Hanzandi: A Rising Star in Life Science Automation Attracting Nearly 100 Research Institutes and Pharma Companies

The development of automation tools is an inevitable trend in the advancement of scientific applications, and the life sciences are no exception. The life sciences industry faces ever-growing data demands for research, while experimental tools remain relatively lagging. Client requirements for throughput, reproducibility, precision, and standardization are driving automation upgrades, particularly for businesses with laboratories as their production hubs. The market for life science automation is vast; the sustainable domestic market in China is valued at hundreds of billions of RMB and continues to expand. However, this market has long been dominated by foreign giants.

In recent years, as the industry and capital markets have placed greater emphasis on the upstream sector of life sciences, an increasing number of domestic startups in life science automation have garnered attention. Among them, HanZanDi has emerged as a prominent rising star. Leveraging its inherent advantages in refining core underlying technologies and its deep understanding of domestic customer needs, HanZanDi, founded in 2020, has gained favor across various fields of life sciences and within the capital market. Since its inception on “Day One,” HanZanDi has been committed to the research, development, and manufacturing of core standalone instruments addressing critical technological bottlenecks in the life sciences sector, as well as the development of fully automated systems for diverse application scenarios. The company provides end-to-end automation, intelligence, and digitalization solutions for the life sciences industry.

Currently, this emerging enterprise, whose Series A round was co-led by Proxima Capital and Hillhouse Ventures, has made rapid progress and has become one of the pioneers in intelligent end-to-end solutions for the life sciences industry.Hanzandi has established a core portfolio of standalone products, represented by its CANTUS series of high-throughput liquid handling systems. Late last year, the company launched the CANTUS FLEX, an independent 8-channel liquid handling workstation characterized by high technical complexity and previously monopolized by foreign brands. This achievement positions Hanzandi as one of the few domestic enterprises to successfully challenge this critical technological domain.Recently, VBInsight interviewed Ms. Gloria Li (Li Guangmei), CEO of Hanzandi.

In past practice, life sciences customers have often perceived significant shortcomings in the AI capabilities of automated equipment. This substantial gap has even sparked discussions on whether laboratory automation is a pseudo-concept in certain aspects, or prompted a re-examination of whether life sciences automation possesses unique characteristics.

In fact, life sciences automation is not merely a simple combination of life sciences expertise and automation technology. A strong team must have witnessed advanced forms of automation and possess in-depth understanding and insight into industrial automation; it must also be able to identify the barriers in upstream life sciences manufacturing, such as process design, batch-to-batch consistency, customer service capabilities, and the ability to meet customized requirements.

This places extremely high demands on the team’s background, the company’s level of know-how, its understanding of application scenarios, and its quality control capabilities. Hanzandi is one of the few companies in China that possesses all these attributes simultaneously.Hanzandi was incubated by Wodi Intelligence, one of China’s first industrial robot manufacturers. Wodi Intelligence has established a mature methodology encompassing the R&D and design, manufacturing, installation and commissioning, technical training, and after-sales service of food industry automation and industrial robots. As a result, Hanzandi has inherited Wodi Intelligence’s dual DNA in automation and life sciences, leveraging its engineering strengths in large-scale automation projects, foundational industrial robot technologies, application expertise, and ability to deliver solutions rapidly and reliably. Meanwhile, Hanzandi’s core team members bring over a decade of experience in life science product development and strong backgrounds in biology, enabling them to keenly discern and deeply understand what types of life science automation are truly needed.

“Our team has extensive laboratory experience, so we truly empathize with our customers’ pain points,” emphasized Gloria.

“Life science automation requires greater flexibility. The instruments used in experiments are highly precise, and there are fundamental logical differences from industrial automation in terms of the positioning accuracy of robotic arms, pipetting precision, as well as the scalability and robustness of timing scheduling software. Furthermore, while industrial automation tends to create standardized assembly lines, life science automation emphasizes flexible adaptation to diverse application scenarios.” Gloria pointed out that this is one of the challenges in life science automation, and also its most intriguing aspect.

Life science applications are characterized by their complexity and non-standardization. Since its establishment in 2020, Han Zandi has focused on building and refining its commercialization team alongside continuous product iteration. Driven by the dual engines of technology and marketing, Han Zandi has continuously enhanced its understanding of diverse scenarios within the life sciences industry and its ability to develop tailored solutions.

In the process of domesticating life science automation, manufacturers have entered the competitive landscape by leveraging their existing strengths. However, the true core technological barrier of the industry lies in the pipetting arm, where achieving high precision presents a significant challenge. Pipetting is the primary and foundational step in all life science experiments; its precision profoundly impacts experimental outcomes. Moreover, as detection scenarios expand, the requirements for pipetting precision continue to rise.

In this pivotal sector, Hanzandi has risen to the challenge. The company has achieved breakthrough progress in the core standalone equipment segment, establishing a product portfolio centered on representative standalone systems such as the CANTUS SCREEN high-throughput liquid handling system. Built on a modular design, the CANTUS SCREEN system features interchangeable deck layouts, customizable pipetting heads and grippers, and continuously upgraded software, providing reliable operational support for users’ diverse experimental needs.

