Shenzhen SeekBio Medtech Files IPO Prospectus: Pioneering POCT Innovation with Proprietary Piezoelectric Microfluidic Pump and Active Microfluidics Technology

In recent years, the POCT market has experienced rapid growth, driven by the advancement of “Five Major Centers” construction in domestic hospitals and the pandemic’s role in accelerating market education for point-of-care testing products. Meanwhile, the tiered diagnosis and treatment policy has unlocked potential in lower-tier markets, creating new opportunities for sustained volume growth of POCT products suited for primary care settings.

However, traditional technologies in the POCT field have nearly reached their ceiling in terms of both optimization potential and market acceptance, facing an urgent need for technological upgrades. Failure to inject new technological vitality may limit the performance optimization and market growth of POCT products.

On the other hand, from the perspective of application scenarios, there is a significant gap in point-of-care testing (POCT) for coagulation in emergency and critical care settings, while immunoassays suffer from a disconnect between price and value, failing to adequately meet clinical needs and thus presenting substantial room for substitution. The industrial application of such products requires balancing high precision, ease of use, and low cost, yet comprehensive solutions remain lacking. Microfluidic technology, by integrating miniaturization and automation, offers advantages such as high throughput, multi-analyte detection, reduced reagent consumption, minimal sample volume requirements, and compact, flexible instrumentation. These features effectively address the aforementioned challenges, making microfluidics one of the key directions for the next-generation upgrade of POCT technologies.

Targeting unmet needs in the POCT market and driven by technological innovation, SeekX (Shenzhen SeekX Biomedical Technology Co., Ltd., hereinafter referred to as “SeekX”) has entered the field to address these challenges. Headquartered in Shenzhen and established in 2021, SeekX was co-founded by a team of seasoned experts in the microfluidic in vitro diagnostics industry. The company is dedicated to providing convenient, accurate, and rapid diagnostic products based on active microfluidic technology.

Huang Yao, the founder of SeekX, holds a master’s degree in Mechatronics Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology, and his first job was related to robotics and automation. In 2011, Huang moved from Shanghai to Shenzhen and, by chance, joined a domestic company specializing in microfluidic POCT. Twelve years later, Huang still vividly remembers the interview scene from that time.

The interviewer told him that, against the backdrop of global population aging, the life and health industry would enjoy bright development prospects, and the point-of-care testing (POCT) sector, which focuses on providing flexible solutions for disease prevention and control, would generate greater social value. “Given my family history of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, I was deeply attracted to this promising field at that time.” With that, Huang Yao began his entry into the healthcare industry.Huang Yao previously served as the R&D Director of Instruments at Weidian Biology and as the R&D Director for the POCT Product Line at Zhongyuan Huiji. With deep expertise in the field of in vitro diagnostics, he is now in his 13th year in the industry.

“Microfluidics is, overall, a relatively cutting-edge technology, so during our development process, we have consistently targeted and benchmarked against pioneering innovative companies in Europe and the United States,” said Huang Yao. In this process, Huang Yao observed that these Western enterprises possess distinctive characteristics and demonstrate considerable ingenuity, both in their insights into user needs and in the products and technological solutions they offer. “However, looking at the domestic market in China, most competitors offer homogeneous products, resulting in a situation of intense, involutionary competition.” This reality has prompted deep reflection on Huang Yao’s part.

“‘Involution’ is certainly not our mission; we are determined to carve out new opportunities through technological innovation and global expansion of our products.” Driven by this vision, Huang Yao founded SeekX in 2021, dedicated to accelerating the domestic adoption of microfluidics technology and driving technological upgrades across China’s POCT market.

Focusing on unmet needs in the POCT field and anchored by the core values of “quality” and “innovation,” SeekX has attracted a group of like-minded partners. Currently, the company has established a comprehensive R&D team covering instruments, reagents, and microfluidic chips, with a well-structured organizational framework.Core team members hail from prestigious institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Northwestern Polytechnical University, and Xiangya School of Medicine of Central South University. All are senior experts in the microfluidic in vitro diagnostics industry, with over 10 years of relevant work experience.

