Hicomp Microfluidics Secures RMB 100 Million Series B+ Financing Led by Shunwei Capital to Accelerate Industrialization of Domestic Microfluidics

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that Suzhou Hicomp Microtech Co., Ltd. (“Hicomp Microtech”), a leading domestic provider of microfluidic solutions, recently announced the completion of its RMB 100 million Series B+ financing round. The round was led by Shunwei Capital, with SMIC Technology participating as a co-investor. The proceeds from this financing will be used to accelerate the implementation of microfluidic R&D and manufacturing contracts, expand production lines, conduct R&D on key technologies in the field, and explore both domestic and international markets. Changhai Capital continued to serve as the exclusive financial advisor for the company’s financing.

Hicomp Microtech, established in 2014, is a pioneer and innovator in microfluidics and micro-nano manufacturing in China. It provides customized life science laboratory products and microfluidic (Lab-on-a-Chip) solutions to the global market. The company offers design, processing, and manufacturing services to hundreds of leading enterprises in niche markets worldwide, with applications spanning immunoassay, clinical chemistry, hematology, PCR testing, gene sequencing, liquid biopsy, organ-on-a-chip, drug delivery, life science research, veterinary diagnostics, environmental protection, food safety, and biosafety. Its core product portfolio includes microfluidic chips, customized kits, laboratory consumables, as well as microfluidic R&D technical services and CDMO offerings.

Microfluidics is a technology for the precise manipulation of fluids at the microscale, also known as lab-on-a-chip. It aims to flexibly combine and integrate operations such as sample preparation, reaction, separation, and detection on a chip platform measuring just a few square centimeters. Due to its advantages—including high sensitivity, portability, automation, and multi-target detection—microfluidics has emerged as a next-generation breakthrough technology in the life sciences sector, with the global market size expected to reach $17 billion by 2024. In recent years, domestically produced microfluidic products for biochemistry, immunology, hematology, and PCR have experienced rapid market growth. Meanwhile, microfluidics-based products for next-generation sequencing (NGS), single-molecule analysis, single-cell analysis, and liquid biopsy are continually emerging, accelerating the advancement of precision medicine. Indeed, with the continuous development of laboratory automation, various customized microfluidic (reagent kit) products in the broad sense—characterized by high-precision fluid control—have become an essential underlying foundation for the entire in vitro diagnostics (IVD) and biopharmaceutical industries, serving as the “new infrastructure” for life sciences.

Despite substantial market demand, the highly complex manufacturing processes of microfluidic products, coupled with high costs and long cycles for early-stage design and R&D, have resulted in core technologies being dominated by multinational corporations. Consequently, domestic downstream manufacturers’ microfluidic chip products remain heavily reliant on overseas suppliers, which has significantly constrained the development of China’s microfluidics market.

Hicomp Microtech is one of the very few companies in China to have achieved breakthroughs in key microfluidics technologies and industrialized manufacturing. The company has mastered internationally leading processes in microfluidic materials and fabrication, chip design, and reagent embedding. It is the only company in China and one of only two globally with mass production capabilities for all three major microfluidic substrate materials—silicon, glass, and polymers—thereby genuinely driving cost reduction and efficiency improvements for downstream IVD and life science users.

 Hicomp Microtech provides a wide range of microfluidics and consumables solutions for customers across various fields.

In addition to the high technical barriers associated with the R&D of microfluidic chips themselves, mass production capability and yield rate represent “another major challenge” for the industry. Hicomp Microtech has gathered top-tier talent in the field of micro- and nano-fabrication, building a robust engineering team. The company’s founder, Professor Chen Jing from Peking University, brings over 20 years of R&D experience in MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) and precision machining, having published more than 100 academic papers and holding over 60 patents along with disruptive inventions. The company’s core technical team includes two senior leading experts and dozens of PhD and Master’s degree holders, all possessing extensive R&D and mass-production manufacturing experience in related fields.

The company’s outstanding R&D and project delivery capabilities have earned deep recognition from its customers. Currently, Hicomp Microtech is the enterprise with the highest customer coverage in China’s microfluidics industry. The company has cumulatively served over 500 clients in the IVD sector, reaching more than 70% of the industry’s leading players. Its daily chip production capacity exceeds 1 million units, placing it in the industry’s first tier. At the end of 2021, the company established a 10,000-square-meter large-scale mass production base in Taicang, Jiangsu Province, with Phase I officially commencing operations in May 2022. The facility includes a Class 10,000 medical injection molding workshop compliant with ISO 13485 standards, a Class 10,000 precision assembly workshop, and a precision mold processing center. The planned annual chip production capacity is approximately 400 million units. Upon full capacity utilization, the annual output value is projected to exceed RMB 500 million, further driving the volume growth of domestically produced microfluidics and related customized medical products.

 Hicomp Microtech Taicang Factory

In the future, in addition to continuing to solidify its R&D and manufacturing capabilities in microfluidics, the company will leverage its core multi-material micro-nano manufacturing technologies and extensive R&D and manufacturing experience to expand its product platform and deliver comprehensive solutions across multiple sectors.

In the POCT testing sector, where microfluidics is most widely applied, the company has established a mature collaborative R&D system, offering comprehensive solutions and CDMO services for a range of centrifugal-driven and direct-drive microfluidic products.

