Puyi Bio Secures Tens of Millions of Yuan in Angel Funding to Accelerate Breakthroughs in Domestic Nanopore Sequencing Technology

Recently, Beijing Polyseq Biotech Co., Ltd. (“Polyseq Biotech”), a high-tech enterprise dedicated to the industrialization of next-generation nanopore gene sequencers, announced the completion of its angel financing round worth tens of millions of yuan. This round was jointly led by IDG Capital and Shuimu Ventures, with participation from the Global Health Industry Innovation Center of Tsinghua Industrial R&D Institute. The funds will be primarily used for optimizing nanopore proteins with independent intellectual property rights and finalizing the product design of medium-to-high-throughput nanopore gene sequencers based on ASIC chips. With the support of quality capital, China is poised to rapidly overcome critical bottlenecks in next-generation gene sequencing.

Once Polyseq Biotech’s sequencers enter mass production, they will not only facilitate the localization of nanopore sequencing technology in China and break through the country’s technical bottlenecks in long-read sequencing, but are also poised to expand globally, leading the rapid development of fourth-generation sequencing technologies worldwide. Industry insiders predict that “nanopore sequencing technology will significantly enhance nucleic acid sequencing efficiency, with expectations that it will make substantial contributions to clinically realizing personalized precision medicine and the development of original innovative drugs in the future.”

Polyseq Biotech originated from the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements by Professor Huang Yihua’s research team at the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. As a pioneer in the development of nanopore sequencers in China, the Polyseq Biotech team has long been dedicated to resolving the critical bottleneck issues facing China’s nanopore sequencing industry and undertaking the significant mission of breaking through foreign intellectual property blockades. In addition to serving as the entity responsible for commercializing major scientific instrument developments from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, another key mandate of Polyseq Biotech is to industrialize nanopore gene sequencers with independent Chinese intellectual property rights. While currently enabling direct sequencing of long-chain DNA, the company plans to further advance high-accuracy direct sequencing technologies for RNA and proteins, thereby achieving low-cost, high-precision bioinformatic interpretation—a vision that embodies the very essence of the name “Polyseq Biotech.”

Prior to the establishment of Polyseq Biotech, the company’s core team had already spearheaded key national R&D programs under the Ministry of Science and Technology in nanopore sequencing, major scientific instrument development projects funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and the CAS “0-to-1” Original Innovation Initiative. They have also received multi-level research support from both national and local entities, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Guangzhou International Bio Island Laboratory.

Dr. Yihua Huang, the company’s founder, is an internationally renowned structural biologist. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Peking University and pursued his doctoral studies at Cornell University in the United States under the supervision of Professor Hao Wu, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. During his postdoctoral training, he joined the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where he worked with Nobel Laureate Professor Johann Deisenhofer. Dr. Huang returned to China in late 2010 and joined the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He currently serves as a Principal Investigator at the Institute of Biophysics, is a recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, has been recognized as a Leading Talent in Technological Innovation under the National “Ten Thousand Talents Program,” and chairs the Molecular Biophysics Branch of the Chinese Biophysical Society.

In 2014, Dr. Huang Yihua first discovered and characterized the nanopore protein CsgG, a breakthrough that facilitated the development of the world’s first commercial biological nanopore gene sequencer. In 2020, Dr. Huang and Dutch scientists nearly simultaneously elucidated the structure and function of the CsgG/CsgF complex, further advancing the accuracy of nanopore gene sequencing technologies. With nearly two decades of dedicated research in the field of beta-barrel membrane protein structure and function, Dr. Huang has laid a solid foundation for mastering the core technology of nanopore proteins with independent intellectual property rights.

In fact, nanopore gene sequencing is a transformative technology in the field of gene sequencing, with its technical and commercial feasibility already demonstrated by foreign companies. Compared to other sequencing technologies, nanopore sequencing offers distinct advantages: it can sequence not only DNA but also RNA directly, and it possesses the capability for protein sequencing.

Furthermore, nanopore sequencing technology can simultaneously detect various modifications on DNA, RNA, and proteins. These sequence and modification profiles are closely associated with a wide range of genetic disorders, cancers, and neurological diseases. Owing to its technical advantages, nanopore sequencing will play an indispensable role in constructing perfect genomes, transcriptomes, and proteomes for humans and other species.

Huang Yihua stated that to achieve these goals, nanopore sequencing technology requires continuous improvement and further expansion of its application scope, which is the company’s strategic objective. This round of financing will accelerate the finalization of the company’s medium-to-high-throughput (6,000-channel) nanopore gene sequencer, which is based on proprietary nanopore proteins and ASIC chips. The finalized sequencer product will demonstrate leapfrog improvements across all key performance indicators.

Dr. Lou Jizhong, co-founder of the company, is also a researcher at the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. As the chief scientist for the nanopore sequencing special project under the Ministry of Science and Technology’s National Key R&D Program on “Key Scientific Issues in Transformative Technologies,” Dr. Lou has long been engaged in research on biological single-molecule detection and nanopore sequencing technologies. Dr. Lou revealed that although the company was established recently, it had operated as a scientific research team for many years prior to its formal incorporation, achieving significant progress in multiple aspects of sequencing technology and securing relevant intellectual property rights and patent portfolios. One of the core technologies of nanopore sequencers is biological nanopore proteins with high sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio. However, currently known biological nanopores suitable for sequencing, such as hemolysin, MspA, and CsgG, are already protected by patents held by foreign institutions. The nanopore protein used by Polyseq Biotech is a novel discovery based on Dr. Huang Yihua’s more than ten years of research accumulation, completely independent of other patented proteins, enabling the company to break through foreign patent barriers. The sequencer product targeted in this round of financing aims to meet or exceed the performance specifications of comparable foreign products.

