Wenxin Tech Files IPO Prospectus: Pioneering Wearable Synchronized Phonocardiogram and ECG Monitoring for Personal Health

Modern medicine began with the stethoscope.

Physicians can identify heart murmurs using a stethoscope to diagnose cardiac diseases. However, auscultation is highly dependent on the physician’s prior experience and professional expertise, and some clinicians may fail to obtain accurate information from it. With advances in modern electronics and ultrasound technology, the advent of color Doppler echocardiography has enabled a clearer understanding of the structure and function of the heart and major blood vessels.

Nowadays, color Doppler ultrasound and electrocardiogram (ECG) are the most common cardiac examinations. ECG primarily assesses heart rate and rhythm abnormalities, while color Doppler ultrasound evaluates structural issues of the heart. However, when patients leave the hospital and return to their daily lives, large-scale color Doppler ultrasound and ECG equipment have no “place to play their role.”

Wearable devices for synchronized monitoring of heart sounds and electrocardiograms (ECG) have emerged as a new option, providing comprehensive insights into cardiac status through simultaneous acquisition of heart sounds and ECG signals, while offering ease of use and portability. “Wenxin Xiaoyi,” launched by Wenxin Technology, is one such product; it received approval from the National Medical Products Administration in September 2021.

Wenxin Technology is a technology-driven innovation company specializing in the research and development of wearable medical sensors, and dedicated to providing data analytics services based on mobile internet and artificial intelligence.In 2020, the company completed a Series A financing round worth tens of millions of yuan, exclusively invested by Bencao Capital.

When an industry reaches a relatively mature stage, do you have the courage to switch careers and venture into new fields? Faced with this question, the founding team of Wenxin Technology gave an affirmative answer.

The motivation for starting the business stemmed from accumulated past experience. Dr. Zhou Yuxin, the company’s CTO, previously participated in a non-invasive blood glucose monitoring project in Silicon Valley, while Du Xiaosong, the company’s CEO, has maintained long-term contact with Feng Guanping, the founding dean of Tsinghua University Shenzhen International Graduate School. There is a broad consensus that personalized medical sensors hold significant promise.

“Our initial idea was to develop a miniature stethoscope that digitizes heart sound signals. The data obtained from the digital stethoscope could be compared against various disease data templates, as well as against the patient’s own historical data. At the time, we all thought it would be relatively simple—essentially using a recorder to capture human heart sound data. However, we found the actual implementation quite challenging, and we ended up devoting 90% of our efforts to the research and development of the miniature stethoscope.”

The miniaturization of stethoscopes involves multiple specialized technical fields, including physics, acoustics, circuitry, and digital signal processing., the team at Wenxin Technology faced a formidable challenge. At that time, there were no companies, either domestically or internationally, developing wearable heart sound monitoring devices.

“Over the course of three years, we considered giving up several times. By chance, I heard a remark from a renowned angel investor in Silicon Valley: ‘I now know more about my car than I do about my own body.’ This statement greatly inspired our team. We believe that people should not live such ‘neglectful’ lives; instead, we aim to make personal health management a routine practice.”

To “help people live with greater clarity,” the Wenxin Technology team has collaborated with multiple medical institutions to explore applications related to heart sounds and electrocardiography, thereby improving the precision of heart sound and ECG measurements.

The confidence to scale the great mountains stems from the accumulation of professional expertise.Wenxin Technology’s team members previously held long-term positions at Bell Labs and HP Labs, accumulating extensive experience in design, R&D, production, and management across the fields of networking, digital communications, and high-tech sensors.。

CEO Du Xiaosong previously worked at Lucent Bell Labs and later founded ViMagic. COO Lin Yi has long been engaged in the R&D organization and management of electronic engineering projects in Silicon Valley. CTO Zhou Yuxin formerly worked at HP Labs and has extensive experience in the product design and manufacturing of semiconductors, sensors, and application systems.

Meanwhile, R. Hardwin Mead, an M.D. from Stanford University and a cardiac electrophysiologist in Silicon Valley, and Feng Guanping, the founding dean of the Shenzhen International Graduate School of Tsinghua University and a pioneer of graphene in China, serve as angel investors and advisory experts for Wenxin Technology.

After three years of research and development, Wenxin Technology has combined ECG with a miniature stethoscope to launch the portable synchronized phonocardiogram and electrocardiogram monitor — “Wenxin Xiaoyi”.

Currently, most wearable device manufacturers in the market focus on single-lead ECG monitoring. Single-lead ECG devices are primarily used to measure cardiac rhythm and observe whether patients have premature beats or atrial fibrillation, but they cannot reflect structural heart issues, such as valvular insufficiency or myocardial hypertrophy, and thus cannot provide a comprehensive assessment of cardiac function.

Synchronous acquisition and analysis of heart sound and electrocardiographic signals are essential to more comprehensively reflect cardiac rhythmic and structural abnormalities, thereby enabling a thorough assessment of cardiac status.

