LePure Biotech Secures C- Round Funding Led by Novo Holdings, General Atlantic, and Goldman Sachs Asset Management to Strengthen Global Supply Chain Competitiveness
On January 12, Shanghai LePure Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (LePure Biotech) announced the completion of its Series C financing round, amounting to hundreds of millions of RMB. The round was led by several internationally renowned investment institutions, including Novo Holdings (the controlling shareholder of global biopharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk), General Atlantic, and Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Existing shareholders, including Honghui Fund, Kangjun Capital, Huimei Capital, Zhongke Kechuang, and Huaying Health Fund, also participated in the follow-on investment.
Reportedly, this also marks Novo Holdings’ first direct equity investment in China’s upstream biopharmaceutical process sector. Founded in 2011 by its current Chairman, Qin Sunxing, LePure Biotech is a leading Chinese provider of single-use bioprocessing technologies and solutions. Mr. Qin previously worked for many years at multinational giants in this field and is a typical “research-oriented” entrepreneur. In addition to achieving notable success in financing, LePure Biotech also realized substantial external growth in 2022. Alongside announcing the new round of financing, LePure Biotech stated that it had recently completed the merger and integration of Kangsheng Biotech, a well-known industry player specializing in the R&D and manufacturing of cell culture media. This move has enabled the company to formally establish a business portfolio spanning three major consumable product lines: single-use systems (SUS), filtration, and cell culture media.
As one of the earliest service providers in China to focus on single-use consumables, equipment, and solutions for the upstream segment of the biopharmaceutical industry, LePure Biotech has long been R&D-driven and committed to high-quality domestic production. Meanwhile, the company is actively advancing its overseas strategy to enhance its competitiveness and influence within the global industrial chain. In particular, over the past three years, LePure Biotech has accelerated its efforts in financing, breakthroughs in base materials, new product development, new plant construction, and industrial M&A, achieving significant progress and rapidly emerging as an indispensable “upstream” force in the global biopharmaceutical supply chain.
Novo Holdings, the controlling shareholder of global biopharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk and bio-solutions leader Novozymes, is a leading global life sciences investor focused on investing in life sciences companies at various stages of development worldwide. With advanced industry chain expertise and abundant upstream and downstream resources, Novo Holdings will support LePure Biotech in fully integrating into the global supply chain and ascending to the ranks of top-tier international providers of process technologies and consumables.
Wang Feng, Co-founder and CEO of LePure Biotech, stated, “From a product perspective, upstream biopharmaceutical processes and consumables have a significant impact on biotechnological drugs and belong to the realm of hard technology. Since its inception, LePure Biotech has been committed to building sustainable scientific research and innovation capabilities. By continuously iterating technologies to enhance product performance, we aim to assist our Biotech and Biopharma clients in accelerating new drug R&D, ensuring stable pilot-scale production, enabling safe manufacturing, and effectively securing the commercial launch of new drug products. From the standpoint of market and industry chain dynamics, the global biopharmaceutical industry maintains high-frequency exchanges, value flows, and resource sharing. Therefore, it is inevitable for LePure Biotech to step onto the international stage and participate in the global industry chain. The introduction of Novo Holdings’ capital and its robust industrial resources is of great significance to enhancing LePure Biotech’s industrial integration capabilities. Taking this collaboration as a new starting point, LePure Biotech will continue to focus on technological innovation, steadily improve its international competitiveness, and strive to become the most trusted partner for biopharmaceutical customers worldwide.”
Dr. Amit Kakar, Senior Partner and Head of Asia at Novo Holdings, stated: “In the global field of biopharmaceutical processes and consumables, LePure Biotech is emerging as one of the companies attracting the most attention from industrial capital. Leveraging its extensive investments and deep understanding in the life sciences sector, Novo Holdings will help LePure Biotech play a more significant role in the global industry chain, positioning it as one of the most valuable upstream consumables enterprises in China’s and even the global life sciences supply chain.”
Sun Lefei, Managing Director of General Atlantic and Head of its China Healthcare Practice, stated, “Single-use bioprocess consumables and equipment hold significant market potential in China. Since its establishment in 2011, LePure Biotech has not only secured a first-mover advantage but also built substantial technological barriers. Furthermore, the LePure Biotech team possesses a deep understanding of the global biopharmaceutical industry’s value chain, enabling it to respond swiftly to market demands and demonstrate strong growth momentum in international markets.”
“Single-use bioprocessing technology is widely adopted in the biopharmaceutical industry due to its cost and operational efficiency advantages, as well as greater flexibility in batch scale-up,” said Xu Xiao’ou, Managing Director of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, who oversees private equity investments in healthcare and life sciences in Greater China. “We aim to leverage Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s global network and resources to support the development of LePure Biotech.”
As LePure Biotech completes a new round of financing, it also announces the acquisition of Kangsheng Biotech, a renowned developer and manufacturer of cell culture media, further highlighting its leading consolidation effect and market influence in the upstream consumables sector of the biopharmaceutical industry.
KangSheng Bio was founded in 2018 in Zhongshan, within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, specializing in the research, development, and manufacturing of core raw materials for biopharmaceutical production, with cell culture media as its flagship product. KangSheng Bio is the first company in China to possess a commercial host cell line development system, serum-free media development capabilities, and a one-stop QPA service platform. Currently, it operates a modern biopharmaceutical innovation service platform spanning approximately 17,000 square meters, integrating media development and production with cell line development and GMP pilot-scale manufacturing. The Suzhou media production and R&D base, which commenced operations in 2022, has an annual production capacity of 300 tons of culture media.
This “major” acquisition of high-quality targets has further strengthened LePure Biotech’s leading position in the upstream sector of biopharmaceutical consumables, exerting a positive impact on the overall advancement of the domestic industry.
Regarding this merger and integration, Dr. Pan Honghui, founder of Kangsheng Biotech, stated, “As a premium supplier of core raw materials for the upstream biopharmaceutical industry, Kangsheng Biotech’s joining will enable LePure to fully integrate the upstream and downstream process chains in the biopharmaceutical sector. This marks a remarkable transformation towards providing an end-to-end One-Stop Solution, spanning from upstream cell culture to downstream purification, through advanced technology and product offerings. LePure Biotech will also fully empower Kangsheng, propelling its cell culture media business onto a larger stage and to new heights.”
In early 2022, LePure Biotech had just completed its acquisition of the filter manufacturer “Geshi Fluid.” Both aggressive mergers and acquisitions within a year were driven by an industrial consolidation strategy, which not only expanded market share horizontally and enhanced the company’s overall business competitiveness, but also secured technological capabilities and industry access resources vertically, thereby achieving comprehensive industrial integration.
Previously, Wang Feng stated in an interview that LePure Biotech’s M&A strategy would always adhere to the principle of “acquiring technology, not market share,” with acquisition targets strictly remaining within its “professional boundaries” and focusing on major categories of consumables such as single-use systems (SUS), cell culture media, and filtration.
Wang Feng introduced, “Mergers and acquisitions are a key approach for LePure Bio to rapidly achieve inorganic growth during its 2.0 phase. However, it is certain that LePure Bio will consistently prioritize the integration of high-quality industry resources to realize synergistic growth effects where 1+1>2—namely, expanding technologies and product portfolios through M&A, rather than merely increasing market share.”