As an investor in this funding round, IDG Capital believes that the current global gene sequencing market size is approaching $20 billion, while China’s domestic gene sequencing market has exceeded RMB 20 billion. The gene sequencing industry remains in a phase of rapid development. Nanopore gene sequencing, representing the fourth generation of sequencing technology, is seeing its market share steadily increase as technological maturity improves. However, China currently lacks commercially available nanopore sequencers with independent intellectual property rights, and there remains a risk of supply chain bottlenecks (“chokehold” risks) for related gene sequencing equipment, supporting chips, and reagents. IDG Capital’s optimism toward Polyseq Biotech stems from the fact that the company, built upon over a decade of cutting-edge research by its founding team, has achieved international leadership in multiple aspects of nanopore sequencing technology and is capable of breaking through various patent barriers. Therefore, IDG Capital is willing to partner with Polyseq Biotech to accelerate the finalization and commercial application of its nanopore sequencing instruments.

Wu Yong, a partner at Shuimu Venture Capital, an investor in this funding round, stated that as a bioinformatics interpretation tool amidst the wave of biotechnological revolution, gene sequencing technology has long been evolving toward higher precision, lower cost, greater efficiency, and portability. As a new-generation direct-reading solution for DNA, RNA, and proteins, nanopore sequencing technology is poised to address challenges associated with next-generation sequencing (NGS) in areas such as epigenetic modifications, interpretation of repetitive DNA sequences, and quantitative detection, thereby serving as a significant complement to NGS. The Polyseq Biotech team boasts over a decade of research experience in nanopore sequencing and has successfully developed multiple pore proteins with commercialization potential, maintaining a world-leading position in protein screening and mutagenesis. “As the angel-round investor in Polyseq Biotech, we are confident that the company will break through foreign patent barriers and develop a domestically produced fourth-generation sequencer with independent intellectual property rights and performance comparable to top-tier international instruments.”

As a co-investor in this round, Wang Jingjing, General Manager of the Global Health Industry Innovation Center, pointed out that nanopore sequencing, as the latest generation of nucleic acid sequencing technology, will bring transformative changes to the industry, delivering breakthroughs in clinical application scenarios such as tumor companion diagnostics and early screening, diagnosis of genetic and rare diseases, and cell and gene therapy. It is worth noting that in the future, Polyseq Biotech will not only continuously iterate and upgrade its existing products to meet the growing demands of downstream clinical and research services but also delve deeper into the potential of nanopore sequencing as a platform technology, exploring its scalability starting from genomics. Nanopore sequencing technology will significantly enhance the efficiency of nucleic acid sequencing, and it is expected to make significant contributions to achieving personalized precision medicine and the development of original drugs in clinical practice in the future. As a support platform for the healthcare industry, the Global Health Industry Innovation Center hopes to promote indigenous innovation in China's medical sector by supporting companies like Polyseq Biotech, thereby creating a new ecosystem for the international incubation of innovative medical devices.

IDG Capital is a globally leading private equity investment firm. With nearly 30 years of development, the company has accumulated over RMB 150 billion in assets under management. IDG Capital focuses on leading enterprises in sectors such as Technology, Media, and Telecom (TMT), new consumer goods and services, culture and entertainment, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, and clean energy. Its investment scope covers all stages, including early-stage, growth-stage, mature-stage, and mergers and acquisitions, with investment sizes ranging from millions to hundreds of millions of US dollars.

Shuimu Venture Capital is a professional investment institution dedicated to the industrialization of scientific and technological achievements, established under the Beijing Tsinghua Industrial R&D Institute (hereinafter referred to as “Tsinghua Industrial R&D Institute”). Leveraging the Institute’s nearly two decades of accumulation in the transformation and industrialization of scientific and technological achievements, Shuimu Venture Capital promotes the commercialization of major breakthroughs from universities and research institutes through market-oriented approaches and professional management. To date, Shuimu Venture Capital has invested in more than 80 projects, including SinoHytec (688339), a leader in the hydrogen energy industry; Tinavi Medical Technologies (688277), the first listed company specializing in medical robots; Hwatsing Technology (A20569) and U-Precision Tech (A20224), leading enterprises in integrated circuit equipment; and PINS Medical, a unicorn company in China’s neuromodulation field.

The Global Health Industry Innovation Center was initiated and established by the Beijing Tsinghua Industrial R&D Institute. It aims to connect global medical innovation technologies and resources, strengthen the translation of scientific and technological achievements, facilitate the effective implementation and development of innovative technologies in medical devices, diagnostics, and services, and provide comprehensive support for early- to mid-stage projects. As a base for pharmaceutical and health technology transfer and commercialization, the Center is committed to building an in-depth support platform for global medical and health innovation technologies. It offers full lifecycle management services for the incubation of the medical device industry to resident enterprises, while also establishing a shared medical device service platform for innovative companies.