Qingzhi Secures Series A+ Financing Led by GL Ventures to Accelerate Laboratory Automation Market Expansion

Following PerkinElmer’s Series A investment in Qingruan Qingzhi in July 2021, Qingruan Qingzhi recently announced that it has secured tens of millions of yuan in Series A+ financing from Hillhouse Ventures.

Following this round of financing, Chengdu Qingruan Qingzhi Software Co., Ltd. will continue to deepen its engagement in laboratory software businesses such as LIMS, while simultaneously spinning off its Automation Division into a wholly-owned subsidiary named “Qingruan Zhikong.” This move aims to accelerate the company’s strategic layout in laboratory automation, particularly for applications in biomedicine and life sciences, including new drug development, gene sequencing, and clinical diagnostics.

As an integral component of research and production services, laboratories are widely distributed across various industries and play a significant role in the operation of the national economy. In recent years, both the number and output value of third-party and first-party laboratories in China have grown at annual rates exceeding 10%, making it the most dynamic market globally. Amidst this rapid industry expansion, laboratories face numerous new challenges, including stricter policy compliance requirements, cost control under market pressure, the need to increase testing throughput, minimizing manual operational errors, and accelerating the substitution of domestic products for imports. Digital transformation based on Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS), coupled with the adoption of new technologies such as automation, will significantly help laboratories reduce costs, improve efficiency, and gain a competitive advantage.

Chengdu Qingruan Qingzhi Software Co., Ltd. boasts 15 years of technical expertise and extensive service experience in laboratory and quality informatics. Its clients span every province, autonomous region, and municipality directly under the Central Government in China, with successful case studies covering more than 20 industries, including comprehensive quality inspection, food, biopharmaceuticals, metrology calibration, environmental protection, mechanical manufacturing, electronics and electrical appliances, and building materials and construction.

Chengdu Qingruan Qingzhi Software Co., Ltd. operates in the laboratory software sector under the brand "King's,"Since its inception, the company has independently developed and owned full intellectual property rights for its product line, which includes LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System), ELN (Electronic Laboratory Notebook), and SDMS (Scientific Data Management System for equipment data acquisition). King'sLIMS is committed to delivering cost-effective products and services to its customers. Unlike other competitors, King'sLIMS was among the first to adopt a microservices architecture, enabling comprehensive customization and rapid deployment through modular configuration. It provides laboratories with transparent workflows and resource management compliant with CNAS, CMA, and ISO/IEC 17025 standards, thereby enhancing efficiency and reducing costs.

In the field of automation, Qingruan Zhikong advocates “Software-Defined Automation,” with a product portfolio that includes King'sAPS, King'sAuto, and King'sAI. Through its collaboration with PerkinElmer, Qingruan Zhikong is committed to providing customers with integrated hardware-and-software automation solutions that combine international-quality standards with the cost advantages of China-made supply chains.

King'sAPS pioneers the use of machine learning-based multi-line scheduling algorithms, enabling workflow configuration through a visual editor and simulator. Its parallel multi-task processing and dynamic planning capabilities support rapid online/offline switching of equipment and effective handling of anomalies, achieving 24/7 unmanned automated operation with full traceability and retention of key data logs.

King'sAuto enables flexible and collaborative manufacturing in laboratories through composite mobile robots or robotic arms. By leveraging the perception, aggregation, and processing of industrial big data, and integrating unique visual processing technologies for precise positioning, intelligent analysis, reasoning, judgment, conceptualization, and decision-making, it establishes a foundational ecosystem for laboratory automation.

King'sAI leverages emerging deep learning technologies to establish data linkages across research projects. By employing intelligent graphical and semantic analysis, it achieves data structuring and visualization while automatically extracting high-level features from integrated datasets. The system learns complex mapping relationships to enable accurate classification and prediction for diverse application scenarios.

PerkinElmer and Chengdu Qingruan Qingzhi Software Co., Ltd. have engaged in deep cooperation since 2020 in fields such as Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) and laboratory automation. Through close collaboration in product development, they have successfully launched multiple solutions, including PerkinElmer’s newly released explorer™ G3, a fully automated nucleic acid testing system capable of processing up to 10,000 samples per day. This fully automated workstation employs robotic arms and intelligent management software to integrate equipment such as nucleic acid extractors, automatic rapid dispensers, and qPCR amplification analyzers, enabling unattended, fully automated viral nucleic acid detection.

King’s LIMS enables remote data sampling and entry through seamless integration with instruments, software, and platforms, thereby achieving end-to-end oversight of laboratory samples, testing, and reporting to ensure the objectivity and impartiality of the laboratory. Currently, explorer™ G3 has been deployed at multiple major CDCs and medical institutions, including the Wuhan CDC, Guizhou CDC, and Harbin CDC, working alongside healthcare professionals on the front lines of public health epidemic prevention and control.

Qingruan Qingzhi specializes in product development and services for laboratories and quality management. Recognized as a “Double Software” certified enterprise and a High-Tech Enterprise, the company has received numerous honors, including the 2018 Outstanding Contribution Award for Smart Food and Drug Administration, the 2020 Most Competitive Software Enterprise in Sichuan Province, the Sichuan Province Excellent Software Product award (LIMS), the 2021 Preferred Brand for Industry Informatization, the 2021 Best Solution for Industry Informatization, the 2021 Sichuan Province Excellent Software Product award (High-Throughput Rapid Nucleic Acid Detection System), and the 2021 Outstanding Entrepreneur in the Sichuan Software Industry.

PerkinElmer is committed to continuous innovation for a healthier world. We deliver unique solutions for the diagnostics, life sciences, food, and applied markets, empowering scientists, researchers, and clinicians to tackle the most challenging scientific and medical issues. Leveraging deep market insights and technical expertise, we enable our customers to obtain more accurate insights earlier. With approximately 14,000 specialized professionals serving 190 countries worldwide, we remain dedicated to helping our customers build healthier homes and improve the quality of human life. In 2020, PerkinElmer achieved annual revenue of approximately $3.8 billion. As a member of the S&P 500 Index, the company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PKI.

GL Ventures, the venture capital platform under Hillhouse dedicated to early-stage innovative companies, focuses on key sectors such as deep tech, software, biotechnology, new materials, emerging brands, and consumer technology. GL Ventures seeks out all entrepreneurs who are passionate about technology and believe in innovation. We aim to be the first call for founders seeking financing and look forward to supporting them throughout their entrepreneurial journey.