The company seized market opportunities arising from the COVID-19 pandemic to develop a range of high-quality standard laboratory consumables, thereby meeting customers’ multi-tiered and immediate needs and further advancing its layout across the entire life sciences consumables industry chain.

With the rise of 5G communications, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things (IoT), applications of MEMS sensors in industrial and consumer electronics are growing rapidly. Leveraging the industrial ecosystem of Shunwei Capital and the support of SMIC Technology, the company will utilize its key technological expertise in MEMS fabrication to develop a range of cutting-edge industrial-grade MEMS products.

For this round of financing,Dr. Chen Jing, Founder of Hicomp MicrotechHe stated, “Hicomp Microtech secured financing despite the overall market downturn. We first extend our gratitude to investors and professionals across various sectors for their continued support and recognition, which has strengthened our confidence in becoming a leader in the new infrastructure of life sciences, represented by microfluidics. With this round of financing, Hicomp will further strengthen R&D of core technologies, expand production lines, improve delivery capabilities, explore overseas markets, meet rapidly growing customer demands, and create, coexist, and win together with our customers. From the second half of this year to the first half of next year, Hicomp will launch several flagship product solutions, leading innovation in the microfluidics and laboratory automation industries, and becoming a globally trusted long-term provider of technology and manufacturing services for the medical industry.”

Li Rui, Partner at Shunwei Capitalstated: “The Shunwei team has long focused on entrepreneurs in the fields of biopharmaceuticals and life sciences, seeking new opportunities and initiatives that drive breakthroughs for the advancement of human society. In recent years, with the combined development of life sciences and technology in China, detection scenarios in the life sciences sector are moving from laboratories to primary healthcare institutions and even into households, thanks to miniaturized, integrated, and automated devices. The real-time collection of essential patient health indicators enables early prevention and precise treatment, thereby reducing medical costs and alleviating burdens on families and society, which holds significant social importance.”

"As an innovator and pioneer in micro- and nano-fabrication technologies, the team at Hicomp Microtech boasts extensive technical reserves and profound industry insights. By pioneering the cross-disciplinary integration of MEMS processes with precision machining, the company has forged an entirely new industrial chain. We look forward to seeing Dr. Chen Jing lead his team in continuing to tackle key challenges, contributing to the rapid development of China’s POCT industry and helping Chinese manufacturing achieve global leadership."

Xu Junsheng, Founding Partner of SMIC TechnologyIt stated: “Microfluidic technology concentrates the liquid handling of biochemical reactions on a chip. It represents a cross-disciplinary application integrating two cutting-edge fields—semiconductor chips and biomedical testing—and falls within the scope of ‘breaking through several key frontier technologies’ under China’s 13th Five-Year Plan for Biotechnology Innovation. In the future, it holds very broad application prospects in medicine, pharmacy, chemistry, and the industrial and agricultural sectors.”

Hicomp Microtech is one of the very few companies in China to have achieved breakthroughs in key microfluidics technologies and industrialized manufacturing. With comprehensive technical capabilities and a high market share, it provides leading-edge customers with the only domestically produced solution. The founder, Dr. Chen, has been deeply engaged in the industry for many years; the R&D team possesses a solid technical background, and the management team is highly experienced. With the rapid growth of the molecular diagnostics market in the post-pandemic era, we believe that Hicomp Microtech, supported by substantial industrial capital, will continue to expand and is poised to become a shining star in China’s microfluidics sector.

Wang Keshu, Partner at Changhai Capital“It is a great honor to continuously provide financial advisory services to Hicomp Microtech and witness the company’s growth. Hicomp Microtech boasts a pragmatic and highly efficient team. Since its inception, the company has remained committed to breakthroughs in foundational microfluidics technology R&D, developing a profound understanding of the integration of medicine and engineering. It has now become one of the very few leading companies in China with mass production capabilities. We are confident that, with comprehensive support from investors, the company will continue to lead in the microfluidics and life sciences sectors.”

Shunwei Capital focuses on key sectors including mobile internet, Internet Plus, smart hardware, intelligent manufacturing, deep tech, consumer goods, enterprise services, and the electric vehicle ecosystem. Its representative domestic and international investment portfolio includes over 500 outstanding companies such as Xiaomi Group, Ninebot, Agora, iQIYI, NIO, ShareChat, and Meesho. By investing in visionary enterprises from the early to growth stages, Shunwei Capital aims to make our lives better.

SMIC Technology is a professional investment institution and industrial empowerment platform for the integrated circuit (IC) industry under Chip Space, with investments currently spanning the entire IC industry chain. SMIC Technology is committed to supporting the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund in advancing the domestic substitution of core segments within the industry chain, leveraging leading enterprises in wafer fabrication and packaging/testing to integrate and optimize the entire value chain. The company primarily invests in growth-stage and mature companies, seeking high certainty and strong growth potential, while also identifying high-quality targets for mergers and acquisitions. Through industry chain integration, it aims to amplify the head effect of industrial cluster agglomeration, focusing on nurturing companies with robust core technological competitiveness and promising growth prospects.

Changhai Capital is a financial advisory firm specializing in the healthcare sector, providing companies with in-depth, customized financing strategies and services. The team possesses extensive industry experience across life sciences, medical devices, in vitro diagnostics (IVD), and healthcare services. It has led or participated in the financing rounds of numerous high-profile enterprises, helping them accelerate growth and maximize their value.