Huayi Ningchuang Secures Tens of Millions in Pre-A Funding to Advance Domestic High-End Mass Spectrometry Innovation

VCBeat recently learned that Ningbo Huayi Ningchuang Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (“Huayi Ningchuang”) has completed a Pre-A financing round worth tens of millions of yuan.This round of financing was exclusively invested by the Life and Health Fund, in which OAK & ACORN CAPITAL participates. The funds raised will be primarily used to enhance the innovative research and development of high-end domestic mass spectrometry instruments.

Huayi Ningchuang is the first technology transfer enterprise of Ningbo University to be established in accordance with the "New Law on the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements."Since its establishment in 2015, the company has successfully developed a series of mass spectrometers and supporting products, including sample preparation equipment, reagents, mobile laboratories, and information software platforms, targeting markets such as public safety, food and drug safety, and medical testing. Its direct ionization mass spectrometry technology has been appraised as “the world’s first,” and its direct ionization mass spectrometer has been recognized as the “first domestically produced set” of its kind in China. Third-party testing has confirmed that the product performance is leading in China and advanced on the international stage.

As a national high-tech enterprise, Huayi Ningchuang’s R&D team boasts over a decade of experience in mass spectrometer research. The team includes experts from the National Overseas High-Level Talent Recruitment Program, leading talents under the “Zhejiang Province Ten Thousand Talents Program,” leading and top-tier talents of Ningbo City, as well as a group of experts with extensive engineering commercialization experience, and has been selected as one of the “Ningbo 3315 Innovation Teams.” The company has also engaged several academicians and renowned professors, including Chen Guilin, Chen Hongyuan, and Zhang Xinrong, as advisory experts.

Currently, Huayi Ningchuang’s products are widely used by public security organs, food and drug safety regulatory authorities, universities and research institutes, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies across China. The company has received numerous awards, including the First Prize for Technological Invention from the Chinese Instrument and Meter Society, recognition as a National Outstanding Case of University Achievement Transformation, and the Gold Award for Independent Innovation from the China Instrument and Meter Industry Association.

Mass spectrometry is hailed as the crown jewel of analytical instrumentation, with some even arguing that modern scientific competition is, to a certain extent, a race in advanced mass spectrometry technologies. Mass spectrometers have extensive applications, primarily in biomedicine, regulatory affairs, and scientific research. Fields such as forensic toxicology, customs postal inspection, drug testing, food safety, and consumer product quality control all regard mass spectrometry as the gold standard for detection.

In 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping called at the 20th Academician Conference of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to “proceed from the urgent and long-term needs of the country, focusing on oil and natural gas, basic raw materials, high-end chips, industrial software, crop seeds,”Scientific Test Instruments and Equipment, and key core technologies in chemical preparations, making every effort to achieve breakthroughs and accelerate the mastery of a batch of key core technologies in fields such as pharmaceuticals, medical devices, medical equipment, and vaccines.”

According to estimates by Guanyan Tianxia, the future market size for mass spectrometry in China’s pharmaceutical sector is approximately RMB 7 billion, indicating substantial potential. Data from the General Administration of Customs of China shows that the import value of mass spectrometers in China increased from USD 836 million in 2015 to USD 1.525 billion in 2020, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.77%. In 2020, China’s import dependency ratio for mass spectrometers stood at 74%, showing a trend toward improvement. However, due to the limited original research and development capabilities and insufficient industrialization experience among domestic mass spectrometry manufacturers, high-end mass spectrometers produced in China remain scarce.

Leveraging the National Major Instrument Special Project and its robust capabilities in mass spectrometry research and innovation, the R&D team at Huayi Ningchuang has addressed the clinical application needs for single-cell metabolite analysis by adopting direct ionization mass spectrometry technology, thereby achieving a breakthrough inBy mastering key core technologies—including precise control of picoliter-level droplets, fully automated operation of the single-cell mass spectrometry workflow, and ultra-long-term stable ionization of picoliter-level samples under atmospheric pressure—we have successfully developed an automated single-cell mass spectrometer, achieving full-process automation for single-cell metabolite extraction, ionization, and mass spectrometric analysis.Currently, this product has been applied by numerous universities and hospitals in single-cell metabolic analysis research across various fields.

Huayi Ningchuang is headquartered in Ningbo with a global vision, taking “Chinese Instruments, Created in Ningbo” as its mission. It aims to develop into a world-class innovative enterprise specializing in intelligent instruments for life health and safety testing, and to become a model of independent innovation and achievement transformation in China’s high-end instrument and equipment sector.

Professor Wen Luhong, General Manager of Huayi Ningchuang, stated:We sincerely appreciate OAK & ACORN CAPITAL’s recognition and trust in Huayi Ningchuang. Guided by its founding principle of “Chinese Instrumentation, Created in Ningbo,” and driven by its mission to “safeguard life, health, safety, and reproduction through technology,” Huayi Ningchuang is primarily engaged in the independent innovation of mass spectrometers, as well as the promotion, application, and industrialization of these instruments in fields such as public security, food and drug safety, and clinical medical testing. For the clinical medical testing market, the company has deployed products including single-cell metabolite analysis mass spectrometers and therapeutic drug monitoring mass spectrometers. The successful completion of this round of financing will accelerate the R&D of Huayi Ningchuang’s independently innovated mass spectrometers and expand its market presence, helping the company establish a leading industry position in direct ionization mass spectrometry and single-cell mass spectrometry. Moving forward, Huayi Ningchuang will remain committed to independent innovation, further attracting collaborative resources in talent, applications, markets, and capital, seizing opportunities of the times, and striving to become an internationally premier supplier of intelligent instruments for health and safety testing.

Chen Li, Partner at OAK & ACORN CAPITALIndicates:The high-end general-purpose scientific instrument market is predominantly dominated by international industry leaders, with mid-to-high-end mass spectrometers relying mainly on imports. In recent years, as domestic manufacturers have enhanced their independent innovation capabilities and technical service proficiency, the gap between China and its international counterparts in the development of certain core key components and complete instruments has been gradually narrowing. The team led by Professor Wen Luhong at Huayi Ningchuang boasts profound professional expertise in the R&D and industrialization of high-end instrumentation and key components. Huayi Ningchuang is one of the few domestic mass spectrometry companies capable of developing both key components and complete mass spectrometer systems while possessing proprietary original technologies. Its independently innovated direct ionization mass spectrometer has received numerous accolades, including recognition as the “First Set of Domestic Equipment” in key fields. OAK & ACORN CAPITAL is honored to witness the company’s completion of this round of financing and firmly believes that Huayi Ningchuang will emerge as a leading mass spectrometry enterprise in areas such as public safety, food testing, and medical diagnostics.

OAK & ACORN CAPITAL, established in 2018 and headquartered in Guangzhou, has set up operational centers in Shenzhen and Hengqin, Zhuhai. As a private equity fund management firm dedicated to the healthcare sector, it primarily invests in domestic and international medical enterprises possessing core technologies and high growth potential. The team at OAK & ACORN CAPITAL comprises professionals with extensive experience in clinical medicine, equity investment, and capital operations. By building an ecosystem platform for healthcare investment, the firm aims to become a globally influential investor in the medical industry.