ChromX Health Secures Tens of Millions in Angel Funding to Advance Precision Disease Diagnosis via Breath Analysis

ChromX Health Announces Completion of Multi-Million Yuan Angel Financing RoundRecently, ChromX Health announced the completion of an angel financing round amounting to tens of millions of yuan. This round was exclusively invested by ZhenFund, and the funds will be used for team building, product research and development, and the expansion of clinical collaborations.

ChromX Health is a comprehensive health technology company that leverages breath metabolomics testing combined with artificial intelligence algorithms to achieve precise disease screening, diagnosis, condition monitoring, and intelligent health management. By independently developing a compact breath analyzer with ultra-high sensitivity and resolution, the company has achieved the first point-of-care testing (POCT) of exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCs), thereby overcoming the limitations of breath metabolomics in clinical applications.

After more than 50 years of accumulation, exhaled VOC detection technology is now on the verge of an industrial boom. Meanwhile, domestic and international companies are at the same starting line in the exhaled VOC detection sector, with academia, enterprises, capital, and other stakeholders jointly driving the rapid development of this field. Among them,At the capital level, investment firms with Asian and Chinese backgrounds have long been closely watching this sector. Li Ka-shing’s Horizons Ventures invested in the UK-based breath analysis company Owlstone Medical in 2018, while ChromX Health was successfully incubated under the seed funding from the Beijing Collaborative Innovation Institute.

Regarding the investment in ChromX Health, Dr. Chen Gaopeng, Vice President of ZhenFund, stated, “Through long-term clinical accumulation and recent technological breakthroughs, exhaled VOC testing aligns closely with clinical and market demands, holding promise as a diagnostic platform for multiple diseases. ChromX Health’s intelligent detection platform offers advantages such as high sensitivity, excellent resolution, and compact size. China’s abundant and concentrated clinical resources greatly facilitate the development of disease biomarkers. The ChromX Health team possesses solid technical expertise, strong execution capabilities, and extensive experience in the independent R&D of medical devices. We look forward to ChromX Health achieving rapid breakthroughs in the field of exhaled VOC diagnostics.”

In addition to the well-known carbon dioxide and oxygen, human exhaled breath also contains various biomarkers—volatile organic compounds (VOCs)—that can reflect the body’s disease status and health conditions.Numerous clinical studies have demonstrated that exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCs), as a crucial component of metabolomics, represent the terminal manifestation of metabolic processes in various diseases.Analysis of volatile metabolites in exhaled breath using VOC analyzers enables precise diagnosis, early warning, and monitoring of treatment efficacy and disease progression for various conditions, including infectious diseases, chronic diseases, and cancer.

Introduction to ChromX Health Technologies

Dr. Wang Junqi, founder of ChromX Health, stated: “The current breath analysis market is dominated by single-molecule inorganic compound tests, including urea breath tests for Helicobacter pylori and nitric oxide tests for asthma. In contrast, multi-analyte volatile organic compound (VOC) breath testing offers high accuracy and broad applicability, enabling its use in the diagnosis of a wide range of diseases. It has the potential to become as ubiquitous as blood tests and imaging diagnostics. Moreover, the field of VOC breath testing remains an untapped blue ocean with substantial market value.”

Dr. Wang Junqi stated that the clinical value of exhaled VOC testing is mainly reflected in two major aspects:

First, it fills clinical gaps by providing precise and effective testing technologies for diseases that lack diagnostic methods.For instance, the symptoms of early-stage Alzheimer’s disease are often subtle, and there is a lack of effective methods for screening and staging. If Alzheimer’s disease can be diagnosed and staged at its onset, early intervention and treatment can be initiated, potentially reversing the condition or even leading to recovery. Exhaled volatile organic compound (VOC) testing enables efficient screening for Alzheimer’s disease and assessment of pathological stages, helping patients receive timely treatment to control disease progression.

