Yisuo Intelligence Secures Tens of Millions in Angel Funding to Build a Full-Category, End-to-End Inhaled Drug Delivery Platform

VCBeat has learned that, recently,Shanghai Yisuo Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Yisuo Intelligent”) has completed an angel round of financing amounting to tens of millions of yuan. This round was exclusively invested by Daotong Investment. The funds raised will be used to enrich the company’s existing portfolio of inhaled drug delivery products and to expand the marketing of its current products.

Shanghai Yisuo Technology was established in 2022, evolving from its predecessor, Yisuo Intelligent, which was founded in 2016. The company is dedicated to building a comprehensive inhalation drug delivery platform, engaging in the research, development, and production of inhalation drug delivery devices, smart hardware, and other products related to inhaled medications. Committed to independent R&D, the company has established a robust patent portfolio, with approximately 70 patents granted or under examination.

The company currently has three major product directions: 1) General inhalation components, such as aluminum canisters, stainless steel canisters, and dosing pumps; 2) Smart inhalation connectivity products, such as smart metered-dose inhalers and smart dry powder inhalers; 3) Advanced drug delivery systems, such as precision nebulizing drug delivery devices, precision home-use nebulizer inhalation devices, and ophthalmic nebulization devices.

It can be said that Yisuo Intelligent attaches equal importance to building a complete industrial chain for its existing conventional products and to achieving breakthroughs in innovative technologies and products. In the Asian market for aluminum cans used in metered-dose inhalers, Yisuo Intelligent has become a leading Chinese manufacturer.

Chronic respiratory diseases have become a major global public health issue. China has 45.7 million asthma patients and over 100 million patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), resulting in a substantial disease burden. Inhaled formulations have become the mainstream dosage form for the treatment of asthma and COPD, offering broad prospects for development. However, the domestic production rate of inhaled formulations in China remains below 10%.

According to Shi Lei, founder of Yisuo Intelligent Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., the development opportunities for China’s inhaled formulation industry mainly lie in rapidly catching up with generics, mastering the technologies and products of leading foreign inhaled formulation companies, and achieving overtaking on a bend through mature systems and localization advantages.

However, leading international companies have been deeply engaged in the field of inhalation preparations for nearly 70 years, establishing a comprehensive system of intellectual property and industrial processing. Currently, China has not yet formed a complete system, particularly in the core components of drug delivery systems, where it remains “dependent on others.” Meanwhile, the international industrial manufacturing system, centered on inhalation preparations and integrating informatization, intelligence, precision, and medication safety, poses greater challenges to domestic enterprises.

Yisuo Intelligent Technology has risen to the challenge by establishing China’s first comprehensive production and processing system, empowering pharmaceutical companies both domestically and internationally to provide patients with more diverse and effective treatment options. Shi Lei stated that the trend toward intelligent and digitalized inhalation drug delivery is inevitable. During the use of metered-dose inhalers, if patients can receive real-time guidance on inhalation techniques and be informed of the remaining medication in the canister, it will effectively enhance therapeutic efficacy and reduce the risks associated with emergency medication use.

Yisuo Intelligent has developed a targeted product portfolio comprising the Smart Aerosol Inhaler and the Magic Pillbox (an intelligent inhalation IoT hardware platform and companion communication app). Currently, the former is undergoing pre-commercialization preparations, while the latter is being launched on major app marketplaces.

To align with product development trends, Yisuo Intelligent has also established a dedicated business unit for market research and product development, building a “cloud + terminal” architecture that connects patients, doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies through smart hardware, mobile phones, and the cloud.

Innovative technologies and products rely on the support of their underlying teams. The core team at Yisuo Intelligent boasts extensive experience in medical device R&D, manufacturing of critical components, and commercialization. The company’s founder, Shi Lei, is a graduate of Fudan University. He has held management positions at multiple Fortune Global 100 companies and previously served as Co-President for the Asia-Pacific region at a renowned international medical device and pharmaceutical packaging components company, giving him deep insights into industry trends and the bottlenecks facing domestic development.

Leveraging its prior accumulation in technology, R&D, production, and commercialization, Yisuo Intelligent will launch multiple drug delivery system components and end products over the next three years.

Regarding this round of financing,Lin Zhencheng, Managing Director of DaoTong Investment, stated“China is a high-prevalence region for respiratory diseases, yet inhalation pharmaceutical products have historically been heavily reliant on imports. A key contributing factor is the high barrier to entry and significant technical challenges associated with inhalation devices. Currently, the market for domestically produced generic inhalation drugs in China is just emerging, presenting a favorable window of opportunity for import substitution. The founder of Yisuo boasts over 20 years of experience in precision metal forming and the development of inhalation drug delivery systems, along with a global perspective and resources. This positions the company well to break international monopolies by developing domestically produced inhalation drug delivery devices, thereby supporting the advancement of China’s generic inhalation pharmaceutical industry.”

Daotong Investment focuses on early-stage investments in the healthcare and medical industry, with a particular emphasis on innovative medical technologies. It has served as an early investor in multiple projects featuring China’s first-of-their-kind technologies. The core team at Daotong hails from the healthcare and medical sector, having successfully incubated early-stage startups and founded and managed public companies with market capitalizations exceeding RMB 10 billion. Daotong is committed to being not only a discoverer of value but also a creator of value, supporting and facilitating corporate growth through in-depth post-investment empowerment. The firm has repeatedly been honored among the VC TOP 100 and the Medical Devices TOP 20 by VCBeat.