Wenxin Technology’s “Wenxin Xiaoyi” system can simultaneously collect heart sounds and electrocardiograms (ECG) in a non-invasive manner. It is only one-third the size of a credit card and weighs slightly more than a one-yuan coin.. Although small, it has all the vital organs.The system can also continuously monitor parameters such as body temperature, blood oxygen saturation, respiration, and blood pressure.。

“Wenxin Xiaoyi” Product Image

Previously, high-quality digital stethoscopes relied on a chest piece to capture heart sounds. However, this approach is not only cumbersome to carry but also prone to errors. Since most users are laypersons without medical training, they cannot control the pressure applied by the chest piece against the thorax, leading to inconsistencies in measurement.

High professional dependency is the most critical issue to avoid in wearable devices.“Wenxin Xiaoyi” is easy to use, enabling patients to complete self-monitoring within 2 minutes in just a few steps. Users without a medical background can operate the “Wenxin Xiaoyi” system independently by simply watching the instructional video.

The “Wenxin Xiaoyi” system is equipped with dedicated software capable of performing low-level signal processing, remote data analysis, and storage of users’ historical data to establish disease-specific databases. This software provides trend analyses of parameters such as electrocardiogram (ECG), heart sounds, and respiration, offering disease early-warning services. Meanwhile, both local physicians and remote specialists can monitor patients via an online mobile application.

The data analysis capabilities of the accompanying software operate from two perspectives: first, by comparing patient data with known disease profiles to determine which cardiac condition the patient’s presentation most closely resembles; and second, by comparing current findings with the patient’s own historical data. Most cardiac diseases follow a gradual progression, with strong occult characteristics in the early stages that may escape detection during routine examinations. By leveraging historical data comparisons, this software assists physicians in achieving more accurate disease diagnoses.

“Disease progression is a process that evolves from white to gray, then to dark gray, and finally to black. Due to patients’ limited medical knowledge and scarce healthcare resources, many individuals are already in the dark gray or even black stage by the time they seek hospital examination. Our ‘Wenxin Xiaoyi’ product helps patients understand the course of disease development, clarifying what the white and gray stages entail, and reminds them to take timely action. Some medical experts have stated in discussions that their ideal product would enable patients to ‘walk in lying down and walk out standing up.’ In reality, from the perspectives of patients, families, and society, the ultimate hope is that people never need to lie down in the first place.”

In September 2021, “Wenxin Xiaoyi” obtained Class II medical device certification from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), becoming the first portable heart sound and ECG acquisition device approved in China.

Since its establishment in 2015, leveraging its renowned capability for non-invasive, simultaneous acquisition of heart sounds and electrocardiograms (ECG), Wenxin Technology has collaborated with Shanghai Ruijin Hospital to monitor heart failure in hospitalized patients with myocardial infarction. This collaboration assists physicians in assessing patient conditions and medication efficacy, thereby enabling timely adjustments to diagnostic, therapeutic, and pharmacological regimens. Additionally, the company partners with the Department of Anesthesiology at Beijing 301 Hospital to provide intraoperative and postoperative monitoring for patients, and works with Beijing Children’s Hospital on research and demonstration projects for screening congenital heart disease in children.

Beyond hospital settings, the “Wenxin Xiaoyi” product can also be deployed in scenarios such as internet hospitals, health examination centers, and elderly care institutions for disease screening, health check-ups, and monitoring of malignant diseases.

“Our entrepreneurial vision is to develop a series of sensors with medical-grade precision that are convenient for personal and home use, enabling related data analysis and interpretation to monitor personal health anytime, anywhere.”

In the future, Wenxin Technology will further expand the user base of “Wenxin Xiaoyi,” extending from patients with critical medical needs to individuals in a sub-health state, and ultimately promoting the product among the healthy population. Meanwhile, the company plans to develop a series of portable health monitoring devices, complemented by cloud-based artificial intelligence data analysis services, for application in daily health monitoring.

“Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, public health awareness has reached unprecedented levels. In home settings, self-monitoring of personal health has become a focal point of concern, creating a favorable environment for the development of wearable health monitoring devices. We are highly optimistic about the prospects of the wearable health monitoring market.”

Bencao Capital is a specialized investment fund dedicated to investing in globally leading life sciences and healthcare companies, with a focus on two key areas: innovative pharmaceuticals, and cross-disciplinary innovative medical devices and diagnostic technologies. The core founding team consists entirely of PhD holders in biomedical fields from overseas institutions, bringing years of practical experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, as well as over a decade of successful investment and entrepreneurial experience both in China and abroad. The team combines deep professional expertise, extensive industry knowledge, and a global perspective.

Bencao Capital is a dual-currency fund manager in RMB and USD, having cumulatively invested in and incubated over 70 domestic and international medical innovation enterprises, with offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and Silicon Valley. Bencao Capital adheres to the “Building Great Healthcare Enterprises, Establishing an International Brand for Professional Investment” vision, empowering outstanding startup teams and delivering superior performance returns to investors.