MagAssist Medical Announces Filing of IPO Prospectus Following Series B Funding Led by Northern Light Venture Capital

1Month11On [date], Suzhou magAssist Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as“magAssist”) Completed 100 million yuanBSeries financing, led by Northern Light Venture Capital, with participation from Suzhou High-Tech Venture Capital. Existing shareholders Guoqian Venture Capital, Anji Yunshuo, and Taiyu Investment continued their support. The funds raised in this round will be primarily used for research and development across multiple existing product lines, clinical trials, and expansion of production capacity.

magAssist was established in May 2017 in Suzhou New District, focusing on the research and development of extracorporeal life support devices for clinical scenarios such as acute cardiogenic shock, intraoperative circulatory protection during cardiac surgery, and critical organ failure in critically ill patients. The company’s current main product line includes minimally invasive percutaneous artificial hearts, fully magnetically levitated extracorporeal artificial hearts, and next-generation extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) systems. magAssist completed its angel round and Series A financing in 2018 and 2019, respectively. The angel round was led by Guoqian Venture Capital, with Taiyu Investment participating as a co-investor. The Series A round was led by Mifang Capital, with Huatai Health Industry Fund and Guoqian Venture Capital participating as co-investors.

magAssist is composed of top-tier experts in artificial organ technology from both domestic and international arenas, as well as leading clinical institutions in China. The founder and CEO, Dr. Xu Boling, has nearly 14 years of experience in the research and development of artificial hearts. He is a young expert under the National Major Talent Program, a distinguished professor at Soochow University, and the first Chinese board member of the International Society for Mechanical Circulatory Support (ISMCS), an authoritative organization with a history of nearly 30 years. The technical expert team includes the head of the Institute of Cardiovascular Engineering at RWTH Aachen University in Germany, the designer of the BiVACOR magnetically levitated total artificial heart, and specialists in power electronics and motor design from the University of Cambridge in the UK. This team comprehensively masters systematic technologies including magnetic levitation, computational fluid dynamics, and mechatronics. To ensure that its products effectively address critical pain points in domestic clinical practice, magAssist’s entire product line was jointly developed in the early stages of R&D with top experts in cardiology, cardiac surgery, and critical care medicine in China. These collaborations include the team led by Academician Ge Junbo from the Department of Cardiology at Zhongshan Hospital in Shanghai, and the team led by Professor Dong Nianguo from the Department of Cardiac Surgery at Wuhan Union Hospital. The company strives to precisely develop clinical products urgently needed by Chinese patients and to scientifically and effectively promote clinical trials and applications across all product lines.

Amid the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic this year, society as a whole has begun to focus on ECMO, a type of Extracorporeal Life Support (ECLS) device. Widely recognized, ECMO is a component of extracorporeal life support—a life-support technology that employs mechanical devices to provide partial or complete cardiopulmonary support for days to months in patients with cardiopulmonary failure.

Extracorporeal Life Support (ECLS) devices enable physicians to rescue patients from the brink of death.

In addition to ECMO, ventricular assist devices (VADs) are also critical equipment in extracorporeal life support. VADs drain blood from the atrium or ventricle into the assist device, increase its pressure via a blood pump, and then return it to the arterial system, thereby partially or completely replacing cardiac work to maintain circulation.

VAD devices can be categorized into extracorporeal artificial hearts and implantable artificial hearts. Implantable artificial hearts are used for patients with end-stage chronic heart failure to provide long-term replacement of cardiac function. Chronic heart failure is irreversible and progresses in a stepwise manner; in the early stages, it can be managed with medication, but in the later stages, heart transplantation or the use of an implantable artificial heart becomes necessary. Extracorporeal artificial hearts (mid- to short-term extracorporeal circulatory support devices) serve as a bridge therapy for patients with progressive acute heart failure, providing mid- to short-term cardiac function support to help patients survive the critical period and facilitate recovery.

Although extracorporeal life support devices have been applied earlier abroad, with doctors using them as early as over a decade ago, in China, only ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) devices are currently available for use. The more advanced artificial hearts with better blood compatibility and longer usability have not yet been introduced. Faced with numerous patients suffering from end-stage heart failure, cardiac surgeons can be said to be unable to cook without rice. On the industrial side, there are also fewer enterprises conducting research on extracorporeal artificial hearts.

