Humatrix Medical Completes Series A Financing and Initiates Clinical Trials of Domestic Small-Diameter Artificial Blood Vessels

VCBeat has exclusively learned that Humatrix Medical (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. (“Humatrix Medical”) has announced the completion of its Series A financing round.

This round of financing was led by IDG Capital, with follow-on investments from existing shareholders Shanghai Biomedical Innovation and Transformation Fund and Huafang Capital. YINGLAI CAPITAL served as the exclusive financial advisor. The funds raised will be primarily used to advance clinical trials for the company’s core product, small-diameter artificial blood vessels.

Humstrix, established in 2021, is dedicated to building a leading technology platform for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The company focuses on the development and manufacturing of small-diameter tissue-engineered blood vessels, which are suitable for establishing vascular access for hemodialysis in chronic renal failure, replacing damaged vessels due to lower extremity arterial trauma, treating lower extremity atherosclerosis, and performing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) for coronary heart disease. Leveraging this technology platform, the company plans to research, develop, and manufacture other regenerative medicine products, while conducting global clinical trials and commercialization efforts to meet the growing and largely unmet clinical needs.

Professor Qiu Xuefeng, Founder and Chairman of Humstrix

Currently, Humstrix has completed the one-year follow-up of preclinical studies for its small-diameter artificial blood vessels. Data show that their performance is significantly superior to existing imported ePTFE artificial blood vessels, with the potential to fill a domestic gap in China. In May 2024, Humstrix’s GMP production facility was officially commissioned, with an planned annual output of 30,000 artificial blood vessels. Leveraging its technological leadership, Humstrix has achieved counter-trend growth during the capital winter, completing four rounds of financing within three years of establishment, with total funding exceeding RMB 100 million.

Professor Qiu Xuefeng, Founder and Chairman of HumstrixStatement: We extend our sincere gratitude to IDG Capital and our existing shareholders, the Shanghai Biomedical Innovation and Translation Fund and Huafang Capital, for their continued support. Humstrix will maintain a rapid growth trajectory, accelerating product clinical trials and regulatory registration. Earlier this month, the Chinese National Renal Data System (CNRDS) announced that there were 916,000 registered hemodialysis patients in China in 2023, accounting for one-quarter of the global total and posing a significant public health burden. Guided by the imperative to address unmet clinical needs, Humstrix has overcome critical technological bottlenecks, leveraging innovative technologies to foster new quality productive forces. This has enabled the domestic substitution and price reduction of small-diameter artificial blood vessels, thereby improving patient access to these products and reducing medical insurance expenditures.

Mr. Liu Yikun, Healthcare Partner at IDG CapitalStatement: W. L. Gore & Associates’ ePTFE small-diameter vascular grafts have been approved by the FDA for clinical use in the United States for nearly 50 years. To date, no small-diameter vascular graft has received regulatory approval in China, despite urgent clinical demand and a substantial market opportunity. The primary indications for small-diameter vascular grafts include vascular access for hemodialysis in patients with chronic renal failure, replacement of lower-extremity arteries injured by trauma, bypass surgery for lower-extremity atherosclerosis, and coronary artery bypass grafting. The technological barriers to developing such grafts are extremely high. Professor Qiu Xuefeng, the founder, serves as Chief Physician and Doctoral Supervisor in the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. With extensive clinical experience and two decades of research expertise in vascular grafts, he left Union Hospital in Wuhan in June 2022 to pursue full-time entrepreneurship in Suzhou. Clinical trials are now underway. The founding team is pragmatic and highly efficient, earning widespread admiration. IDG Capital will continue to support Humstrix’s team in advancing product development and clinical research, aiming to provide Chinese patients with superior-performing vascular grafts.

Mr. Guo Qiushan, Partner at Shanghai Bio-Pharmaceutical FundIt is indicated that since the last round of financing, the Humstrix team has efficiently completed the early-stage R&D and process finalization of small-diameter artificial blood vessels. The product’s excellent performance has been validated in large-animal models of arteriovenous fistula, with long-term follow-up data demonstrating a significantly higher patency rate compared to imported products. We believe that, building on Professor Qiu’s extensive clinical experience, the team will be able to steadily advance regulatory clinical trials, ultimately launching the first high-performance tissue-engineered small-diameter artificial blood vessel on the market.

