Wisonic Medical Secures RMB 40 Million Series A Funding Led by Yida Capital to Advance Next-Gen Clinical Ultrasound Innovation

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that Shenzhen Wisonic Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (“Wisonic Medical”) recently completed its Series A financing round, raising nearly RMB 40 million. The round was led by Jiangsu Yida Capital. According to reports, the funds will primarily be used to advance the development of new products and expand business in emerging markets.

Shenzhen Wisonic Medical Technology Co., Ltd. was established in March 2013 and is headquartered in Nanshan District, Shenzhen. As a medical device company specializing in the ultrasound visualization niche, Wisonic Medical is dedicated to the research, development, and manufacturing of high-end ultrasound products, as well as the promotion of ultrasound visualization technology. Its business scope now encompasses three series of products and solutions: life information support, intelligent ultrasound imaging, and cloud-based medical services.

Driven by a philosophy of continuous innovation and R&D, as well as the team’s strong scientific research capabilities, Wisonic Medical was recognized as a National High-Tech Enterprise in 2015. In 2017, it was approved to undertake the Ministry of Science and Technology’s major R&D special project on “Optical-Acoustic Multimodal Tumor Molecular Fingerprint Imaging,” and listed on the New Third Board (NEEQ) in the same year, ushering in a new chapter of development.

Regarding this financing round, Xue Yi, Partner at Yida Capital, stated, “It is a great honor to participate in this round of investment in Wisonic Medical. Mr. Li Yonggang and his team constitute an ‘all-star lineup,’ distinguished by their outstanding professional expertise, complementary strengths, and clear, focused strategy. Our confidence in this assessment has been further reinforced through extensive and in-depth discussions. Yida Capital has long been committed to research and investment in the broader healthcare sector, and our investment in Wisonic Medical will further strengthen Yida’s strategic positioning in the field of perioperative medical visualization technology. Adhering to the philosophy of value investing, Yida Capital focuses on leading enterprises in niche industries from a long-term perspective, seeking out the best teams and helping them build sustainable competitive advantages through investment. We look forward to Wisonic Medical seizing development opportunities, solidifying its technological barriers, and achieving greater success through this financing round.”

When discussing the advantages of Wisonic Medical, Lu Mingliang, a project leader at Yida Capital, believes that they can be summarized in three words: “Strong Team, Focused Direction, Leading Technology”。

Li Yonggang, founder of Wisonic Medical, is one of the few entrepreneurs in the industry with dual experience as a hospital director and a corporate executive. The core founding team members also have an average of over 15 years of industry experience, possessing deep insights into the industry and its development trends.

Li Yonggang (center), founder of Wisonic Medical, and his team

At a time when ultrasound-guided clinical anesthesia had not yet gained widespread adoption in China, Li Yonggang and his team leveraged their more than ten years of experience in the medical device industry to target this market with significant growth potential. Adhering to the philosophy of “specialized solutions for specific specialties, professional focus and dedication,” they have continuously developed innovative, clinically applicable ultrasound products based on customer needs.

“Many companies are manufacturing medical ultrasound devices, but the market is currently plagued by serious homogenization. In contrast, there are very few players focusing on specialized clinical niches, which presents our opportunity,” said Li Yonggang in an interview with VCBeat. “Leveraging our years of accumulated expertise and technology in medical ultrasound, we start from user needs to refine specialty-specific clinical ultrasound visualization products to perfection. This is akin to discovering a niche blue ocean within the fiercely competitive red ocean, thereby opening up new horizons.”

In addition to exploring the niche field of ultrasound visualization, Shenzhen Wisonic Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (Wisonic) demonstrated forward-thinking leadership during its initial equipment R&D phase. Despite hardware limitations at the time, the General Manager insisted on equipping the company’s products with wireless connectivity to facilitate telemedicine through real-time image transmission. Today, Wisonic’s cloud-based remote ultrasound technology not only reduces unnecessary patient transfers and saves patients time and costs but also meets the teaching needs of medical experts, with transmitted image quality far exceeding national standards.

After years of exploration and hard work, Wisonic Medical now has a total workforce of more than 200 employees, including a mature research team of over 60 members.

As a company mastering core color Doppler ultrasound technologies, Wisonic Medical initially did not choose the easiest mid-to-low-end desktop color Doppler ultrasound market, but instead delved into the clinical point-of-care (POC) ultrasound niche. This field has high technical and user barriers, but precisely because of this, Wisonic Medical successfully avoided price wars associated with homogeneous products.

According to statistics from third-party research firms, the global market size for medical ultrasound equipment reached RMB 50 billion in 2019. Driven by factors such as population aging, rising healthcare expenditures, and technological advancements, the global medical ultrasound market is projected to maintain a steady growth rate of approximately 8% over the next decade. In terms of application areas, emergency and critical care ultrasound, anesthesia and pain management ultrasound, and rehabilitation musculoskeletal ultrasound exhibit the highest compound annual growth rates (CAGR), each exceeding 15%. This indicates that ultrasound, as a widely recognized tool, is showing a clear trend toward specialized applications across various clinical departments.