“Over more than a decade of deep industry engagement, the team has consistently maintained an international perspective.”We are not only benchmarking against our domestic peers but also aligning with the most cutting-edge technologies in European and American markets. For us, innovation is ingrained in our DNA.” Huang Yao introduced to VCBeat.

SeekX’s core platform, the pressure-driven microfluidic platform, serves as the foundational underlying technology for its POCT products and acts as the primary driving force for microfluidic reaction processes.

Compared with traditional drive pumps, it features a more refined and compact structure at a lower cost, making it better suited for microfluidic control applications. When integrated with sensors on the instrument, it enables a dual-feedback closed-loop system for both pressure and flow, thereby achieving precise control throughout the entire fluidic process.. The drive pump features a volumetric accuracy of <0.1 µL, enabling precise control over liquid injection volume and flow rate. With a single-pump thickness of <6 mm, it supports multi-channel array integration in compact spaces. Free from mechanical wear and heat generation issues, it offers an extended service life.

In biochip manufacturing processes, SeekX has leveraged the team’s extensive prior experience. The company’s technical strengths are evident across all stages—from material molding and bonding, to spotting and drying of liquid reagents, and finally to the integration of these process steps into a fully automated manufacturing production system. This fully automated manufacturing approach not only enhances the quality and consistency of biochips but also reduces production costs.

“The cost of microfluidic products primarily stems from manufacturing processes, with material costs accounting for a very small proportion. If the introduced process steps are not well integrated, it will not only lead to reduced yield rates but also result in high overall costs and unstable final product quality,” Huang Yao explained to VCBeat. By offloading highly complex tasks during the reaction process to instruments, SeekX has simplified the production and processing of microfluidic chips. According to Huang Yao, SeekX’s entire chip production workflow reduces the number of steps by more than half compared to traditional processes for similar products, while significantly improving yield rates.

On the other hand,SeekX’s core team has experience in building production lines with an annual capacity of over ten million microfluidic chips., with expertise spanning from sourcing and environmental conditions to worker training and the design and deployment of fully automated production lines,Expertise in establishing a microfluidics product master production line with tens of millions of units in annual capacity, at minimal cost and maximum speed.。

Overall, SeekX’s pressure-driven microfluidic platform enables multiplex testing at low cost and in a compact footprint, while also serving as the technological foundation for lightweight, handheld platforms. Leveraging this driving technology, along with the design of active multiplex microfluidic chips and the development of reagents and detection algorithms, the company has created a novel form factor for a compact point-of-care testing (POCT) system.

By integrating instruments, chips, reagents, and algorithms, SeekX has established a comprehensive technological and patent barrier through systematic technical optimization and highly integrated, balanced solutions. Meanwhile,By striking a balance between the complexity of instruments and that of reagents and consumables, this platform achieves lower overall costs and superior performance advantages.。

In the POCT field, SeekX has taken the lead in targeting coagulation and immunoassay products.

First, from the perspective of coagulation testing, POCT coagulation testing started relatively late in China, with a low rate of domestic production. It suffers from drawbacks such as untimely report generation and high comprehensive costs, currently failing to adequately meet clinical needs.

“Due to methodological limitations and bottlenecks in technical platforms, the performance of previous products failed to meet clinical requirements; on the other hand, the domestic coagulation testing market is dominated by panel tests, whereas imported products primarily offer single-parameter assays,” introduced Huang Yao. With domestically produced products yet to achieve rapid growth and imported products facing challenges in local adaptation, SeekX recognized that POCT coagulation testing should follow a new technological route. By developing testing products tailored to the Chinese market’s needs, the company aims to achieve rapid market entry.

SeekX’s coagulation POCT products are designed to provide high-quality, cost-effective solutions. The product features “Affordable Pricing, Superior Performance, Diverse Offerings“Three major advantages effectively address the shortcomings of existing products.”

SeekX Coagulation Analyzer

From a pricing perspective, SeekX’s coagulation POCT consumables are based on three highly mature manufacturing processes—injection molding, die-cutting, and pressure-sensitive adhesive bonding—making them suitable for large-scale mass production with high yield rates and low process costs. In terms of performance, the product employs the mechanical viscoelasticity method, considered the gold standard for coagulation testing, offering superior anti-interference capabilities compared to optical and electrochemical methods. Furthermore, its high level of integration supports simultaneous six-parameter testing. Additionally, as a “two-in-one platform,” the device enables concurrent detection of both clotting-based and immunological assays, providing greater versatility than other similar POCT products.

