by multiple parties including the China Association of Medical Equipment, Beijing Tsinghua Industrial Development Research Institute, Changping Park of Zhongguan Village Science Park, TowardPi, and China Eye Valley. It is currently working on the transformation of innovative technologies in various disciplines such as neurosurgery, cardiovascular, and gastroenterology. It is believed that in the near future, more medical-engineering innovation achievements will be born here.

Wang Yingqi, Co-founder and CEO of TowardPiRepresentation：TowardPi Medical will continue to adhere to the innovative model of medical-engineering transformation. Through TowardPi's robust research platform, the company aims to develop more original high-end medical equipment to benefit a wide range of patients. The company will also accelerate its international expansion, promote international cooperation, and achieve its global development strategy as soon as possible.

Speech by the Representative of This Round of Investors

Wang Jianfei, Managing Director of Legend CapitalRepresentation:We have always firmly believed in the independent innovation and technological breakthroughs of China's high-end medical equipment. TowardPi, as a representative enterprise of China's independent innovation in high-end ophthalmic medical devices, has achieved global leadership in the performance of ophthalmic OCT products based on the profound accumulation of Tsinghua University's scientific research team, completing the full product line layout of high-end ophthalmic diagnosis and treatment equipment. On the other hand, through the self-developed and optimization of core components at the underlying level, it has promoted the progress of China's medical optoelectronic industry as a whole. At the same time, TowardPi's products, with their globally leading performance, have been sold overseas and are a typical example of the upgrading of China's intelligent manufacturing industry in the field of high-end medical equipment. The Social Security Fund Zhongguancun Independent Innovation Special Fund will continue to support TowardPi in expanding its high-end ophthalmic treatment product lines and extending into other departments, as well as continuously breaking through and optimizing the underlying core technologies, looking forward to TowardPi pushing the independent innovation of China's high-end medical equipment to new heights.

Zhu Fangwen, Managing Partner of Prime Capital, said:Beijing Robotics Industry Fund, based on Beijing's industrial strategic layout, has high expectations for TowardPi's leading technological innovation and platform capabilities in the high-end ophthalmic equipment field, as well as the overseas opportunities for China's excellent medical device products. TowardPi's ophthalmic OCT products surpass overseas giants with their deep technical foundation and superior performance, while the product line is expanding into the treatment field. At the same time, OCT, as an underlying visual technology, has broad application scenarios in robotics fields such as medical and industrial inspection. We firmly believe that digital intelligence is the inevitable path to improving the efficiency and quality of medical services, and technologies like robotics and AI have strong empowerment potential. The Robotics Fund will continue to support the intelligent upgrading, application scenarios, and overseas market expansion of TowardPi’s products, accompanying the company's growth. We look forward to China's high-end medical equipment benefiting more patients in China and around the world.

Qiming Venture Partners Executive Director Mao Shuo said:It is a great honor to collaborate with the TowardPi team this time. In the high-end ophthalmic equipment sector, the company has rapidly broken through the competition from numerous foreign brands. Moreover, over the past year, the company has been continuously pushing forward with the development and launch of new products as well as expanding its product reach overseas. We look forward to the company achieving more milestones in the future and building a global TowardPi brand.

About TowardPi

TowardPi (full name: TowardPi (Beijing) Medical Technology Co., Ltd.) was founded in 2017. As a key project of Tsinghua University's scientific and technological achievements transformation, the company was jointly established by faculty, students, and alumni from various majors at Tsinghua University, and incubated by Beijing Tsinghua Industrial Research Institute. The company’s headquarters is located in Changping District, Beijing, with industry-university-research layouts in Shanghai, Suzhou, Tianjin, and other places. TowardPi has a total workforce of 400 employees, over 100 of whom are R&D personnel, with cumulative investments nearing 800 million yuan. It is one of the largest ophthalmic medical device enterprises in China.

TowardPi currently has four commercial high-end equipment production lines, including ophthalmic OCT, ophthalmic surgical microscopes, ultra-wide-field fundus cameras, and optical biometers. The phacoemulsification-vitrectomy integrated system and femtosecond laser products are still under development. To date, TowardPi Medical is one of the very few "full-platform" high-end ophthalmic instrument suppliers in China and even globally that can compete on an equal footing with Zeiss and Alcon across the entire product line.