TuPai Medical Secures Nearly RMB 150 Million in Series A Financing to Advance High-End Ophthalmic Devices

Jan 29, 2021 08:01 CST Updated 08:00

TowardPi

High-end Ophthalmic Medical Device Developer

Tsinghua Innovation Ventures

Professional Investment Institutions for Industrialization of Scientific and Technological Achievements

36KrIt is reported that TowardPi (Beijing) Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (formerly known as Beijing TowardPi Imaging Technology Co., Ltd.) completed its Series A and Series A+ financing rounds in the second half of 2020, raising a total of nearly RMB 150 million. Both rounds were led by SinoKing Capital, with existing shareholders Tsinghua Innovation Ventures, THG Venture Capital, and qidi incubator increasing their investments, and Beijing Zhongguancun Development Frontier Enterprise Investment Fund (L.P.) participating as a follow-on investor.

According to Wang Yingqi, CEO of TowardPi Medical, the primary uses of this financing round are to upgrade existing GMP production lines, expand production capacity, improve process standards, continue to tackle key challenges in optimizing core components, and carry out R&D, clinical trials, and regulatory registration for numerous new products.

TowardPi was established in October 2017, focusing on the independent research and development and manufacturing of high-end ophthalmic medical equipment and core optoelectronic components. 36 has previously reported on it multiple times. According to previous introductions, this companyBorn from the commercialization of cutting-edge technological achievements at Tsinghua University, the company was founded by multiple Tsinghua alumni and jointly incubated by the Beijing Tsinghua Industrial R&D Institute and the Global Health Industry Innovation Center (GHIC).

As of now, TowardPi has completed the R&D of multiple“Ultra-High-Speed Ophthalmic Swept-Source OCT” Product, which includes the "Beiming·Kun" series for the high-end market and the "Yaoguang·Xing" series for the mainstream market; in addition, there are also includingSwept-Source Optical Biometer, Fiber-Optic OCT Endoscopic Surgical Navigation Systemincluding multiple high-end ophthalmic medical equipment product lines, and is about to enter the product registration phase.

Beiming·Kun Product Appearance

It is reported that, among themThe first-generation "Yaoguang·Star" product obtained its registration certificate and was launched for commercial sale by the end of 2020, and has since entered mass production.According toWang Yingqi revealed,Within just over a month of obtaining certification, the product has already achieved sales in the millions of yuan.

OCT, short for Optical Coherence Tomography, performs non-invasive, high-resolution imaging of the eye based on the principle of optical interference. Its tomographic images exhibit a layer structure that correlates well with histopathological sections, and it enables the visualization of fundus vascular lesions (OCTA); therefore, it has become the most critical imaging basis for the diagnosis of ophthalmic diseases.

Wide-field OCTA in Patients with Fundus Ischemia

Currently, OCT technology has undergone three generations of technological iteration: time-domain (TD-OCT), spectral-domain (SD-OCT), and swept-source (SS-OCT), giving rise to powerful clinical applications such as OCT angiography (OCTA). To enhance the precision and efficacy of OCT in clinical diagnosis, manufacturers are making rapid advances in technical parameters, with the pursuit of higher scanning speeds and greater imaging depth remaining the long-term goals and direction of the OCT technology field. However, due to extremely high technical barriers, the domestic mid-to-high-end OCT market is almost entirely monopolized by imported products.

To this end, TowardPi has continuously overcome the aforementioned technical challenges through long-term independent research and development. According to reports,The “Beiming·Kun” series products achieve a scanning speed of 400,000 scans per second, more than doubling the existing industry record, and can complete ultra-wide-field OCT angiography (OCTA) within an extremely short time.Significantly enhance the clinical utility of OCTA.

As for the “Yaoguang·Star” series, according to Wang Yingqi,Its maximum imaging depth reaches 14 mm., it can achieve panoramic, seamless imaging from the corneal apex to the posterior lens capsule and part of the vitreous body for any patient. This imaging depth exceeds twice the maximum 6 mm imaging depth of existing fundus OCT systems and is even slightly superior to dedicated anterior segment OCT devices (13 mm).

Panoramic Anterior Segment Tomography

Meanwhile, over the past six months, the TowardPi team has engaged in product and academic research collaborations with several renowned Grade A tertiary hospitals in China, facilitating the translation of medical-engineering innovations into practical applications. Wang Yingqi revealed that the company’s future ambitions extend beyond mature commercialized products such as ophthalmic OCT and biometers; instead, it aims to become a world-class platform for translating ophthalmic medical-engineering academic achievements, pioneering original technologies, and emerging as a premium supplier of comprehensive, integrated diagnostic and therapeutic ophthalmic medical devices.

Wang Yingqi pointed out that although ophthalmic medical devices vary in form and function, they are all derived from underlying core optoelectronic technologies. Optoelectronic technology serves as a platform technology for ophthalmic medical devices; therefore, by solidifying the foundational technologies and aligning technical transfer with actual clinical needs, innovative outcomes are poised to achieve explosive growth at a geometric rate.

He told 36Kr that, at present, apart from a few optoelectronic giants such as Carl Zeiss, most domestic and international suppliers of ophthalmic medical devices adopt system integration solutions. As a result, they are unable to break through the constraints imposed by the device-level supply chain on technical specifications, costs, and functional requirements, thereby preventing them from independently developing truly groundbreaking products.

Correspondingly, Wang Yingqi introduced that the core team of TowardPi originates from the Department of Electronic Engineering at Tsinghua University, possessing a first-class foundation in optoelectronic technology. Prior to the company’s establishment, the team had been deeply rooted in the optoelectronic industry chain for over a decade, integrating the most advanced underlying optoelectronic technologies and applying them to the field of ophthalmic medical devices. This enabled them to develop high-end products with leading technical specifications within just three years.

It is reported that, to date, TowardPi boasts a substantial number of senior technical alumni from Tsinghua University, specializing in fields such as Electronic Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Precision Instruments. These experts oversee ten specialized hardware and software technical groups within the company’s Technology Department. Furthermore, TowardPi has assembled a team of dozens of master’s and doctoral degree holders from renowned universities both in China and abroad. This high-caliber talent pool continues to expand rapidly, steadily building up the core technological reserves for TowardPi’s future development.

Investor Perspectives

The lead investor in the Series A and Series A+ rounds, SinoKing Capital, stated:

We highly value TowardPi’s strong capability in independent research and development of core underlying technologies. With solid expertise in optoelectronics, the company boasts comprehensive hardware technical strengths. Its algorithm team has also made rapid progress in both traditional algorithms and artificial intelligence. The ophthalmic swept-source OCT products, which have obtained regulatory approval and are commercially available, demonstrate the company’s outstanding productization capabilities. In just three years, TowardPi’s growth pace, particularly its technological advancements, has consistently exceeded our expectations.