Hooke Instruments Completes Tens of Millions RMB Series A Funding to Build World-Class Life Science Optical Instrumentation Platform

VCBeat has learned at the earliest opportunity that, recently,HOOKE Instruments Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as “HOOKE Instruments” or the “Company”) announced the completion of its Series A financing round, amounting to tens of millions of yuan. This round of financing was led byTsinghua Innovation VenturesLead investor,Shunwei Capital, Xiaochi CapitalCo-investment,Dianshi CapitalServing as the exclusive financial advisor. The funds from this round will be primarily used to accelerate the technological promotion of the company’s multiple single-cell phenotyping detection and sorting platforms, further advance the commercialization and market expansion of industrial product pipelines in pharmaceutical testing, microbiome drug screening, and brewing monitoring, and provide a leading life sciences optical tool platform for global biological research and industrial practitioners.

Dr. Li Bei, founder of HOOKE Instruments, currently serves as a researcher at the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Manufacturing for Optical Systems, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as “CIOMP”). Dr. Li has 12 years of experience in scientific research and industrialization in the UK, where he engaged in cutting-edge optical technology research and laboratory achievement translation at the University of Bristol, Cardiff University, and the University of Oxford. During his tenure at the University of Oxford, he collaborated with Professor Martin Booth to promote the establishment of the Oxford Photonics Engineering Centre and undertook industrial translation projects for multiple industry leaders, including Unilever and Syngenta, thereby accumulating a solid scientific foundation and practical experience for his subsequent venture creation.

Figure: Dr. Li Bei, Founder of HOOKE Instruments

In 2017, Dr. Li Bei returned to the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics (CIOMP), renowned as the cradle of Chinese optics, to found HOOKE Instruments Ltd., driven by his aspiration to serve the nation through his expertise. Over the past six years, the company has leveraged the founder’s accumulated cutting-edge optical technologies and international collaboration resources from overseas, while benefiting from CIOMP’s robust and comprehensive domestic optical industry supply chain. Guided by the demand for autonomous and controllable domestic advanced optical scientific instruments, HOOKE Instruments applies optical technologies to address challenges in biology and medicine, striving to become a leading enterprise in the manufacturing of high-end optical life science instruments.

HOOKE Instruments Ltd. is one of the few domestic teams dedicated to the re-innovation of fundamental optical technologies, focusing on building cutting-edge instrumental platforms and providing end-to-end solutions from equipment to methodologies. The company carries out independent innovation, R&D, and industrialization in fields such as single-cell sorting, biological Raman spectroscopy, and confocal microscopy imaging, successfully breaking the long-standing monopoly held by imported instruments. Currently, HOOKE’s products serve over 100 research users in life sciences, environmental science, and medicine, as well as corporate clients in biopharmaceuticals and other industries both in China and abroad, earning high market recognition.

Figure: HOOKE Instruments' R&D, Production, and Technical Platform Development

In just a few short years, the company has grown from small to large and from weak to strong. Even during the global economic downturn triggered by the three-year pandemic, Dr. Li Bei continued to lead the company in deepening its scientific research, pursuing continuous innovation, maintaining steadfast focus, and striving for excellence. The company not only completed the iterative upgrades of its PRECI SCS single-cell product series in response to market demands but also successfully launched new products, including the S3000 Ultra-Fast 3D Fluorescence Imaging System and the MicroRaman Particle Detector. These achievements fully demonstrate Dr. Li Bei’s exceptional leadership capabilities, the team’s strong collaborative coordination and ability to thrive against adversity, and the robust market competitiveness of the company’s products.

Currently, a large number of outstanding enterprises, such as MGI Tech, Singleron Biotechnologies, and MoZhuo Bio, have emerged in the downstream sequencing sector of China’s single-cell industry chain. However, certain market gaps remain in the upstream segment, particularly in phenotypic identification and cell manipulation. Leveraging its strong expertise in optics, HOOKE Instruments has developed a series of innovative products for single-cell identification and manipulation, achieving “what you see is what you get” at the single-cell level and laying the foundation for subsequent multi-omics research.

Figure: HOOKE Instruments Research Product Series

At this stage, the core product launched by HOOKE Instruments is the PRECI SCS Visualized Single-Cell Analysis and Sorting Platform. In terms of phenotypic detection, it integrates advanced optical microscopy imaging and Raman spectroscopy with cutting-edge deep learning algorithms. This enables the rapid identification and targeting of specific cells or microparticles within complex cell populations through AI-based image recognition, ultra-fast 3D fluorescence analysis, and single-cell Raman ID identification. Regarding cell manipulation, in addition to mastering technologies such as microfluidics and optical tweezers, the company has pioneered the application of Laser Induced Forward Transfer (LIFT)—a technology mature in the materials industry—to commercial cell sorting products. This innovation allows for visualized, precise sorting under a microscope, achieving single-cell yield and purity rates exceeding 99%, thereby marking a significant technological breakthrough in the field.

Figure: Core Technologies of HOOKE Instruments

Currently, the company has established a comprehensive single-cell microbiology workflow solution, achieving significant application outcomes across multiple sectors of biological research and industry through the integrated use of upstream and downstream technologies.

Figure: Technical Solutions for Microbial Single-Cell Research

For instance, in the field of environmental microbiology, a functional strain screening strategy of “identification first, then enrichment culture” at the single-cell/single-clone level has been proposed to address the high randomness, heavy workload, and easy loss of low-abundance bacteria associated with existing culture methods; this approach has successfully screened out functional strains such as organic matter-degrading bacteria. In the field of synthetic biology, multiple cases of high-yield bacterial and yeast screening have been completed based on analyses of fluorescence intensity, fluorescence lifetime, and Raman characteristic peaks. In the field of medical diagnostics, the turnaround time for antimicrobial susceptibility testing, which currently takes 2–3 days, has been shortened to a few hours, and a research methodology for studying horizontal gene transfer of resistance genes has been established.

