Women's health sector gains capital boost as Micro Inno secures tens of millions in funding

Hangzhou Micro Inno Medical Technology Co., Ltd. ("Micro Inno"), a Chinese company focused on creating an integrated intelligent solution platform for women's health, has recently completed a Series A+ financing round raising tens of millions of yuan. This round was co-invested by Innoval Capital, Hefei Industry Investment Group, and Guoyuan Equity, among others. Micro Inno CEO Zhang Yang stated that the raised capital will be allocated to building an innovative medical device platform dedicated to women's health, accelerating the R&D and market commercialization of novel medical devices serving women's healthcare needs.

In October of this year, China and UN Women co-hosted the Global Women's Summit in Beijing with the aim of further building a global alliance for women and enhancing their roles in global political, economic, and social spheres. At the summit, it was highlighted that women now account for over 40% of all employed persons in China, represent more than half of all entrepreneurs in the internet sector, and have constituted over 60% of medal winners in the past four Summer Olympic Games for China.

As a fundamental prerequisite for supporting women's development, women's health is becoming increasingly critical. Micro Inno is committed to addressing current health challenges faced by women through more innovative clinical solutions.

The growth potential of the "women's health" sector is undeniable.

From the perspective of population size, as of 2024, China's female population has exceeded 689 million, accounting for approximately 48% of the total national population. The labor force participation rate for women has reached 61.2%, an increase of 8.7 percentage points since 2010. Simultaneously, in terms of disposable income, the average annual disposable income for Chinese women surpassed 42,000 yuan in 2024. With the awakening of health consciousness among the Chinese population, the rising female population and their growing disposable income signify substantial and sustainable consumer demand in the women's health market.

This demand, in turn, is driving rapid market expansion.

Considering the medical device market for obstetrics and gynecology alone, data from an authoritative international medical device institution indicates that China's market for OB/GYN surgical instrument kits is projected to exceed 30 billion RMB by the end of 2024. Industry research predicts significant growth for China's OB/GYN healthcare sector over the next seven years, with the overall market scale expected to reach hundreds of billions of RMB by 2030. From a global perspective, the market size for gynecological devices was approximately 80.419 billion RMB in 2022 and is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.63% through 2028.

However, this rapidly expanding women's health sector still faces several challenges.

Currently, a significant number of companies focus on non-core medical services, primarily offering areas such as maternal and infant care or general health management for women. The situation regarding core medical needs is perhaps best illustrated by the following data: China records an annual OB/GYN outpatient volume of 500-600 million visits. Over 55% of these cases are related to reproductive tract infections. Seventy-five percent of women will contract vaginitis at least once in their lifetime, yet the cure rate for this condition remains below 60%. Approximately 50% of vaginitis cases recur after treatment, and standardized diagnostics fail to identify a cause in over 30% of symptomatic women. While some enterprises are committed to addressing these core medical issues, most currently offer only fragmented solutions.

For hospitals, physicians, and patients, these fragmented solutions present significant challenges. Hospitals face the burden of procuring numerous separate devices for disease screening, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation, requiring substantial capital investment to establish and upgrade departments while struggling with complex maintenance and management. Physicians must endure long learning curves for each piece of equipment, with disease diagnosis and treatment outcomes often falling short of ideal. Patients, in turn, are subjected to prolonged treatment cycles and high medical costs.

The industry urgently requires integrated, systematic solutions to address women's health issues comprehensively. This is precisely the gap Micro Inno aims to fill—by creating an innovative medical device platform that encompasses the entire care continuum for female reproductive health, from screening and diagnosis through treatment and rehabilitation.

After its establishment in 2021, Micro Inno chose to begin its journey of building an innovative medical device platform for women's health by starting with gynecological examinations.

Routine gynecological examinations can present several challenges, including potential missed diagnoses during the procedure, a lack of supporting tools leading to communication barriers between doctors and patients, and insufficient tools for evaluating treatment effectiveness. The introduction of colposcopes has partially addressed these issues. However, limitations persist: their bulky size restricts mobility, and suboptimal imaging quality not only complicates the observation of specific areas but also increases the risk of missed diagnoses in blind spots such as the vagina or fornix.

Based on these insights, Micro Inno developed the world's smallest portable gynecological imaging device, the Micro Inno Scope. As the first imaging equipment globally to integrate an advanced remote gynecological imaging platform with high-quality cloud resources, the Micro Inno Scope enables digital documentation of the cervix, vagina, and external genitalia with high resolution and superior magnification, thereby facilitating more precise clinical examinations.

Following the development of the Micro Inno Scope, Micro Inno has pioneered its application in the field of cervical cancer screening.

This strategic focus is driven by two key factors. Firstly, in 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the "Global Strategy to Accelerate the Elimination of Cervical Cancer," securing commitments from 194 countries, including China, to eliminate the disease for the first time. Micro Inno, dedicated to women's health, has actively responded to this global call. Secondly, the cervical cancer screening sector itself faces numerous significant unmet needs.

From a disease perspective, cervical cancer is primarily caused by persistent HPV (Human Papillomavirus) infection leading to cervical precancerous lesions. Approximately 25% of individuals with HSIL (High-grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesion) may progress to invasive cervical cancer within ten years. According to data from Frost & Sullivan, the global and Chinese HSIL patient populations are projected to reach 16.6 million and 2.2 million respectively by 2030.

Early detection of lesions is crucial for patients. However, existing screening methods present limitations: HPV testing suffers from low specificity, making it difficult to distinguish between transient and persistent viral infections, while Thinprep Cytologic Test (TCT) screening has low sensitivity, and its interpretation is subject to subjective variability.

The Micro Inno Scope offers distinct advantages. Firstly, leveraging revolutionary full-function flexible optics for high-definition imaging, it enables blind-spot-free examination, significantly enhancing diagnostic accuracy. Secondly, its computational optics with AI-enhanced staining imaging allows for post-staining observation of finer vascular details, helping physicians reduce missed diagnoses and identify lesions at earlier stages. Furthermore, its flexible Point-of-Care (POC) design allows patients to understand diagnostic details more clearly and intuitively. Additionally, the device supports remote diagnosis, enabling top-tier physicians to conduct multi-disciplinary consultations and participate in the clinical diagnostic process online. It is reported that Micro Inno is further developing functionalities to assist physicians in precisely locating lesions, guiding biopsies, and improving the detection rate of HSIL.

Current clinical studies indicate that portable colposcopes demonstrate comparable effectiveness to traditional devices, while reducing rates of overtreatment and patient referral. The Micro Inno Scope, with its compact size, portability, lower cost, and support for remote diagnosis, offers enhanced convenience for outpatient and primary care physicians. It is reported that Micro Inno's Micro Inno Scope has already obtained CE certification. While accelerating its domestic market布局, the company also plans to further expand into overseas markets.

For Micro Inno CEO Zhang Yang, the development of the Micro Inno Scope represents just one step in the realization of the company's broader innovative medical device platform for women's health. As a portable, mobile "electronic eye" applicable for visual gynecological examinations, lesion screening, and post-operative treatment assessment, it is poised to play its intended role in women's health screening and diagnosis. Looking ahead, Micro Inno will build upon this innovative platform and the foundation of the Micro Inno Scope to develop additional clinical devices and consumables that enhance capabilities in obstetrics and gynecology.