NuoHui Health Secures $66 Million Series C Funding, Gains Strong Endorsement from International Investors
On May 24, 2019, Hangzhou New Horizon Health Technology Co., Ltd. announced that it had completed its Series C financing round, securing a total of USD 66 million in overseas investment—the largest single investment to date in China’s early cancer screening sector. As a leader in cancer screening services in China, New Horizon Health is committed to reducing cancer incidence and mortality through biotechnological innovations, promoting the widespread adoption of early cancer screening among households. Its outstanding scientific research capabilities and market expansion prowess have gained extensive recognition from international investors.
This round of financing was led by VMS Group, with participation from Legend Capital, SoftBank China, Qiming Venture Partners, Sherpa Capital, Duke University Management Company (DUMAC), Acorn Pacific Ventures, Yimei Capital, and MAJUVEN. Credit Suisse served as the exclusive financial advisor. This marks New Horizon Health’s third round of financing since its establishment six years ago. In January 2016, New Horizon Health completed its Series A financing, raising $15 million from investors including Legend Capital, SoftBank China, and Pudu Technology. In August 2017, the company closed its Series B financing, led by Qiming Venture Partners, with follow-on investments from Legend Capital, SoftBank China, and Pudu Technology, totaling $20 million. Through these three rounds of financing, New Horizon Health has cumulatively secured over $100 million in investment.
New Horizon Health Founding Team
Zhu Yeqing, CEO of New Horizon Health, stated, “Our mission is to detect precancerous lesions and early-stage cancers through innovative biotechnological approaches, thereby helping to reduce cancer incidence and mortality rates. By continuously developing new technologies and products, we aim to deliver cancer screening products and services with greater clinical value and better patient compliance to China and the world at large. We are delighted to have more investors joining us in this shared endeavor.”
Wu Zhaowei, Managing Director of Dingpei Investment Group, representing the investors in this funding round, stated, “We are honored to participate in this investment and strongly endorse New Horizon Health’s development strategy. Over the past two years, the New Horizon Health team has achieved milestone progress in scientific research and clinical applications. The exceptional performance demonstrated by its products and technologies is truly inspiring. We believe that New Horizon Health will achieve significant success in the cancer early screening market. We look forward to working with New Horizon Health to continuously strive toward reducing cancer incidence and mortality rates globally.”
New Horizon Health is currently focused on the research and development of early screening technologies for colorectal cancer and lung cancer. It has successively launched a series of at-home early screening products for colorectal cancer, as well as the world’s first approved sputum-based auxiliary diagnostic technology for lung cancer.
“ColoClear” is the first home-based early screening service product launched by New Horizon Health in 2015, specifically targeting colorectal cancer in the Chinese population. By analyzing genetic material in stool (multi-target FIT-DNA), “ColoClear” can detect advanced adenomas and colorectal cancer lesions larger than 1 centimeter in diameter, timely identify early-stage gene mutations associated with colorectal cancer, and provide a simple and feasible solution for early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of colorectal cancer. “PooPipe” is a fecal occult blood self-test kit jointly developed and launched by New Horizon Health and the Cancer Institute of Zhejiang University in 2016. As the world’s first product of its kind, it rapidly gained market recognition upon launch due to its convenient and rapid testing method and superior technical performance, and has been widely adopted by the National Cancer Center, professional medical institutions, and pharmacies. These two early colorectal cancer screening technologies have also been strongly recommended by nearly one hundred authoritative experts in China. In 2018, they were included in the “Expert Consensus on Early Diagnosis and Screening Strategies for Colorectal Tumors in China” and the “Expert Consensus on Standards for Cancer Prevention Physical Examinations,” becoming officially recommended methods for early cancer diagnosis and screening in China.
“Fei Zheng Qing” is a sputum-based molecular detection technology independently developed by New Horizon Health for the field of lung cancer. In June 2017, it was approved by the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) as a Class III in vitro diagnostic reagent for the auxiliary diagnosis of lung cancer. Consequently, “Fei Zheng Qing” became the world’s first approved sputum-based technology for the auxiliary diagnosis of lung cancer. By performing qualitative detection of messenger RNA (mRNA) for the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) gene in exfoliated cells from sputum, “Fei Zheng Qing” enhances the precision of early lung cancer diagnosis and facilitates rapid confirmation for individuals with positive pulmonary nodules, serving as an efficient auxiliary diagnostic tool for early-stage lung cancer.
New Horizon Health’s continuous breakthroughs and innovations in products and technology have filled numerous gaps in China’s early cancer screening market. As a result, the company has been invited to participate in multiple national-level frontier academic projects, such as the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Innovation Engineering Project “Research on New Technologies and Protocols for Colorectal Cancer Screening and Intervention,” and the Ministry of Science and Technology’s National Key Special Project “Randomized Controlled Trials and Prospective Cohort Studies on Multi-center Screening for Lung Cancer and Colorectal Cancer.” Furthermore, New Horizon Health has established comprehensive and in-depth academic collaborations with leading industry institutions, including the China Cancer Foundation, the National Cancer Center, and the Chinese Medical Doctor Association.
Zhu Yeqing stated: “Upon the completion of this financing round, the company will further increase its R&D investment, expand its product portfolio, and enhance its market expansion capabilities, striving to bring more high-quality scientific achievements from the laboratory to the market, thereby benefiting households across the nation.”