In the immunology market, although immunoassays currently represent the primary battlefield for POCT, existing products are predominantly based on lateral flow technology and thus face similar challenges in technological upgrading. After entering the POCT coagulation testing sector, SeekX discovered that its underlying technology could be extended to immunodiagnostic products. By upgrading its traditional passive microfluidics to active microfluidics, the company can better balance product performance, cost, and ease of use, enabling its solutions to replace lateral flow assays in specific scenarios. Given the large market size, high degree of segmentation, and numerous expandable application scenarios in the immunology sector, SeekX has designated it as its second strategic business line.

SeekX’s immune POCT products utilize active microfluidic technology, ensuring full controllability throughout the reaction process. “Reliable test results are invariably derived from effective process control. By incorporating active control logic, the entire immune reaction process can be quantitatively controlled.”Our product addresses the limitations of traditional self-driven lateral flow assays, such as ambiguous reaction processes and suboptimal consistency and stability. It fundamentally eliminates the issue of uncontrollable flow rates inherent in previous chromatographic and capillary microfluidic products, enabling detection sensitivity and reproducibility that truly rival those of large-scale laboratory instruments.” Huang Yao introduced to VCBeat.

Furthermore, the instrument and reagent usage format of this product is consistent with that of chromatographic products, requiring no change in customer habits. The instrument is streamlined with no fluidic pathways; consumables are single-use, eliminating reagent waste. There is no reliance on cold-chain storage and transportation, enabling ambient temperature storage and shipping. With comparable costs and ease of use, along with more precise and reliable test results, SeekX’s immunomicrofluidic products have become an ideal choice for upgrading and replacing chromatographic products.

SeekX’s POCT products for immunology and coagulation share a common highlight: a streamlined workflow requiring only three steps, with the four-item coagulation panel completed in 2–6 minutes and immunoassays completed in 10 minutes.Furthermore, the differentiated design of SeekX’s POCT product series meets diverse clinical needs, with application scenarios covering pharmacies, home use, emergency testing, clinical and operating room settings, primary care hospitals, and veterinary clinics.

SeekX has established a “three-step” strategy to achieve comprehensive market coverage from the top down. First, by leveraging differentiated product positioning and a unique technological approach, it will develop flagship products to gain entry into leading hospitals and secure recognition from key opinion leaders. Second, it will further reduce product costs to build scale advantages, penetrate the mainstream POCT market below tertiary hospitals, and drive the upgrading and replacement of mainstream domestic POCT technologies. Third, it will explore new application scenarios, develop new technology platforms, promote product miniaturization, enhance usability, and facilitate widespread adoption in the consumer market.

Specifically, SeekX will first enter the acute and critical care market with its coagulation products to establish brand recognition and economies of scale, thereby extending its reach to lower-tier markets. Leveraging the market foundation built by its coagulation portfolio, the company will then achieve rapid volume growth for its immunology products.

In addition, in the field of veterinary medicine, SeekX entered into a strategic partnership with a leading vendor in January 2022.In April 2023, the animal coagulation analysis products were officially launched; within six months, hundreds of instruments and tens of thousands of reagent strips had been sold.。

Currently, the company has established an R&D and production base of over 1,200 square meters, along with GMP-certified cleanroom facilities, in Guangming District, Shenzhen. It has assembled a core R&D team of more than 20 members and possesses independent capabilities for the development and mass production of instruments, reagents, and microfluidic chips. To date, the company has filed four invention patents and six utility model patents, with the number expected to increase continuously as R&D progresses.

In early 2023, SeekX completed its angel round of financing, with the funds primarily allocated to the engineering scale-up and production line construction for its animal coagulation products. The company is currently preparing for a Pre-A financing round.

According to data from the “Global Point of Care Testing Market Outlook 2022,” the global POCT market size (excluding the COVID-19 testing market) is projected to reach USD 30 billion in 2022, with its growth rate surpassing the average growth rate of the global in vitro diagnostics market. In this field brimming with potential, we await with anticipation the new miracles that SeekX will create.