Crystal Pharmatech Secures Over RMB 100 Million in Series B Funding to Expand Its Drug Polymorph R&D Platform

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that on December 25, 2018, Suzhou Crystal Pharma Technology Co., Ltd. (“Crystal Pharma”) announced the completion of its Series B financing round, raising over RMB 100 million. The round was led by Shiyu Capital, with participation from Cowin Capital and Yuanhe Origin. This funding will support Crystal Pharma in further deepening and expanding its presence in the drug development sector, providing professional, reliable, and high-quality drug development solutions and services centered on pharmaceutical crystal form research to customers of innovative and generic drugs both in China and abroad. This will help clients successfully develop high-quality medicines, enabling patients to access better treatments sooner.

Previously, Crystal Pharmatech completed a $10 million Series A financing round in September 2015, with Renren Inc. as the investor.

Crystal Pharmatech, founded in 2010 and headquartered in the BioBAY (Suzhou Industrial Park Biopharmaceutical Innovation Park), has established R&D centers in Beijing, New Jersey (USA), and Toronto (Canada). As China’s first technology-driven company specializing in drug polymorph research and development, Crystal Pharmatech adheres to the philosophy of achieving win-win cooperation with its clients. After more than eight years of dedicated cultivation and growth, the company has emerged as one of the global leaders in the field of drug polymorph R&D.

To date, Crystal Pharmatech has established collaborations with more than 500 pharmaceutical companies worldwide, providing crystal form research and development solutions and services for over 1,000 new drug compounds. In the field of innovative drugs, its clients include 14 of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies and more than half of China’s small-molecule innovative drug R&D enterprises. In the generic drug sector, Crystal Pharmatech partners with internationally leading generic drug manufacturers, leveraging its proprietary platform for new crystal form development and industrialization. By offering technical solutions for the development of first-to-file generics in the United States and China, the company helps pharmaceutical firms bring generic drugs to market earlier, ensuring patients gain timely access to high-quality medications.

Cao Jian, Founding Partner of Shiyu Capital, the lead investor in this round, stated, "Shiyu's investment strategy is to identify and support leading companies and the best founders in niche sectors. Crystal Pharma is a leader in crystal form drug R&D in China, with a business model that is unique within the industry. China's new drug R&D is in a golden era. As an upstream platform for new drug development, Crystal Pharma leverages its core technologies to help pharmaceutical companies worldwide accelerate their R&D processes, improve clinical performance, shorten development cycles, increase approval rates, and establish comprehensive patent protection barriers. Meanwhile, Crystal Pharma boasts a world-class technical team and has a clear strategic vision. As a professional investment institution in the healthcare sector, Shiyu will provide full support in terms of capital and resources, helping Crystal Pharma become an outstanding technology-driven enterprise centered on creating long-term value."

Shiyu Capital is a private equity firm specializing in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. Guided by its investment philosophy of “industry-rooted, innovative, professional, and focused,” Shiyu empowers traditional pharmaceutical companies to achieve product upgrades and helps innovative pharmaceutical enterprises enhance their industrialization and commercialization capabilities. Adopting the strategy of “strategically positioning across therapeutic areas, seizing product innovation, and tapping into consumption upgrades,” Shiyu actively invests in biopharmaceuticals, healthcare services, contract research organizations (CROs), and pharmaceutical retail. The firm currently boasts a professional team of over 30 members dedicated to investment and operational management, with assets under management exceeding RMB 5 billion.

Cowin Capital is one of the longest-established and most active domestic professional investment firms in China. Since its founding 18 years ago, the company has successfully invested in over 370 enterprises through more than ten RMB and USD funds, including the Nanhai Growth series, with 58 portfolio companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and China’s A-share market. Headquartered in Shenzhen, Cowin Capital has established branches, subsidiaries, and representative offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Anhui, Sichuan, Shaanxi, and other regions. Highly recognized by its peers, the firm has ranked among the Top 10 Chinese domestic venture capital institutions by Zero2IPO Group for eight consecutive years.

Cowin Capital’s Healthcare and Medical Sector has successfully invested in over 80 pharmaceutical companies, including eight listed firms such as Beta Pharma, Innovent Biologics, Kangchen Pharmaceutical, BGI Group, and Da An Gene. The firm adheres to a strategy that combines early-stage and mature-stage investments, with extensive coverage across biotechnology, new drugs, medical devices, in vitro diagnostics (IVD), and healthcare services, particularly focusing on niche segments such as biotechnology, novel therapeutics, CROs and CDMOs, and medical devices. Upholding the philosophy of “Partnering with Innovative Enterprises,” Cowin Capital looks forward to collaborating with more outstanding entrepreneurs and scientists to co-create the future.

Yuanhe Origin, a member of Yuanhe Holdings, is a professionally managed early-stage equity investment platform operating on market-oriented principles. It focuses primarily on investment opportunities in startups and growth-stage enterprises within the healthcare and TMT (Technology, Media, and Telecom) sectors. Yuanhe Origin has accumulated extensive experience and established strong brand influence in the healthcare sector.