VIVEST MEDICAL Secures Nearly RMB 100 Million Series A Financing Led by Northern Light Venture Capital; China's First Wearable Cardioverter Defibrillator Set for Launch

VCBeat has learned that Suzhou Weiweisi Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (VIVEST MEDICAL(referred to as Weiweisi Medical) completed nearly RMB 100 millionAround of financing, led by Northern Light Venture Capital, with participation from Bohua Capital and Blue Sail Medical. The funds raised in this round will be used for new product development, regulatory filing, mass production, and market promotion.

Founded in 2019 by Mr. Zheng Jie and the founding team, Weiweisi Medical is an innovative medical technology company specializing in the prevention and treatment of ventricular arrhythmias and cardiac rhythm data services. Targeting malignant arrhythmias, Weiweisi Medical is committed to providing globally leading, comprehensive solutions covering the entire continuum of care—prevention, monitoring, treatment, and rehabilitation—to build a non-invasive platform for the prevention and management of ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death.

To date, Weiweisi Medical has developed wearable cardioverter defibrillators (WCD) and automated external defibrillators (AED), leveraging its technological strength and innovation capabilities.It is reported that Weiweisi Medical holds full independent intellectual property rights for two of its products, and its wearable automated external defibrillator (AED) is a pioneering product in China.

Given the innovative nature and urgent clinical need for wearable automated external defibrillators, this product was approved by the Center for Medical Device Evaluation of the National Medical Products Administration on January 7, 2021, to enter the Special Review Procedure for Innovative Medical Devices.

Zheng Jie, founder of Weiweisi Medical, stated: “The company is headquartered in the BioBAY industrial park within Suzhou Industrial Park, featuring over 1,000 square meters of manufacturing and office space. It has established R&D centers in Shenzhen and Suzhou, as well as a clinical data computing center in Beijing. In addition to its hardware infrastructure, Weiweisi Medical boasts significant soft-power advantages. For instance, the company has assembled a team of professionals specializing in biomedical engineering, electronics, software and hardware development, structural process engineering, advanced ECG algorithms, big data, and clinical medicine, forming a high-caliber workforce that covers product R&D, quality control, regulatory submissions, and corporate management.”

Since its inception, Weiweisi Medical has been committed to breaking technological monopolies, with its primary objective being the development of wearable automated external defibrillators.

Zheng Jie stated, “According to data published in the ‘Report on Cardiovascular Health and Diseases in China 2019,’ there are approximately 330 million patients with heart disease in China, including 8.9 million with heart failure, 11 million with coronary heart disease, and 245 million with hypertension. In terms of harm, the incidence rate of sudden cardiac death in China is 41.84 per 100,000 population, with up to 544,000 deaths annually attributed to cardiac causes, ranking first globally.”

Why Is the Mortality Rate of Sudden Cardiac Death So High? According to experts, when a patient experiences cardiac arrest, the cerebral cortex can tolerate hypoxia for only four minutes. After this period, vital organs such as the brain will undergo necrosis due to lack of oxygen. If cardiac arrest lasts longer than 4–6 minutes, irreversible damage to brain tissue occurs; if it exceeds 10 minutes, brain death results. Therefore, the golden window for rescuing patients with cardiac arrest is merely four minutes, clinically referred to as the "Golden Four Minutes."

In fact, timely cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation are currently the only effective interventions for sudden cardiac death. However, since both CPR and defibrillation require operation by trained professionals and are constrained by a narrow therapeutic time window, providing effective defibrillation protection for high-risk patients with out-of-hospital sudden cardiac death remains a significant challenge.

To address this challenge, Weiweisi Medical has developed China’s first wearable automated external defibrillator (AED) with fully independent intellectual property rights, leveraging innovative defibrillation technology, spray adhesive technology, and flexible sensor technology. This device is clinically used to provide defibrillation therapy and protection against ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation in patients at high risk of sudden cardiac death.

Specifically, the wearable automated external defibrillator continuously monitors the patient’s electrocardiogram (ECG) 24 hours a day via an ECG monitor. When ventricular arrhythmia signals are detected, the device promptly issues an alert. If the patient is unconscious or unresponsive, the device automatically activates the defibrillation system. The system then switches to automatic defibrillation mode, re-evaluates for ventricular arrhythmia, and initiates defibrillation upon confirming that the patient remains unconscious or unresponsive.

(Image provided by the company)

Zheng Jie introduced, “From the detection of ventricular arrhythmia signals to the initiation of defibrillation, the entire process takes no more than one minute. With the device fully charged, a single spray application can support multiple defibrillations within 24 hours, with a maximum of 29 shocks. This design is intended to ensure that patients have sufficient time to reach a hospital for medical treatment.”

Furthermore, wearable automated external defibrillators (WCDs) offer advantages such as ease of operation, flexible usage cycles, low cost of use, and reliable defibrillation efficacy, holding significant importance for home-based prevention and management in populations at high risk for sudden cardiac death.

Through the use of wearable automated external defibrillators (AEDs), individuals at high risk for sudden cardiac death can live at home while receiving out-of-hospital alerts and defibrillation services, thereby extending the therapeutic window for medical intervention. For hospitals, the adoption of this device facilitates the optimization of inpatient capacity, enhances follow-up management of high-risk patients, and provides clinicians with ample time to deliver life-saving treatment.