On December 18 last year, HanZanDi aggressively launched the CANTUS FLEX, an independent 8-channel liquid handling workstation.Independent 8-channel systems represent a product with an extremely high development difficulty in the field of liquid handling workstations.Each of the eight independent pump heads is individually controlled by a separate motor, allowing independent movement along the Y and Z axes. Each pump head performs aspiration and dispensing independently and enables variable-pitch needle splitting, thereby maximizing compatibility with diverse application scenarios. Few domestic manufacturers have successfully launched such solutions and achieved large-scale mass production and sales.

Hanzandi CANTUS FLEX Independent 8-Channel Liquid Handling Workstation

“We were determined from the very beginning to develop an independent 8-channel pipetting system. To claim the pinnacle of liquid handling, we had to overcome this challenge. HanZanDi set this goal from Day One,” Gloria explained.

Since its internal incubation at Wodi Intelligence in 2017, Hanzandi has been accumulating expertise in mechanical design, establishing core underlying technologies for liquid motion control, and progressively refining its capabilities in the selection, management, and modification of supply chain products.

“For instance, to conduct a thorough comparison of motor performance across different suppliers, we must minimize—or even eliminate—errors potentially introduced at every stage, from the motor to the pump head, lead screw, and transmission system. Otherwise, these errors will ultimately compromise the accuracy and stability of liquid handling. We source the highest-performance components and conduct extensive internal testing, modification, and optimization…. Our determination and patience in refining our products are our key competitive advantages.”

Currently, the Hanzeedi standardized standalone platform encompasses the CANTUS SCREEN high-throughput liquid handling system, the CANTUS FLEX flexible multi-channel liquid handling workstation, the NEMO full-function liquid handling workstation, the VOLA nucleic acid extractor, and the ARCO high-precision microliter dispenser, among others. With its high-quality products, Hanzeedi has served nearly one hundred research institutes and pharmaceutical companies. Hanzeedi continues to explore and advance along the path of core standalone instruments; it is reported that several categories of core, high-value standalone instruments in the life sciences sector have also been incorporated into Hanzeedi’s R&D pipeline.

Life sciences automation companies can currently be divided into two major camps: one primarily offering standalone instruments, and the other serving as integrated solution providers. HanZanDi distinguishes itself by combining the strengths of both.With the left hand holding a powerful core standalone system, and the right hand building an integrated capability for intelligent end-to-end processes.

Hanzandi integrates hardware modules, software-hardware systems, laboratory consumables, and intelligent management into a unified platform to rapidly respond to the personalized needs of diverse customers. This helps laboratories achieve greater efficiency, convenience, safety, and compliance during testing, inspection, and R&D processes, thereby reducing costs and enhancing productivity. This is also why Hanzandi has acquired a large customer base in just two years.

Currently, Han Zandi leverages its own advantageous resources and comprehensive judgments on trends in the life sciences industry,Seven key research areas have been identified: antibody therapeutics, synthetic biology, cell therapy, multi-omics, in vitro diagnostics (IVD), organoids, and brain science. Core applications have been refined into more than ten processes that enable non-standard standardization and modular process design, including plasmid construction, protein synthesis, cell line development, high-throughput screening, and omics sample preparation.Among these, antibody drugs, nucleic acid drugs, cell therapy as novel therapeutic modalities, and synthetic biology will be the key focus areas for Hanzandi. The company will gradually develop industry-specific solutions for these sectors, focusing on the replacement of core standalone instruments, integration of upstream and downstream processes, and the development of high-value tools and consumables.

However, integration capability and functional modularity are not the ultimate goals pursued by Hanzandi.

Driven by industrial automation in sectors such as 3C electronics and automotive manufacturing, the life sciences automation field is witnessing the emergence of “lights-out laboratories.” These facilities leverage advanced technologies—including robotic arms, machine vision, and AI-driven decision-making models—while requiring only minimal modifications to existing laboratories and key testing equipment. This approach enables system-level integration and closed-loop connectivity, achieving efficient, fully automated, and unattended end-to-end operations.

Life science automation is still in the process of upgrading from modular and work-cell automation to assembly-line automation, with only a few companies venturing into intelligent laboratories. Leveraging its industrial assembly-line heritage and accumulated expertise in intelligent technologies, HanZanDi stands as one of the leading pioneers in China.

In 2022, Hanzandi innovatively proposed the concept of BAIoT (B: Life Sciences; AI: Artificial Intelligence; IoT: Internet of Everything), adopting it as its foundational technological pathway.BAIoT aims to establish exclusive AI models and IoT systems in the field of life sciences from both biological dimensions and physical logic perspectives. In future product planning, HanZanDi will continue to adhere to the underlying logic of BAIoT, with the goal of forming a complete industrial ecosystem chain for intelligent automation and smart laboratories in the life sciences sector.

“Hanzandi has established the initial framework of its cloud platform. We will follow a phased strategy of ‘hardware first, leveraging hardware to drive software,’ progressively building our product portfolio and ultimately realizing the digital ecosystem vision for BAIoT,” added Gloria with great anticipation.