Wallaby Medical Secures Hundreds of Millions in Series B+ Financing to Build Comprehensive Stroke Solutions and Gain Global Market Leadership

On August 11, VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) learned that Wallaby Medical (Shanghai Wallaby Medical Technology Co., Ltd.) announced the completion of its Series B+ financing round, amounting to hundreds of millions of RMB. The proceeds will primarily be used to accelerate the development of its global portfolio of treatments for hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke, deepen its market presence in overseas regions including Europe, the United States, Japan, and South America, and support two ongoing clinical trials, thereby laying a solid foundation for the regulatory approval and commercial launch of its hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke products in China in 2021.

It is reported that this round of financingLed by CITIC Medical Fund, with additional investments from existing institutional shareholders Maxing Investment, Qianhai Fund of Funds, and Chang’an Private Capital。

Wallaby Medical, established in 2016, is a medical technology company specializing in the field of neurointervention. It focuses on the research, development, and manufacturing of innovative products for the treatment of advanced vascular diseases internationally, with a commitment to saving more stroke patients’ lives and aiming to become a global leader in stroke treatment. Given the high incidence of stroke in Asia and China’s position as the largest market worldwide for stroke-related medical needs, the company headquartered its operations and production base in Shanghai Med Valley, China, from its inception, while also establishing a wholly-owned R&D subsidiary (R&D Center) in California, USA.

It is worth mentioning that Wallaby Medical’s“Wallaby Cerebral Aneurysm Embolization Coils” is the first and currently only neuroembolic interventional medical product in China to have received certifications from the U.S. FDA, the EU CE, and Japan’s PMDA., and was officially launched for sale in the United States in the second half of 2019. It has currently entered internationally renowned hospitals such as UCLA, Kaiser (Kaiser Permanente), Klinikum Stuttgart, and BHR Hospital, gaining recognition from top-tier international experts and hospitals. Regarding domestic registration, the company collaborates withBeijing Tiantan Hospital、Xuanwu Hospital、Huashan HospitalCollaborating with top-tier hospitals to conduct clinical trials, we are fully prepared to rapidly penetrate the domestic market.

Furthermore, as a company rooted in China with global ambitions, Wallaby Medical has assembled top-tier talent from around the world. Mr. Michael Alper, CEO of Wallaby, is multilingual in English, Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish. Having previously worked in Medtronic’s marketing department, he has accumulated extensive sales channel resources and established strong partnerships across the United States, Europe, South America, and Japan. The company boasts robust technical capabilities; its R&D Director, Earl F. Bardsley, brings 30 years of experience in interventional product development and is a recognized leader in the global neurovascular R&D field. He previously served as the head of interventional product R&D at major companies such as Medtronic, Boston Scientific, and MicroVention, demonstrating outstanding research and development expertise. The management team’s global perspective, combined with powerful R&D strength and early entry into European and American markets, has laid a solid foundation for Wallaby to become a globally leading neurointerventional company.

Intracranial coils represent a new generation of medical solutions and products that replace traditional therapies for patients with hemorrhagic stroke (intracranial aneurysms). They are essential implantable devices for interventional procedures and are classified as Class III medical devices, the highest regulatory category in China. Globally, the annual implantation volume of coils exceeds one million units, with the single-product market size surpassing RMB 10 billion.

Faced with a vast market valued in the tens of billions, Chinese companies began engaging in the research and development of intracranial coils several years ago. However, neurovascular interventional therapy demands ultra-high precision and minimal error margins, making it the most challenging vascular region in clinical medicine. This imposes extremely high requirements on product R&D, materials science, quality standards, and manufacturing processes. Domestic intracranial coils have relatively stiff delivery wires and coils, along with slow detachment mechanisms, resulting in a gap in quality and reliability compared to imported products. Consequently, the current localization rate remains below 10%.

Wallaby Medical, through persistent independent research and development, has launchedThe First Mechanically Detachable Coil, constructed by winding the industry’s finest platinum filaments and available in over one hundred specifications. It can be deployed with a simple folding maneuver, eliminating the need for an external detachment device. Key technical performance indicators—including conformability, basket formation reliability, softness of the finishing coil, detachment time, detachment reliability, and complication rate—meet or even surpass those of comparable international products, demonstrating excellent overall performance.

Notably, this mechanically detachable coil has obtained U.S. FDA clearance and European CE marking, as well as product registration certificates in Japan, Peru, Argentina, Israel, and other countries. Clinical trials have been completed in China, with follow-up currently underway. The overseas pricing of this coil is comparable to that of leading international brands such as Medtronic, and it has received positive clinical feedback. This signifies that Chinese-made coils have gained international recognition, positioning Wallaby Medical to take an early lead in the domestic substitution of interventional products for stroke treatment.