Acute and critical organ failure represents an extremely complex clinical scenario, where providing precise treatment tailored to the patient's disease progression is key to improving survival rates. Treatment needs can be broadly categorized as follows: (1) Given that a large volume of patients in the early and progressive stages initially present in internal medicine or emergency departments, there is a significant unmet clinical need for those who do not respond to current pharmacological therapies. Providing rapid extracorporeal circulation or respiratory oxygenation support can reverse or slow the progression of organ failure at its early stages; (2) In the severe stage of organ failure, clinical decision-making in surgical or critical care departments becomes challenging when patients exhibit hemodynamic instability. Safely and effectively restoring circulatory stability with a favorable cost-effectiveness profile, thereby bridging patients to the optimal therapeutic endpoint, will enable safe discharge and the restoration of long-term quality of life. Addressing the complex matrix of needs associated with acute heart and lung failure and the prevailing clinical pain points in China, magAssist has leveraged its magnetically levitated artificial heart technology to comprehensively deploy a product portfolio including next-generation ECMO systems and interventional artificial hearts. By offering full-scenario, platform-based solutions that address multidimensional requirements such as operational convenience, circulatory support flow rates, and duration of support, magAssist aims to meet the segmented needs across different disease stages and clinical departments.

magAssist’s benchmark company is Abiomed (ABMD), which has a market capitalization of up to $14.7 billion and owns the Impella product platform, currently the only FDA-approved percutaneous artificial heart worldwide. The Impella device does not require surgical implantation; it provides short-term circulatory support via catheter-based delivery. Impella technology originated from the Institute at RWTH Aachen University in Germany. After being acquired by Abiomed, its indications were progressively expanded under US FDA approval: from protection during high-risk PCI procedures (<6 hours), to protection for high-risk PCI patients with reduced or preserved ejection fraction (EF), and most recently, extended protection during high-risk PCI procedures (6–12 hours). Since its launch in the US market in 2015, annual sales growth has exceeded 30%, with over 30,000 implants performed in 2019. Abiomed’s annual revenue approaches $800 million, the vast majority of which is generated from sales of the Impella device alone.

Addressing the hemocompatibility requirements for mid-term circulatory support, CentriMag is currently the gold standard for hemocompatibility in the field of extracorporeal artificial hearts worldwide, with clinical applications supporting circulation for over 30 days. The company was acquired by Abbott in 2015. It can function independently as an extracorporeal artificial heart to provide full-flow support to patients or be combined with an extracorporeal membrane oxygenator to provide cardiopulmonary support (ECMO). In 2018, over 10,000 units were sold in the United States. ECMO has received widespread attention due to the recent pandemic. Limited by technical complexities, the current domestic market is monopolized by imported products, with Maquet holding over 70% of the market share, while the remaining share is occupied by Medtronic and Sorin. The global market size was approximately USD 300 million in 2018, with the potential domestic market in China reaching RMB 1.8 billion.

In just three years, magAssist advanced its fully magnetically levitated extracorporeal artificial heart to clinical application. In 2019, at the International Society for Mechanical Circulatory Support (ISMCS) conference held in Italy, the company presented the device’s superior performance and hemocompatibility, earning recognition from international experts. Current 30-day animal studies of the extracorporeal artificial heart demonstrate excellent hemocompatibility metrics, with no hemolysis or thrombosis observed, achieving performance on par with the global state-of-the-art. Its percutaneous artificial heart and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) systems are in preclinical development. Starting in 2023, magAssist is expected to bring at least one high-barrier Class III medical product to clinical use each year.

Dr. Xu Boling, founder of magAssist, stated: “Guided by our corporate mission to ‘continuously deliver the most valuable technologies and services to users and patients in the field of short- to medium-term life support, providing patients with a chance for a new lease on life,’ we will root ourselves in China while keeping a global perspective. Centering on patients, clinicians, and talent, we will deeply understand patient needs, listen to clinical pain points, and build a strong team of experts. Starting from cardiopulmonary support, we are strategically developing a multi-organ support platform to establish the last line of defense against acute and critical organ failure, saving those who should not have to leave us.”

As the lead investor in this round, Mr. Deng Feng, Founding Managing Partner of Northern Light Venture Capital, stated, “Heart failure represents a broad track with a rare market space exceeding RMB 10 billion within the cardiovascular sector. With population aging and the prolonged course of underlying cardiovascular diseases, we believe the inflection point for the heart failure device therapy market in China is approaching. Future growth in China’s medical device market will belong to innovative and technology-driven device segments. magAssist’s strategic layout in the treatment and prophylactic use of cardiogenic shock offers immense potential. The magAssist team has deeply cultivated the artificial heart field for many years with an international perspective, making it a platform company with significant long-term growth potential. We look forward to the early clinical adoption of its products to benefit a vast number of critically ill patients.”

