SmartVein Aims to Be the 'Bosch of MedTech': Full-Service CDMO Files IPO Prospectus

Over the past two years, competition in the medical device industry has intensified, and the global sector has entered an adjustment cycle. Driven by the confluence of cost pressures, the pandemic, and centralized procurement, specialized division of labor has become an inevitable trend in the medical device industry. As a key upstream segment of the value chain, Medical Device Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations (CDMOs) have garnered significant attention.

The underlying reason is that CDMO services not only reduce or eliminate the need for heavy asset investments by startups—such as physical space and equipment procurement—but also provide comprehensive support across various stages, including regulatory submissions, testing, and clinical trials. This helps companies save time and capital costs, accelerate product launches, enhance the overall efficiency of the medical device industry chain, and serve as an "incubator and accelerator."

Currently, there are two main types of CDMO enterprises in China: registration- and production-support-oriented CDMOs, and one-stop CDMOs. The former typically evolve from CROs and have relatively limited accumulation of R&D technologies, but they can provide support services such as clinical registration, component processing, and assembly for multinational corporations (MNCs) and large domestic medical device manufacturers. The latter generally transform from manufacturing enterprises or are led by industrial parks, possessing substantial technical reserves in product R&D design and manufacturing. They are capable of providing full lifecycle services, ranging from R&D translation to mass production, for various clients.

Established in 2018, Simade (Jiaxing) Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Simade”), which is committed to becoming a trusted comprehensive technical service provider for global medical devices, represents the one-stop CDMO model for medical devices.

Simade Corporate Environment: Real Photos

Medical device CDMO is a knowledge-intensive industry, where clients’ core technologies constitute their critical lifeline. Intellectual property rights in medical device CDMO are diverse and complex, encompassing both hardware and software configurations such as the device’s working principles, operational mechanisms, and procedural workflows. Furthermore, teams must be well-versed in medical science and relevant industry laws and regulations, imposing high demands on their comprehensive capabilities.

Chu Dianjun, the founder of Simade, graduated with a degree in Mechatronic Engineering from a prestigious university in China. He has previously served as Electronics Technology Supervisor at Shenlin Electronics, Optical Technology Manager at Opt Machine Vision Tech (OPT), and R&D Manager at Zhejiang Yuhui Sunshine Energy Co., Ltd., accumulating extensive experience in foreign enterprises and publicly listed companies. During his entrepreneurial journey in independent technological innovation, he held the positions of General Manager at Hefei Pisai and General Manager at Haining Pisai in Zhejiang Province, where he led the development of intelligent equipment that secured multiple patents and received the “First Set” certification. Currently, he serves as Chairman and General Manager of Simade Group, overseeing strategic planning and daily operations for the group and its subsidiaries.

Chu Dianjun, Founder of Simade

Chu Dianjun believes that only by being “customer-centric” can a company team deeply uncover customer needs and provide practical, feasible solutions. Therefore, the core management team of Simade is composed entirely of professionals from the front lines of the medical device industry. This includes senior engineers formerly with Johnson & Johnson in the United States, managers from General Electric in the United States, sales management executives with experience at Foxconn and Liansu, R&D managers with extensive hands-on experience, and senior experts well-versed in laws and regulations.

“Our team may understand the products and requirements even better than some of our clients. This not only significantly reduces communication costs, but also, thanks to our team’s years of experience in terminal management, enables us to provide supporting design, development, and services from a terminal perspective,” added Chu Dianjun.

The medical device industry is a high-tech sector characterized by multidisciplinary integration, knowledge intensity, and capital intensity, featuring “high investment, high risk, and high returns.”

Compared to enterprises building their own teams, Simade boasts a comprehensive and professional staff, providing end-to-end services covering device R&D, production, regulatory submission, and mass production. It offers customers a one-stop CDMO solution for medical devices, helping medical device companies reduce overall costs, accelerate technological translation of products, and shorten time-to-market, thereby enabling enterprises to focus more on clinical support and subsequent commercialization.