In addition to intracranial coils, Wallaby Medical has continuously pursued R&D innovation and launched“Thrombus Aspiration Catheter”Thrombectomy aspiration catheters are widely recognized within the industry as the most challenging catheters to manufacture, demanding exceptionally high standards for kink resistance, inner lumen coating, and trackability. Unlike other domestic neurointerventional companies that have concentrated on stent retriever products, Wallaby Medical has chosen to focus on aspiration catheters, which represent the highest technical barrier. Wallaby Medical stated, “Aspiration catheters offer greater convenience for clinicians during procedures and demonstrate superior reliability, applicability, and efficacy. They are already considered the future trend in mechanical thrombectomy. Currently, 80% of device-based treatments for ischemic stroke in the U.S. market utilize aspiration catheters as the first-line approach. Aspiration catheters are significantly more complex than stent retrievers in terms of product development, requiring more precise quality control standards and specialized manufacturing technologies. Based on our confidence in the company’s R&D and production capabilities, Wallaby has chosen to enter this sector first—a field with the greatest market potential but also widely acknowledged as the most challenging.”

Wallaby Medical’s intracranial thrombus aspiration catheter is a single-lumen, uniform-diameter composite catheter featuring softness and gradient stiffness. With a large lumen (0.071") and the smallest outer diameter among similar domestic products, it delivers ultra-compliant delivery and proximal maneuverability, achieving international leading performance in both aspiration flow rate and tip aspiration force.

Currently, Wallaby Medical’s intracranial thrombus aspiration catheter is under application for U.S. FDA and CE certification, while clinical trials in China have already commenced at institutions such as Xuanwu Hospital. As another flagship product from Wallaby Medical, the intracranial thrombus aspiration catheter enriches the company’s portfolio of neurointerventional devices and significantly enhances Wallaby Medical’s technological capabilities and brand image.

In terms of product portfolio, Wallaby Medical has established a comprehensive lineup covering ischemic, hemorrhagic, and access devices. With more blockbuster products to be launched in the future, the company aims to deliver world-leading endovascular neurointerventional solutions to patients both in China and abroad.

China is one of the countries with the highest incidence of stroke in the world, and the incidence rate continues to rise year by year. The number of stroke patients and the mortality rate per 100,000 people in China have surpassed those of cardiovascular diseases. It is projected that the number of stroke patients in China will reach 31.77 million by 2030. Neurointervention is a crucial component of interventional medicine; due to the high complexity and broad scope of diagnosis and treatment within cerebral blood vessels, it is hailed as the "crown jewel" of interventional procedures. The neurointervention industry is developing rapidly, with the domestic market size expected to exceed RMB 30 billion by 2025. However, this market remains dominated by foreign companies, with the localization rate for both hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke products standing at less than 10%.

Fortunately, as a domestic brand, Wallaby Medical has achieved rapid growth and overtaken competitors despite its relatively short history. Its product development directly targets the latest international frontiers, and its neurointerventional products have gained widespread recognition from experts both domestically and internationally. “The U.S. market is very ‘honest,’ with extremely high requirements for technology and product quality. The successful entry of Wallaby’s products into the U.S. market is sufficient to demonstrate their technological advancement and quality consistency,” Wallaby Medical told VCBeat. “We currently collaborate with more than ten clinical hospitals in China. Experts who have used our products state that they are comparable to imported alternatives, with superior detachment mechanisms, and they express strong anticipation for the regulatory approval and market launch of Wallaby’s products.”

Wallaby Medical’s vision is to save more stroke patients. Driven by this vision, the company is committed to developing the world’s best stroke care products. Based on its current product commercialization progress, Wallaby Medical has achieved phased success: it has completed the initial product launch in European and American markets and gained recognition from the international community. The company expects to obtain domestic registration approval in 2021 and subsequently enter the Chinese market. Leveraging extensive overseas clinical data accumulation and validation, the company will enjoy a first-mover advantage in China. By rapidly capturing the domestic market, Wallaby Medical will utilize internationally advanced technologies and R&D philosophies to establish itself as an enterprise with global R&D and manufacturing capabilities, ultimately benefiting stroke patients in China and worldwide.

Regarding the securing of this round of financing,Michael Alper, Founder and CEO of Wallaby Medical“The participation of both new and existing investors has greatly bolstered our enthusiasm for the R&D of clinical products. This also demonstrates their sincere endorsement of our corporate philosophy of being rooted in China and serving the world. Our team will remain committed to technological and product innovation. We are confident in becoming a global leader in providing comprehensive solutions for stroke care.”