Zhang Xu, Founding Partner of Guoqian Venture Capital, an existing shareholder, stated: “As the angel investor in magAssist, Guoqian Venture Capital has accompanied its growth over the past three years. magAssist has perfectly exemplified Guoqian’s precise investment logic of ‘three points in a straight line’: technological innovation and breakthroughs, rigid clinical demand, and a market with substantial scale. We look forward to magAssist accelerating the continuous completion of its product portfolio, developing platform-based solutions for acute and critical care extracorporeal life support systems tailored to diverse patient populations, varying assistive needs, and different clinical scenarios, thereby serving patients worldwide as soon as possible.”

Dong Min, General Manager of Suzhou New District Hi-Tech Venture Capital Group Co., Ltd., stated, “We are delighted to participate in magAssist’s Series B financing round. As the equity investment platform under the Financial Holdings Group, it is our core responsibility to support outstanding startups within the district. The company boasts a team of industry leaders, possesses robust technical capabilities, and offers high-tech products that fill domestic gaps, making it a star medical device enterprise in the Suzhou New District. This financing round has attracted attention from many top-tier domestic investment institutions. We hope that, through joint efforts, the product will successfully reach the market, enabling the company to become a leader in the field of artificial hearts at an early date.”

Mr. Zhao Xin, Managing Director of Anji Yunshuo, stated: “The extracorporeal artificial heart developed by magAssist represents a blue-ocean market in the global artificial heart sector and constitutes a key area for Anji Yunshuo’s strategic investments. We believe that magAssist’s fully magnetically levitated drive system, combined with state-of-the-art computational fluid dynamics technology, not only delivers blood compatibility comparable to the international gold standard but also provides acute heart failure and cardiogenic shock patients with transitional mechanical circulatory support that is cost-effective, offers greater flexibility in treatment options, and ensures enhanced stability. Anji Yunshuo is optimistic about magAssist and confident that it will emerge as a leader in China’s artificial heart industry, driving global development in the sector and benefiting patients worldwide.”

Dr. Ji Tianrong, General Manager of Taiyu Investment, stated: “Medical devices in the cardiology field are characterized by high risks, significant technical challenges, and stringent standards and requirements, representing a high-difficulty area of innovation globally. The R&D team at magAssist possesses prominent advantages, with advanced experience in developing cardiovascular medical devices. Its product portfolio is well-structured and features high technical barriers, including the extracorporeal artificial heart magAssist (benchmarking against CentriMag, currently the only approved and marketed product of its kind globally) and the minimally invasive interventional artificial heart (benchmarking against Impella, currently the only approved and marketed product of its kind globally). These innovations will undoubtedly benefit the vast number of heart disease patients in China. As the angel-round investor in magAssist, Taiyu Investment will continue to strongly support the company’s innovative development.”

Northern Light Venture Capital, founded by Mr. Deng Feng in 2005, is committed to “empowering world-class Chinese entrepreneurs and cultivating world-class Chinese enterprises.” It has long focused on investing in early-stage, technology-driven innovative companies. To date, it has invested in nearly 400 outstanding enterprises across the TMT, advanced technology, and healthcare sectors. Northern Light Venture Capital entered the healthcare sector in 2009, with its medical team taking initial shape in 2011. Over the past decade, the firm has invested across multiple sub-sectors—including medical devices, in vitro diagnostics (IVD), biopharmaceuticals, healthcare services, and E-Health—covering virtually the entire industry chain. It has invested in more than 60 companies, including CITIC Pharmaceutical, BGI Genomics, Burning Rock Biotech, Zeltex Pharma, iRay Technology, Taimei Medical Technology, Annoroad Gene Technology, and Guoke Hengtai.

Suzhou New District Venture Capital was restructured in 2008, establishing a fund investment system that covers the entire corporate lifecycle, including angel investing, venture capital (VC), private equity (PE), industrial investment, and mergers and acquisitions with private placements. It has cumulatively established 50 funds, participated in nearly 300 investment projects through affiliated funds, supported 37 companies in listing on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges (including six companies registered on the STAR Market), and helped numerous enterprises list on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ). By leveraging market-oriented operations, it manages the High-Tech Zone Industrial Guidance Fund with a total scale of RMB 10 billion and the Gaochuang Angel Fund-of-Funds with a total scale of RMB 300 million, thereby driving the development of regional venture capital and significantly guiding financial resources and social capital toward the real economy and key areas of innovation.