Manson Bio Completes Series A Funding to Accelerate R&D and Commercialization of Intelligent Lab Solutions

VCBeat has learned that Shanghai Mansen Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Mansen Bio”), a leading enterprise in laboratory intelligence, recently announced the completion of its tens-of-millions RMB Series A financing round, funded by Nanjing Gaoke Xinjun Chuangxin Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as “Gaoke Xinjun”). The funds raised in this round will be primarily used to scale up production and enhance the service application system for Mansen Bio’s fully independent intellectual property portfolio—comprising its laboratory automation series and parallel bioreactor series—as well as to expand market presence.

As a disruptive technology in the life sciences of the 21st century, synthetic biology introduces the engineering principle of “Design–Build–Test–Learn” (DBTL) into biological research, enabling the construction of artificial life systems with specific functions and driving humanity’s leap from deciphering life to programming and creating life.

However, the lack of rational design and high-quality instruments is a major challenge currently facing synthetic biology., traditional “artisanal workshop”-style and “labor-intensive” research approaches are inadequate to meet the demands of massive-scale and trial-and-error experiments, which far exceed the scope of conventional manual laboratory operations.Meanwhile, there are numerous technical bottlenecks on the path to industrializing synthetic biology, with fermentation technology being one of the key chokepoint technologies.Therefore, it is imperative to develop high-throughput, low-cost, and automated fermentation engineering technologies during the strain screening and process development stages prior to scale-up production.Founded against this backdrop and in line with these trends, Manson Biotech is dedicated to addressing the needs of the biotechnology industry and synthetic biology. The company helps clients establish full-stack, high-throughput automated fermentation process platforms, thereby genuinely enabling cost reduction, efficiency improvement, and industrial technological upgrading.

In recent years, “domestic substitution” and “self-reliance and controllability” have become the main themes in the development of China’s technology industry. Moving from “following” to “keeping pace,” domestically produced instruments are accelerating their catch-up with international advanced levels. As a foundation and significant outcome of technological innovation, high-end scientific instrumentsIts application boundaries are continuously expanding, unlocking significant commercial potential and making it a hot focus for capital investment.

On the one hand, with the Chinese government’s increasing emphasis on and support for technological innovation, domestically produced instruments are encountering broader development opportunities in terms of R&D and market promotion; on the other hand, continuous improvements in the performance and quality of these instruments have gradually earned recognition and trust from domestic users.

As is well known, high-throughput automated fermentation systems have stringent requirements for parallelism and control system precision. Consequently, nearly 90% of the Chinese market is monopolized by overseas giants such as Applicon, Eppendorf, and Sartorius. However, with growing domestic demand and the promotion of the national “Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation” policy, an increasing number of local technology innovation enterprises are emerging, creating more market opportunities for domestically produced instruments.Manson Bio has achieved synchronization of signal acquisition and command transmission through its proprietary core software, hardware, and application methods, ensuring the parallelism of operations and the stability of high-throughput fermentation platforms, thereby initiating the process of domestic substitution in the field of high-throughput automated fermentation processes.

It is foreseeable that, with continuous technological innovation and the ongoing expansion of market demand, the surge in domestically produced instruments will continue to intensify, injecting new momentum into China’s scientific and technological innovation and industrial upgrading.

Dr. Hao Youyou, Chairman of Manson Biotech, stated“: We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Gaoke Xinjun for its steadfast support, and to all shareholders for their continuous empowerment and assistance. Over the past few years, Manson Bio has closely aligned with national and corporate strategic objectives, steadily advancing various initiatives and achieving new leapfrog development, thereby enhancing brand recognition and market share. The company leverages automation, artificial intelligence, big data, and industrial internet technologies to empower the biotechnology sector and bioindustry. Our vision is to become a technological leader in bio-manufacturing and intelligent equipment. By deploying robotic scientists to free human scientists from manual tasks, we aim to unleash their creativity and enhance the time value and life value of knowledge workers. Furthermore, through intelligent parallel bioreactors, we seek to shorten R&D cycles, save laboratory space, and reduce R&D costs. Leveraging these technological and product innovations, we will accelerate the commercialization and industrialization of synthetic biology achievements, contribute to source innovation in China’s scientific and technological landscape, and promote the prosperity of China’s bioeconomy.”

Liu Chuanwen, Managing Director of Gaoke Xinjun, stated“We are honored to have successfully invested in Manson Bio. Led by Hao Bo, the team is a rare composite group within the industry that possesses both a profound understanding of the deep-seated needs of synthetic biology and proficient mastery of various hardware and software control technologies. They have broken through the common predicament in the field of high-throughput fermentation and automated detection control, where ‘those who understand biology do not understand control, and those who understand control do not understand biology,’ thereby enabling their products to serve as viable domestic alternatives to international counterparts. We believe that, leveraging its underlying technology platform that integrates biology and control engineering, the Manson team will continue to launch a series of automated products tailored to the high-throughput and automation needs of diverse customers in the biological industry. This will empower numerous clients in the biotechnology sector to accelerate their development and contribute to the growth of China’s medical and health industry.”

Shanghai Manson Biotechnology Co., Ltd. was established in 2017 as a technology-driven company dedicated to advancing industrial development and upgrading through technological innovation. After six years of refinement and polishing, the company has independently developed multiple series of products for laboratory automation and parallel bioreactors. The company’s founders and technical team hail from the CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, the State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering at East China University of Science and Technology, the National Engineering Research Center for Biochemical Technology (Shanghai), as well as from the pharmaceutical industry and automation sector. Focusing on laboratory automation and the digital-intelligent transformation of the bioindustry, the company provides one-stop solution services, supporting automated and intelligent equipment and instruments, intelligent software systems, and standardized single-use reagents and consumables. It operates an R&D center in Shanghai and an Intelligent Laboratory Innovation Center in Jiaxing, Zhejiang.

Gaoke Xinjun Capital, established in 2015 with an office in Shanghai, is a market-oriented equity investment firm founded by limited partners including the listed company Nanjing Gaoke. With cumulative assets under management of approximately RMB 3.5 billion, the firm primarily focuses on healthcare, industrial software, and new energy and new materials sectors. It has invested in nearly 50 technology companies to date, with healthcare portfolio companies including Biocytogen, Allist, Hualan Shares, Rendu Biology, Yimai Yangguang, and Smartee Dentistry. Committed to an international investment perspective and management approach, Gaoke Xinjun strives to identify top-tier entrepreneurs and innovative business models, help companies build resource ecosystems for growth, seize opportunities arising from China’s economic transformation and technological reinvention, and create new benchmarks for China’s technology industry.