Ms. Cai Hua, General Manager of CITIC Medical Fund, has over 20 years of experience in operations, investment and financing, and M&A integration within the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. She stated“Stroke is a disease with high incidence and disability rates in China, imposing a significant burden on both patients and society. Neurointervention represents another highly promising market for medical devices, following coronary intervention. Wallaby Medical has established a comprehensive product portfolio in neurointervention to address both hemorrhagic and ischemic strokes, making it a key focus area for our fund. As the pinnacle of passive medical devices, neurointerventional products rely heavily on technology and quality as the core of a company’s competitiveness. We value Wallaby’s technological expertise and its commitment to excellence in product quality. The high acclaim from leading experts at top-tier hospitals in both China and the United States has given us strong confidence that Wallaby can become a global leader in the field of neurointervention.”

Li Xin, Managing Director of Maixing Investment“Maixing Investment has maintained a close focus on the field of implantable and interventional consumables. Over the past two years, as a board member, we have witnessed Wallaby Medical’s significant growth in the neurointerventional sector. Both its clinical product advancements and commercialization progress demonstrate the qualities of an innovative enterprise leading the industry. Notably, it is impressive that the company’s products have become the first domestically developed neurointerventional consumables to achieve large-scale real-world clinical application in developed overseas markets, garnering highly positive medical feedback. We remain optimistic about Wallaby Medical team’s leading advantages in the neurointerventional field and continue to increase our investment.”

Wallaby Medical is an innovative medical device platform company based in China with a global footprint, specializing in the field of neurointervention. It is dedicated to the development and commercialization of medical devices for the treatment of stroke. Wallaby Medical’s first product, Wallaby Avenir^TMThe coil system is a highly differentiated neuroembolization coil system for the treatment of intracranial aneurysms and other neurovascular abnormalities, becoming one of the first domestically produced coil products sold in the United States. The company also adopts a global perspective in its layout in the field of neurointervention, Avenir^TMIt has obtained U.S. FDA 510(k) clearance, EU CE certification, and approval from Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA), and is currently commercially available in more than 12 countries and regions.

Wallaby Medical’s thrombectomy catheter has initiated the FDA registration process, while several other high-tech new products are currently under continuous development.

CITIC Medical Fund is CITIC’s equity investment management platform focused on the pharmaceutical and broader healthcare sector, dedicated to building an enabling pharmaceutical industry fund with deep capabilities in industry consolidation. Its core team comprises industry experts with extensive operational experience at multinational pharmaceutical companies and financial experts with deep expertise in the finance sector.

Maixing Investment currently manages four RMB-denominated funds and one USD-denominated fund, with its investment focus primarily on the consumer, healthcare, and technology sectors. Maixing Investment boasts an independent industry research team and has dedicated its investment and research efforts to a select few specialized fields for over a decade. Leveraging profound insights into the essence of business and industry dynamics, the firm has consistently delivered superior investment returns within the industry. Maixing Investment has integrated ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) principles into its corporate framework, striving to become a respected professional investment institution.

The Qianhai Equity Investment Fund of Funds was successfully established in December 2015, with a current fundraising scale of RMB 28.5 billion. The fund management company is registered under the name “Qianhai Ark Asset Management Co., Ltd.” with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. The successful establishment of the Qianhai Fund of Funds marks the completion of the fourth task among the eight financial innovation initiatives for the Qianhai zone mandated by the State Council. As the largest commercially raised fund of funds in China, it also holds the record for the largest single-fund raising size among venture capital and private equity funds in the country. The Qianhai Fund of Funds brings together influential domestic limited partners (LPs) with substantial strength and interactive resources, primarily falling into four categories: government entities, insurance and financial institutions, well-known enterprises and listed companies, and high-achieving individuals.

Chang’an Private Capital is an investment institution that conducts domestic and overseas equity investments using its own capital in both RMB and foreign currencies. It focuses on low-risk, high-return, market-oriented investment opportunities in small and medium-sized private Chinese enterprises that exhibit endogenous high-growth potential and the capacity to become industry leaders. With 15 years of accumulated investment experience and insights, the firm has achieved an 80% profitable exit rate across its portfolio of 30 invested companies. Among these, ten have successfully listed on either the A-share market or overseas exchanges, including Walvax Biotechnology (300142), Org Technology (SZ: 002701), Chaowei Power Holdings (HK: 00951), Longping High-Tech (SZ: 000998), Zhongju High-Tech (SH: 600872), Qiyuan Electromechanical (300140), and West China Cement (HK: 02233). Additionally, two other portfolio companies are currently in the process of listing on the A-share market.