Dr. Luo Wangqian, Partner at Huafang CapitalStatement: As the exclusive investor in Humstrix’s angel round, we are delighted to see Professor Qiu drive the rapid implementation and achieve critical progress in various company affairs, including its core pipeline, with exceptional execution. The financing size of this round exceeded expectations, further confirming the sustained momentum in the regenerative medicine sector where Humstrix operates, as well as the high industry recognition of the company’s pipeline portfolio. We believe that Humstrix, with its leading tissue engineering technologies, will spearhead pioneering breakthroughs in regenerative medicine, advancing the field from in vivo regeneration to in vitro reconstruction of tissues and organs. We also look forward to seeing Humstrix, under the leadership of its founder, Professor Qiu, rapidly bring multiple regenerative medicine products to market to benefit patients.

Ms. Gao Fujuan, Partner at YINGLAI CAPITALStatement: Small-diameter synthetic vascular grafts with an inner diameter of less than 6 mm represent a classic “chokepoint” technology. There is substantial clinical demand for such grafts in areas including chronic hemodialysis access, lower extremity arterial trauma, and coronary artery bypass grafting. Professor Qiu Xuefeng, the founder, is not only an experienced cardiac surgeon but also a scientist driving disruptive innovation, as well as an entrepreneur with strong management capabilities. We are honored to have assisted Humstrix in completing this round of financing. Humstrix’s product technology currently leads domestically and keeps pace internationally, and the company has established a GMP-compliant mass production facility. We look forward to the company’s timely completion of clinical trials and product registration, achieving commercialization, benefiting patients, and ushering in a new chapter for the industry.

IDG Capital pioneered venture capital operations in China in 1993, making it the country’s longest-established private equity investment firm and one of the largest alternative asset managers by assets under management (AUM). Over three decades of development, the firm has accumulated nearly RMB 200 billion in AUM. IDG Capital has consistently maintained a strong focus on the healthcare sector. In the past five years alone, it has invested in more than 70 healthcare projects, strategically targeting sub-sectors such as biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics, and artificial intelligence, while also capitalizing on opportunities arising from policy-driven innovative healthcare models.

The Shanghai Biomedical Innovation and Translation Fund is an early-stage fund under the Shanghai Biomedical Fund, focusing on investment opportunities in the “0 to 1” stage of the biomedical industry. Jointly initiated by Shanghai Industrial Holdings (Group) Corporation, Shanghai Pharmaceuticals, Guofang Capital, and the Shanghai Angel Investment Guidance Fund, the fund prioritizes the successful translation and application of original scientific research achievements and cutting-edge innovative technologies. With the goal of building an innovation and translation platform that is “focused on Shanghai, linked with the Yangtze River Delta and the Greater Bay Area, and oriented toward the global market,” it invests in and supports original technologies with international leading standards. By connecting various types of innovation entities and service providers within the innovation ecosystem, the fund aims to create a “Innovation + Industry + Capital” platform with distinctive Shanghai characteristics.

Huafang Capital, established in 2017, is a fund manager specializing in early-stage investments in the biopharmaceutical and advanced manufacturing sectors. Its core team members have over two decades of deep experience in the pharmaceutical industry, possessing profound insights into industrial dynamics, project innovation, differentiation, and the capability building of entrepreneurial teams. To date, it has completed investments in more than 40 projects. Leveraging the extensive industrial resources of Huaili Group’s listed companies in the biopharmaceutical and advanced manufacturing fields, Huafang Capital provides comprehensive empowerment to its portfolio companies, facilitating their rapid growth into leading enterprises within their respective niche markets.

YINGLAI CAPITAL is a professional investment and financing service firm specializing in the healthcare sector. Its founding team hails from renowned domestic medical investment institutions, bringing extensive project experience and a robust network within the medical investment community. The firm covers thousands of professional investment institutions and industrial groups, with rich transaction experience and successful deal records in fields such as innovative drugs, medical devices, and in vitro diagnostics (IVD). Signature events independently organized by YINGLAI CAPITAL, including the Medical Investor Forum, thematic salons on specialized industry segments, and medical investor gatherings in Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta region, have been highly acclaimed within the industry.