Simade offers one-stop services, including concept design, rapid prototyping, component manufacturing, assembly manufacturing, regulatory documentation support, finished product R&D, and contract manufacturing of medical devices, providing comprehensive technical solutions. Its areas of expertise cover laparoscopic surgery, minimally invasive orthopedics, minimally invasive gynecology, gastroenterology, pulmonology, urology, otolaryngology, neurosurgery, and interventional radiology.

“Sometimes, when clients propose an idea, the Simade team dedicates its full R&D efforts to transforming those sparks of inspiration into tangible, market-ready products,” said Chu Dianjun proudly in an interview with VCBeat. Currently, the company operates a precision manufacturing base (Simade Hefei), an innovation R&D and sales center (Simade Hangzhou), a medical device registration service platform (Simade Nanjing), and an operational headquarters along with a finished-product sterile production center (Simade Jiaxing), providing customers with comprehensive CDMO solutions for medical devices.

Simade Provides Full-Service CDMO Solutions for Medical Devices

Technical expertise is a prerequisite for medical device companies when selecting CDMO partners. Therefore, Simade has consistently focused on technology and R&D over the years to solidify its technological foundation. This not only constitutes Simade’s core competency but also serves as its key competitive advantage in navigating the CDMO market for many years.

“Our positioning is to serve as a comprehensive technical service provider for medical devices, aspiring to become the Bosch of the medical device industry. We focus exclusively on upstream services, delivering foundational support to our medical device enterprise clients. Furthermore, we strictly refrain from engaging in end-user business and firmly avoid involvement in our clients’ core product domains.”

During the interview, Chu Dianjun repeatedly emphasized to VCBeat that Simade’s original intention and goal is to become a comprehensive CDMO service provider for the entire medical device industry chain, and that the company will never position itself as an end-product brand. With its solid technological foundation and unwavering professional ethics, Simade has now served over one hundred clients, spanning medical device manufacturers, distributors, physicians, and university research institutes.

Protection of core technologies, patents, and intellectual property rights is a key concern for medical device companies. CDMO enterprises must address how to establish mutual trust and contractual safeguards with registrants to prevent breach-of-contract claims arising from allegations of infringement by clients or third parties.

To address this challenge, Simade has strengthened its internal management systems and confidentiality protocols. Externally, it proactively reminds clients to sign non-disclosure agreements at the earliest stage of engagement, demonstrating sincerity, building trust, and eliminating risks of information leakage as well as client concerns.

Unlike other CDMO companies that focus on registration or testing, Simade specializes in design and development as well as contract manufacturing. As an entrepreneur with a background in technical research, Chu Dianjun believes that the core competitiveness of medical device CDMOs stems from their professionalism and dedication to the device industry. Such expertise is often derived from long-term industry accumulation and intensive technological research; therefore, Simade remains steadfastly committed to focusing on technology and R&D.

After five years of arduous endeavor, Simade has grown from a single founder to a team of nearly one hundred employees. Starting in Jiaxing, the company has expanded its presence to Nanjing, Hefei, and Hangzhou, extending its reach across China. Its business has evolved from offering standalone technical design and development services to becoming a comprehensive medical device CDMO (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization) provider covering the entire industry chain, including entrusted R&D, contract manufacturing, and regulatory registration services for medical devices. From focusing on a single discipline, Simade has expanded into multiple clinical fields, including laparoscopic surgery, minimally invasive orthopedics, minimally invasive gynecology, gastroenterology, pulmonology, urology, otolaryngology, neurosurgery, and interventional radiology, gradually growing into a robust and mature enterprise.

Chu Dianjun has already mapped out Simade’s next five-year plan. Moving forward, Simade will closely follow clinical trends, intensify R&D efforts, and expand its portfolio of active medical devices. The company will continue to focus on the technology and production ends, strengthening control over both “ends” of the value chain while steadily advancing further upstream. Meanwhile, Simade will maintain an open stance in technology, services, and marketing, collaborating with the industrial ecosystem and capital partners to accelerate corporate growth.

At this stage, the domestic medical device CDMO industry is still in its early developmental phase, with medical device companies, regulators, and CDMO providers all exploring solutions better suited to current needs. We look forward to the day when the CDMO industry matures and Simade emerges as a leader, raising the bar for China’s medical device sector.