[Lieyunwang (WeChat:ilieyun
) Beijing] Reported on April 20
HuiHe Healthcare Officially Announces Completion of Tens of Millions of RMB in Angel Round FinancingRecently, HuiHe Healthcare officially announced the completion of its angel round financing, amounting to tens of millions of RMB. This round was led by Oriza Holdings. Following this financing, the company will commence mass production and explore various collaborative models with its partners.
Shanghai Huihe Healthcare Technology Co., Ltd. (HuiHe Healthcare) specializes in the research, development, and manufacturing of interventional medical devices for structural heart disease. Its current core product is the company’s independently developed transcatheter tricuspid valve repair system.
In China, there are over 200,000 new cases of moderate-to-severe tricuspid regurgitation annually, with a prevalent patient population exceeding one million. The plateau phase of regurgitation can last up to 10–15 years; if left untreated, the condition progresses to heart failure. Following the first episode of heart failure, the five-year mortality rate exceeds 50%, and overall survival typically does not exceed 10 years. Currently, the management of functional tricuspid regurgitation relies primarily on surgical intervention, predominantly tricuspid valve repair (>90%) and tricuspid valve replacement (<10%, restricted to patients with severe tricuspid stenosis or infective endocarditis). However, due to the complexity of surgical procedures and high operative risks, the volume of such surgeries performed remains very low.
Tricuspid valve annuloplasty is currently the preferred surgical approach for managing functional tricuspid regurgitation both in China and internationally. Among these techniques, the classic Kay’s annuloplasty is not only applied in surgical tricuspid valve repair rings but also widely utilized in interventional therapies for structural heart diseases. Building upon Kay’s annuloplasty, HuiHe Healthcare has independently developed the K-Clip, the world’s first ultrasound-guided interventional tricuspid valve repair device. This system employs a transvenous approach rather than the transthoracic apical surgical route, resulting in minimal patient trauma and faster recovery. Furthermore, the device has broader indications, suitable for patients with severe tricuspid regurgitation accompanied by mild-to-moderate pulmonary hypertension.
Lin Lin, founder of HuiHe Healthcare, stated, “The Kay’s procedure employed by K-Clip is backed by decades of experience in cardiac surgery and robust evidence-based data. It fully replicates the surgical technique while reducing patient risk. During the procedure, ultrasound guidance is used instead of digital subtraction angiography (DSA), which effectively lowers the requirements for operating room configuration, reduces radiation exposure to medical staff, and shortens the learning curve for physicians. This round of financing will significantly advance the continued research and development and regulatory approval of our tricuspid valve intervention products, as well as the R&D of other product pipelines related to structural heart disease.”
Liang Tao, co-founder of HuiHe Healthcare, stated that leading global companies in the structural heart disease sector are all engaged in the research and development or acquisition of transcatheter tricuspid valve repair products. Edwards’ Cardioband tricuspid valve repair system and Abbott’s TriClip™ transcatheter tricuspid valve repair system successively received CE marks between 2018 and 2020. In contrast, China has yet to see significant R&D progress in this field. As a company at the forefront of such efforts in China, HuiHe Healthcare is poised to capitalize on substantial market opportunities in the future.
Yang Zhiwen, Partner at Oriza Holdings, stated, “In addition to our long-term optimism regarding the future market opportunities for transcatheter tricuspid valve repair products, the founding team’s composition is the greatest source of our confidence in this investment. Lin Lin, Founder of HuiHe Healthcare, and Liang Tao, Co-Founder, have professional experience as practicing physicians and have held positions at leading medical device companies such as Edwards Lifesciences and St. Jude Medical/Abbott. They possess extensive relevant expertise in cardiovascular surgical procedures as well as in the R&D and sales of innovative cardiovascular devices. They not only deeply understand the pain points of physicians and patients but also have a thorough grasp of the industry’s commercial operations, representing the type of entrepreneurial team with the highest probability of success. Meanwhile, Xu Jun, another Co-Founder who serves as CTO, brings 17 years of executive experience at the 3M China R&D Center, where he successfully developed and launched over 100 new products into the market. He is a rare and valuable innovator and practitioner who has introduced 3M’s culture of innovation into HuiHe. Cardiac implantable devices require careful consideration of their impact on electrophysiological, vascular, and valvular structures; even minor errors can cause varying degrees of harm to patients, or even be life-threatening. The combination of these three founders has enabled the company, as a startup, to avoid many pitfalls in R&D, resulting in products that better align with the actual needs of clinicians. As an early-stage venture capital firm primarily focused on investing in technology-driven innovative startups, Oriza Holdings is delighted to lead this round of financing for HuiHe Healthcare and looks forward to the company’s compelling product offerings and market performance in the near future.”
