ACXEL Secures Tens of Millions in Pre-A Funding to Advance Its Digital Microfluidics Platform

VCBeat has learned at the earliest opportunity that,Recently, Foshan ACXEL Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “ACXEL”) announced the completion of its Pre-A financing round, raising tens of millions of US dollars. The round was co-led by Yingrui Capital, a core affiliate enterprise of Country Garden Holdings, and Hillhouse Venture Capital, with Cowin Capital participating as a follower investor. Linear Capital, the lead investor in the angel round, continued to increase its investment, while Hongli Venture Capital, the seed-round investor, provided ongoing support. WinX Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor for this transaction.

ACXEL is an industry-leading digital microfluidic cell manipulation platform. Its disruptive single-cell precision manipulation technology represents a scarce asset in this field. Following this round of financing, ACXEL will further accelerate the R&D and production of single-cell manipulation chips and supporting equipment, as well as expand downstream collaborations.

Ausubo, founded in February 2021, possesses a next-generation microfluidics technology platform with fully independent intellectual property rights. The company’s digital microfluidic chips and systems are built on large-scale thin-film electronic active pixel array technology, enabling the generation of large-scale biological sample droplets on a two-dimensional plane. This allows for parallel, rapid, precise, and independent manipulation of any individual unit while enabling real-time observation. Committed to advancing digital cell biology to new heights through disruptive single-cell manipulation techniques, the company’s technology is widely applicable in scenarios such as basic life sciences research, cell therapy development, antibody therapy, and synthetic biology. Ausubo is currently exploring collaborative opportunities with partners in these fields.

The concept of "Digital Cell Biology" was proposed by Berkeley Lights (NASDAQ: BLI), aiming to leverage advanced technologies to enable high-throughput processes such as single-cell sorting, manipulation, and enrichment. According to BLI’s estimates, the market size for digital cell biology exceeds $23 billion. It primarily serves the research and development of biotherapeutic drugs and other cell-related products, with end markets covering antibody therapies, cell therapies, synthetic biology, and more. The total addressable end-market size is projected to surpass $250 billion by 2024.