Second, it complements existing technologies, enhances diagnostic efficiency, conserves medical resources, and provides physicians with more valuable clinical information.Taking early screening for lung cancer as an example, low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) involves a certain level of radiation exposure, and manual image interpretation may lead to misdiagnosis or missed diagnoses. A more efficient, convenient, and precise diagnostic approach involves initial screening through exhaled volatile organic compound (VOC) detection to assess the presence of nodules, followed by confirmatory LDCT imaging for individuals who test positive in the VOC screening.

The prospects of exhaled breath metabolomics in the clinical disease diagnosis market are unquestionable,However, the bulky size and complex components of traditional central laboratory instruments have severely limited the large-scale clinical adoption of exhaled VOC testing.Therefore, leading global R&D teams, represented by the University of Michigan in the United States, the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, are all dedicated to developing miniaturized devices for detecting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath.

Owlstone Medical’s breath molecular detection technology originates from the University of Cambridge. The company has developed a compact breath volatile organic compound (VOC) analysis device using field asymmetric ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) mass spectrometry technology for the diagnosis of cancer, inflammatory diseases, and infectious diseases. The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology has developed a small and convenient breath test for SARS-CoV-2 that utilizes nanosensor technology to analyze exhaled air and determine whether an individual is infected with the virus.

The University of Michigan boasts more extensive experience in the field of gas analysis, having effectively addressed the limitations of low sensitivity and resolution in miniaturized breath VOC detection devices, thereby securing a leading position globally.Dr. Wang Junqi, founder of ChromX Health, was a core R&D researcher in the University of Michigan’s exhaled breath VOC detection project. He possesses extensive R&D experience across the entire workflow of gas VOC collection, separation, and detection, is the inventor of multiple gas analysis technologies, and pioneered the development of wearable exhaled breath VOC detection devices.is one of the authoritative figures in this field.

In 2021, Dr. Wang Junqi returned to China to found ChromX Health. The company’s other core members include Professor Fan Xudong, a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan and a leading global expert in breath analysis who has achieved multiple technological breakthroughs in the field; Dr. Shen Yong, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Hematology and Oncology at Harvard Medical School, Chairman of the MIT China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum, and Founder of the U8 World Innovation Summit; and Dr. Geng Qian, who previously held positions at Fortune 500 companies—including GE Healthcare, Siemens Healthineers, Philips Healthcare, and Cisco—and brings 18 years of extensive experience in product development, marketing, sales, and management.

Dr. Wang Junqi stated, “We aim to leverage China’s abundant clinical resources, rely on our leading breath VOC detection technology and a highly execution-driven professional team, and establish ChromX Health as the market leader in the global breath testing sector.”

It is understood that,ChromX Health has developed a compact POCT breath analysis device based on MEMS microfluidics technology, enabling precise detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in human breath. It is poised to become the world’s first high-resolution, portable breath VOC detection device.This device offers advantages such as compact size, ease of operation, non-invasiveness, and short detection time. Its sensitivity demonstrates high concordance with the clinical gold standard, enabling widespread use across medical institutions, health examination centers, elderly care facilities, and community home settings.

Currently, the company has established clinical collaborations with multiple top-tier hospitals in China and the United States. Moving forward, ChromX Health will focus on several key areas, including early screening and diagnosis of cancer, detection of infectious diseases, diagnosis of critical care conditions, and personal health management for chronic diseases. The company will actively engage in large-scale clinical partnerships with hospitals to build a database of exhaled volatile organic compound (VOC) biomarkers for diseases in the Chinese population.

ZhenFund is an early-stage investment institution co-founded by Mr. Xu Xiaoping and Mr. Wang Qiang in partnership with Sequoia Capital China in 2011. With total assets under management exceeding $1 billion, ZhenFund actively seeks out the most outstanding entrepreneurial teams and era-defining investment opportunities in sectors such as the internet, mobile internet, future technologies, artificial intelligence, enterprise services, healthcare, mass consumer markets, and education. The firm has invested in more than 700 startups, including Yitu Technology, XtalPi, Shuidi Huzhu, and Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), with over 50 portfolio companies achieving exits through various channels.