In terms of promotion, multiple clinical guidelines and expert consensus statements worldwide have jointly advocated for the use of wearable cardioverter-defibrillators (WCDs). For instance, the “2020 Chinese Expert Consensus on Ventricular Arrhythmias” affirms the clinical value of WCDs in the management of arrhythmias and recommends their application for the prevention and treatment of sustained polymorphic ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation, the prevention and treatment of cardiac arrest, the prevention of cardiac arrest in patients with ischemic heart disease, the prevention of cardiac arrest in patients with acute coronary syndrome, and the treatment and prevention of various arrhythmic conditions such as heart failure.

Furthermore, to enhance awareness among patients, physicians, and the government regarding the prevention of sudden cardiac death (SCD), the Chinese Medical Association has proposed and actively promoted the concept of “Stage 1.5 Prevention” for SCD. Stage 1.5 Prevention builds upon the internationally recognized indications for primary prevention by adding one of four major high-risk factors. This approach targets patients at extremely high risk, warranting heightened attention to prevent sudden cardiac death.

Leveraging the features of wearable automated external defibrillators (AEDs), Weiweisi Medical aims to support Tier 1.5 prevention of sudden cardiac death by providing devices to ultra-high-risk populations, enabling 24-hour ECG monitoring and ensuring patient safety through automatic defibrillation.By integrating wearable automated external defibrillators (W-AEDs) with Level 1.5 prevention of sudden cardiac death, survival rates among high-risk patients will be significantly improved, mortality from sudden cardiac death will be reduced, and both patient out-of-pocket medical expenses and health insurance expenditures will be decreased to a certain extent.

Zheng Jie stated, “The company plans to establish a data service platform for the management of ventricular arrhythmias by promoting and applying China’s first wearable automated external defibrillator (AED). It will also develop the world’s first sudden cardiac death risk assessment system, providing patients with arrhythmias with a comprehensive solution covering monitoring, prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation. Through this sudden cardiac death risk assessment system, Suzhou Weiweisi Medical Technology Co., Ltd. can transform the passive treatment of ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death into precision medicine that integrates prevention and control.”

In addition, Weiweisi has applied its defibrillation technology for malignant arrhythmias to meet the public need for sudden cardiac death prevention, launching an automated external defibrillator (AED) with fully independent intellectual property rights. This product emphasizes portability and reliability, enabling AEDs to play a more effective role in the prevention and treatment of sudden cardiac death.

(Images provided by the company)

As the lead investor in this round, Mr. Deng Feng, Founding Managing Partner of Northern Light Venture Capital, stated: “Northern Light has long focused on the prevention and treatment of sudden cardiac death. Given the large population of patients with coronary heart disease and heart failure in China, the number of patients at risk of developing malignant arrhythmias is continuously growing. Following the natural progression of the disease—from paroxysmal to permanent—we believe there is a substantial unmet need for short-term protective therapy among patients at potential risk during the early to middle stages of disease development. Northern Light prioritizes innovation- and technology-driven sectors. The wearable cardioverter defibrillator (WCD), through its innovative integration of defibrillation and wearable technologies, addresses significant unmet clinical needs and represents Northern Light’s further strategic expansion in the heart failure sector. The team at Suzhou Weiweisi Medical Technology Co., Ltd. has deep expertise in the field of cardiac defibrillation. With a foundation in Chinese clinical practice and an international perspective, combined with strong execution capabilities, the company is poised to become the first Chinese manufacturer to obtain regulatory approval for a domestically produced WCD. It is a platform enterprise with significant long-term growth potential. We look forward to the product’s timely market launch to save more lives.”

Northern Light Venture Capital was founded by Mr. Deng Feng in 2005, with the mission of “empowering world-class Chinese entrepreneurs and cultivating world-class Chinese enterprises.” It has long focused on investing in early-stage, technology-driven innovative companies, and to date has invested in nearly 400 outstanding enterprises across the TMT, advanced technology, and healthcare sectors. Northern Light Venture Capital entered the healthcare sector in 2009. Over the past decade-plus, its investments have spanned multiple sub-sectors including medical devices, in vitro diagnostics, biopharmaceuticals, healthcare services, and E-Health, covering virtually the entire industry value chain. The firm has invested in more than 60 companies, including CITIC Pharmaceutical, BGI Genomics, Burning Rock Biotech, Zeltz Therapeutics, iRay Technology, Taimei Medical Technology, Cytek Biosciences, Guoke Hengtai, Conatus Pharmaceuticals, Belief BioMed, Yidao Biology, Eastern Speech, and Cayody.

Bohua Capital is a professionally managed private equity investment firm operating on market-oriented principles, with a focus on investing in high-quality growth-stage companies in China. Its core team comprises former senior executives from top-tier equity investment institutions such as Hony Capital and KKR, boasting an average of nearly 15 years of domestic and international equity investment experience. The firm maintains effective policy communication channels, possesses extensive industrial resources, and delivers professional investment and financial services. Bohua Capital’s investment sectors include advanced manufacturing and healthcare. Its portfolio companies include Biocare Medical, Refire Energy, Eswin Computing, BYD Semiconductor, High Robotics, Bangcle Security, Qingteng Cloud Security, Xingchen Tianhe, and Feiang Innovation.

Shanghai Lanfan Changmai Enterprise Management Partnership (Limited Partnership) is a fund under Blue Sail Medical, an A-share listed company. The company has long experienced rapid development in the four major fields of medical protection, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health, minimally invasive surgery, and emergency care. This investment represents another strong effort by Lanfan Changmai to continuously incubate high-quality investment projects, reserve premium M&A targets, and accelerate the development of its core medical device business in line with the company’s strategic direction.