Over the past six years since its inception, Wisonic Medical has remained focused on niche clinical markets, adhering to a user-needs-driven approach to continuously innovate and develop specialty-specific ultrasound products. To date, the company has launched several industry-leading ultrasound systems, including the “Four-Leaf Clover,” the lightest portable color Doppler ultrasound with dual-probe interfaces in the industry; the “Compass,” the industry’s first specialty-specific anesthesia ultrasound system; and the “Navigator,” a specialty-specific ultrasound system designed specifically for the musculoskeletal rehabilitation segment.

Furthermore, Wisonic Medical launched the industry’s first AI-powered anesthesia ultrasound system, “Beidou,” in 2019. With the upcoming release in 2020 of “Clivia,” a dedicated point-of-care ultrasound system for radiology departments, and a specialized ultrasound system for emergency and critical care (model to be determined), Wisonic has initially completed its product portfolio layout for clinical specialty ultrasound after years of focused breakthroughs.

Such achievements are inseparable from Wisonic Medical’s in-depth research into the industry. Li Yonggang told VCBeat, “To understand the true needs of anesthesiologists, our product managers first conducted on-site observations in anesthesia departments for several consecutive months. This allowed us to clearly identify what doctors truly need and what they do not, thereby enabling us to gain a deep understanding of the industry’s pain points.”

Meanwhile, while developing cutting-edge ultrasound products, Shenzhen Wisonic Medical Technology Co., Ltd. has also launched the “Dandelion Initiative” to popularize ultrasound visualization technology. Through hospital-enterprise collaborations, the company jointly establishes regional anesthesia ultrasound visualization training centers, fostering “self-sustaining capabilities” and “long-term mechanisms” that enable ultrasound visualization technology to spread rapidly, much like dandelion seeds. It is reported that Shenzhen Wisonic Medical Technology Co., Ltd. has established more than 60 joint training bases for new ultrasound visualization technologies under the “Dandelion Initiative” at renowned hospitals both in China and worldwide.

It is precisely due to its long-term focus on niche segments that Wisonic Medical has become one of the leading enterprises in the specialized field of clinical ultrasound.

In addition to conventional product R&D, Shenzhen Wisonic Medical Technology Co., Ltd. has established an independent technical R&D team encompassing cloud technology and AI big data to advance the digital transformation of its business operations.

When 3G technology was first being deployed, the team at Shenzhen Wisonic Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (Wisonic) began R&D preparations for cloud-based product solutions. Today, through strategic partnerships with the three major telecom carriers, Wisonic’s cloud platform enables remote ultrasound technology to seamlessly integrate with 5G networks, connecting ultrasound specialists and patients separated by thousands of kilometers.

According to the company, the technology known as the “Wisonic 5G Air Clinic” has recently been selected for both the Joint Achievement Exhibition organized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Health Commission, and the Shenzhen “Digital Government” 5G Achievement Exhibition. It has also been recognized by AUDT magazine as a benchmark demonstration brand for global 5G ultrasound.

Moreover, Huasheng Medical leads its peers in the research and development of AI technology. The company’s “Beidou” system, built on artificial intelligence, is the first ultrasound instrument to achieve AI-based automatic recognition of standard planes directly on the host console, marking a pioneering advancement in the industry.

Regarding this financing round, Li Yonggang, founder of Wisonic Medical, stated in an interview with VCBeat: “This financing marks Wisonic Medical’s first large-scale strategic funding round, placing the company at a new starting point. We are honored to partner with Yida Capital, which will provide greater momentum and reinforce our sense of responsibility for the company’s development. In the future, Wisonic Medical will continue to adhere to its user-need-oriented product development philosophy, deliver specialized value propositions tailored to specific clinical disciplines, and continuously launch superior products and solutions that better meet user needs, thereby advancing traditional healthcare toward precise disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. The Wisonic Medical team is confident in this vision!”

Yida Capital was established through a mixed-ownership reform within the Jiangsu High-Tech Investment Group, a well-established and renowned venture capital firm. It ranks among the industry leaders in terms of industry research capabilities, assets under management (AUM), and investment specialization, making it one of the most influential venture capital institutions in China. As of the end of November 2019, Yida Capital’s management team had overseen a cumulative AUM of RMB 106.6 billion, invested in and supported more than 800 startups, and helped 175 of these companies list on domestic and international capital markets.

Yida Capital advocates for full-industry-chain investment, with fund products covering enterprises at the start-up, growth, and mature stages. Its investment sectors encompass the health industry, clean technology, advanced manufacturing, new materials, consumer services, the cultural industry, and TMT (Technology, Media, and Telecom). Notably, Yida Capital has maintained an outstanding investment track record in the broader health industry. Over the past three years, it has consecutively won awards such as “Annual Chinese Venture Capital Institution,” “Best Chinese Venture Capital Institution,” “Most Competitive Venture Capital Institution,” “Excellent Achievement Award for Outstanding Venture Capital Institutions,” and “Forbes Top 10 Best Venture Capital Firms” in prestigious rankings by Zero2IPO Group, Investment China, Securities Times, and the China Venture Capital Association, firmly securing its position among the top tier of domestic venture capital firms.