Figure: Application Cases of Microbial Single-Cell Technology

In the field of microbiome-based therapeutics, HOOKE Instruments has established a comprehensive and efficient RAColony microbial screening and isolation platform. It has innovatively proposed a novel de-replication strategy for strain selection based on multi-phenotypic characteristics (such as colony morphology and Raman spectral fingerprints). Compared with the traditional method of indiscriminate picking, this approach is more targeted and effectively improves the efficiency of discovering novel strains, providing powerful tools for the development of innovative live biotherapeutic products and health-oriented microbiome products. Meanwhile, HOOKE Instruments has entered into a strategic partnership with Sichuan Anaerobic Biology to jointly promote the construction of China’s most comprehensive human anaerobic live bacterial library, injecting new vitality into the development of the microbiome therapeutics sector.

Figure: Workflow for In Situ Colony “De-duplication” and Targeted Picking

In the biopharmaceutical field, particle counting and traceability systems have been developed for biologics. These systems not only fulfill pharmacopoeial requirements for quantifying and sizing particulate matter but also enable identification of particle types and sources through retrieval and comparison against a core pharmaceutical database established within the company. This provides robust support for drug discovery, formulation development, process optimization, stability studies, production deviation investigations, quality control, and complaint handling for antibody protein therapeutics, cell and gene therapies, biological vaccines, and other biologic products.

Figure: End-to-End Particulate Matter Testing Solution for Biologics

Furthermore, HOOKE Instruments Ltd. is continuing to explore the applications of its single-cell technology platform in areas such as circulating tumor cells, B-cell screening, and spatial omics. The company will consistently respond to market demands by launching innovative products and solutions, with a commitment to becoming the preferred provider of platform tools in the life sciences sector.

Regarding this financing,Dr. Li Bei, Founder of HOOKE Instrumentsstated: “We extend our gratitude to all new shareholders for their recognition of the company, and also thank the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics (CIOMP) for its consistent and strong support over the past six years. HOOKE Instruments has always adhered to the philosophy and business model of ‘international cooperation in frontier technologies, engineering realization of original technologies, leadership through core competitive products, and integration of the industrial chain and distribution channels’ to develop and promote domestically produced, original high-end life science research instruments. In the future, we will continue to develop more optical instruments and systematic solutions with international competitiveness, contributing HOOKE Instruments’ technological strength to the global cause of human health.”

Mr. Yan Yi, Managing Director of Tsinghua Innovation Ventures“It is noted that the localization rate of high-end instruments and equipment in the microbiology field remains low, particularly in the realm of precision optical devices. Multidisciplinary challenges—including supply chain establishment, detection and interpretation of microbial optical signals, and multi-scale microbial control—have collectively constrained the progress of domestic substitution in this sector. As a rare domestic enterprise dedicated to the R&D of high-end optical equipment, HOOKE Instruments boasts comprehensive technological reserves covering optical path design, underlying component development, algorithms, and cell sorting. The company has successively developed multiple globally innovative detection and sorting instruments for both scientific research and industrial applications, with product quality fully recognized by university and pharmaceutical clients. As a key investment in the high-end optical industry chain by Tsinghua Innovation Ventures, we anticipate that HOOKE Instruments will emerge as the leading optical enterprise in upstream life science tools, continuously delivering innovative solutions to global pharmaceutical companies, synthetic biology firms, and the academic community.”

Mr. Cheng Tian, Partner at Shunwei Capital“Shunwei Capital has always been committed to identifying and supporting outstanding entrepreneurs developing domestic alternatives, thereby fostering the sustainable development of China’s advanced manufacturing industry. With advances in life sciences and microbiology, single-cell research and applications are now regarded as a key direction for future scientific development. As a critical bottleneck area in biological science, the microbial single-cell sector has long been dominated by foreign brands in the Chinese market. However, with clear policy guidance from the government, the trend toward domestic substitution is becoming increasingly pronounced. Looking ahead, continued progress across environmental protection, pharmaceuticals, food, and agriculture will unlock substantial market potential in this field. HOOKE Instruments Ltd., an affiliate of Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, boasts strong technical capabilities; notably, its Raman-activated cell sorter based on LIFT technology has reached parity with leading international brands. Founder Li Bei enjoys a distinguished academic reputation and is also an experienced entrepreneur with extensive expertise in product development and commercialization. We look forward to his team’s continued deep engagement in the microbial single-cell domain, leveraging superior product technologies to fill gaps in the domestic market and advance life science research in China.”

Mr. Xu Junhao, Investment Director at Xiaochi Capitalstated: “Xiaochi Capital focuses on early-stage investments in the life sciences industry, with a particular emphasis on frontier technologies that possess core competitiveness. The Chenying team boasts profound technical expertise and a low-key, pragmatic approach. Since Dr. Li Bei transitioned from academia to industry, he has demonstrated exceptional management capabilities. The characteristics of Chenying align closely with our investment philosophy. We look forward to the team achieving new milestone breakthroughs.”

Mr. Zhang Zhuolei, Dianshi Capital“Dianshi Capital is committed to serving outstanding healthcare and hard-tech enterprises. We have long focused on frontier areas at the intersection of healthcare and technology, such as the scientific instruments sector. HOOKE Instruments Ltd. is an excellent enterprise based in Northeast China that we identified early on. We are honored to have supported the company in successfully completing this round of financing. We remain firmly optimistic about HOOKE’s future and will continue our collaboration with the company, looking forward to its development of more high-quality products.”