Kactus Biosystems Completes Series A Funding Round Led by SDIC Ventures with Strategic Investment from Biocytogen

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that on September 28, 2020, Kactus Biosystems announced the completion of its RMB 40 million Series A financing round, led by SDIC Venture Capital and participated in by Biocytogen. Kactus Biosystems (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., established in March 2018, is an international high-tech biotechnology company focused on technological innovation in protein and antibody-based solutions within the fields of immunotherapy and diagnostics.

Kactus Biosystems focuses on serving global clients in innovative drug R&D and cell therapy, providing CRO services based on structure-guided design of functional target proteins—particularly membrane proteins—as well as catalog products and protein/antibody raw materials for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Over the past two and a half years, Kactus Biosystems’ proprietary SAMS (Structure-Aided Design and Multiplex Screening) platform for the development and production of innovative functional recombinant proteins and antibodies has established business collaborations with more than 200 companies domestically and internationally engaged in innovative antibody drug development, cell therapy, and diagnostics. Leveraging its star products that address unmet market needs—including VLP superantigens, MHC multimer complexes, full-length transmembrane proteins Claudin18.2 and CD20, CD3 heterodimers, and a series of GPCR proteins—the company has become a well-known brand in the antigen protein market. Founded in 2018, Kactus Biosystems secured RMB 6 million in angel investment at its inception and completed a Pre-A round financing of tens of millions of RMB from Dehui Capital in early 2019.

Mr. Wang Gang, Co-founder and CEO of Kactus Biosystems, stated, “We are deeply honored by the participation and recognition of SDIC Venture Capital in this financing round. With its extensive investment experience in the biopharmaceutical sector, SDIC Venture Capital will support Kactus’s continuous capital investment for future development and facilitate our engagement with the capital markets. We are also particularly pleased to secure strategic investment from Biocytogen, which will foster future business synergies. Biocytogen’s global network of new drug R&D clients and channel resources will significantly contribute to the business growth of Kactus Biosystems. This financing round holds strategic significance for the company’s development. We will allocate these funds to the R&D of high-value protein products targeting antibody drugs and cell therapy, as well as to the establishment of a GMP production system, thereby further strengthening our core competitiveness.”

Ms. Wan Jin, Investment Director at SDIC Venture Capital, stated: “The founding team of Kactus Biosystems demonstrates strong execution capabilities and extensive industry experience. The company has independently developed an innovative antigen-antibody technology platform, with its product quality and services highly recognized by customers. Investing in Kactus Biosystems helps SDIC Venture Capital further refine its layout across the entire biopharmaceutical industry chain. In the future, SDIC Venture Capital will continue to support the company’s rapid development through financial and resource assistance.”

Dr. Shen Yuelei, Chairman and CEO of Biocytogen, stated, “We are highly optimistic about the management and technical teams at Kactus Biosystems, as well as the strategic collaboration opportunities between our two companies. Kactus Biosystems possesses strong technical capabilities in the design and development of difficult proteins, which, combined with its high-quality conventional antigen products, will accelerate the advancement of Biocytogen’s ‘Thousand Mice, Ten Thousand Antibodies’ program.”

Kactus Biosystems (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. is an innovative, R&D-driven international biotechnology high-tech company specializing in protein and antibody solutions for immunotherapy and diagnostics. Its founding team comprises scientists and business executives with many years of industry experience from world-class enterprises and research institutions. The company has established commercial collaborations with more than 200 innovative antibody drug developers, cell therapy companies, and IVD firms both domestically and internationally, achieving rapid growth in its technology platform and business scale. SAMS, which stands for Structure-Aided Design and Multiplex Screening, is Kactus Biosystems’ proprietary innovative platform for the development and manufacturing of functional recombinant proteins and antibodies. In 2019, Kactus Biosystems was recognized as a National High-Tech Enterprise. It operates a 1,500-square-meter R&D center and employs a technical team of 50 professionals at the Caohejing Development Zone in Pujiang Town, Shanghai.

SDIC Venture Capital was established in 2016 as a private equity fund management company specially set up by China State Development & Investment Corporation (SDIC) in accordance with market-oriented principles. It was founded to implement the national innovation-driven development strategy, deepen comprehensive strategic cooperation with the Ministry of Science and Technology, and accelerate the transfer and commercialization of national scientific and technological achievements. Through platforms such as the National Science and Technology Major Project Achievement Transformation Fund, the SDIC Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Scientific and Technological Achievement Transformation Fund, the SDIC High-Tech (Shenzhen) Venture Capital Fund, and the SDIC (Ningbo) Scientific and Technological Achievement Transformation Fund, SDIC Venture Capital consistently focuses on investment in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. It targets key sectors including advanced manufacturing, electronic information, biopharmaceuticals, and materials and energy, while aligning with national regional development strategies in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The firm is committed to continuously driving breakthroughs in independent innovation of core key technologies and building a robust investment ecosystem for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

Biocytogen is an international biotechnology company driven by innovative technologies for new drug development, committed to becoming a global source of novel therapeutics with the mission of benefiting patients worldwide. Leveraging its fully human antibody mouse platforms—RenMab, RenLite, and RenNano—which are independently developed and owned with complete intellectual property rights, Biocytogen has organically integrated its single-cell antibody discovery platform, efficient gene-edited model development platform, large-scale animal model supply platform, rapid in vivo and in vitro efficacy evaluation platform, and robust clinical development capabilities. This integration has established a distinctive new drug development system covering the entire R&D process. The company has successfully transformed into a Biotech enterprise and will focus more intensely on the development of innovative antibody drugs. With the implementation of its large-scale antibody drug R&D initiative, the “Thousand Mice, Ten Thousand Antibodies” program, Biocytogen will collaborate with global partners to accelerate new drug development. Headquartered in Beijing, Biocytogen has branches in Haimen (Jiangsu), Boston (USA), Shanghai, and other locations. Its wholly-owned subsidiary, Youhe Pharma, specializes in clinical development.