Quantibio Secures RMB 30 Million Series A Funding to Advance Microbiome Technology R&D and Application

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that on December 29, 2017, Beijing Quantified Health Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Quantified Health”) announced the completion of its Series A financing round, raising RMB 30 million. The funds raised will be primarily used for technology translation and product development in the field of evidence-based medicine, continued research and development of its metagenomic information technology platform and experimental technology platform, and the construction of a human commensal microbial strain library platform.

Quantified Health, established in April 2014, is a National High-Tech Enterprise and a Zhongguancun High-Tech Enterprise. It is the first company in China dedicated to the research, development, and translational application of technologies related to the human microbiome, committed to exploring the relationship between human symbiotic microorganisms and human disease and health, and developing corresponding solutions.

Current scientific consensus holds that the human symbiotic microbiome constitutes the body’s “second genome,” with gut microbiota accounting for more than 70% of the total human microbial load. Research over the past decade has demonstrated that gut microbiota are closely interconnected with the digestive, immune, nervous, and circulatory systems. Dysregulation of human metabolism, inflammation, and bacterial translocation resulting from microbiota-mediated effects on these four systems have been linked to a wide range of chronic systemic diseases, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, depression, cerebrovascular disease, cardiovascular disease, Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), autoimmune disorders, and allergies.

Currently, Quantified Health has established research-level collaborations with numerous renowned Grade 3A hospitals. These collaborations cover a wide range of disease areas, including cardiovascular diseases, gastrointestinal disorders, neurological conditions, and chronic metabolic diseases. Committed to rigorous preliminary research, Quantified Health evaluates the potential for clinical translation by considering multiple factors such as the correlation between gut microbiota and diseases, current diagnostic challenges, costs associated with diagnosis and treatment, and patient population size. Leveraging industrializable technological approaches, the company develops products for early screening, diagnosis, or intervention based on microbiome signatures. At present, several product pipelines have entered the feasibility study and analysis phase.

QuantHealth’s independently developed Knowledge Base platform is a bioinformatics analysis platform focused on human microbiome metagenomics. The Knowledge Base fundamentally addresses the challenge of organizing metagenomic data, enabling automation of the entire workflow from sequencing to data output. Gene analysis and machine learning pipelines, specifically designed for the characteristics of metagenomics, facilitate rapid and efficient analysis of metagenomic data and support the construction of statistical models tailored for associating different microbial communities with phenotypic traits. Furthermore, by continuously collecting sample data, QuantHealth will establish a high-quality, interoperable metagenomic database with detailed phenotypic information on its Knowledge Base platform.

On the other hand, LinEnrich™ is currently the only known quantitative detection technology applicable to target regions in metagenomics. This technology enables targeted, high-accuracy, reproducible, and cost-effective microbial metagenomic testing, preserving the original abundance information of target sequences without PCR amplification. Currently, the development of the LinEnrich™ technical prototype has been completed, and this technology can be employed to develop diagnostic kits for products with well-defined targets. QuantHealth has filed patent applications for the core technological components of the LinEnrich™ technology.

In 2018, Quantified Health will establish the first human commensal microbial strain bank based on the Chinese population, both domestically and internationally. The initial phase aims to create a repository of 50,000 intestinal microbial strains from healthy individuals, along with a phage library for key strains. Beyond the physical preservation of valuable strains through cultivation, isolation, and multi-condition storage, the bank will simultaneously archive protein fingerprint profiles and whole-genome functional sequence data for each strain at the informational level. Leveraging this human microbiome resource, comprehensive research can be conducted on strain-level variations and their functional correlations, as well as on human microbial population structures, enabling population genetic analysis and source tracing. In terms of applications, the strain bank offers potential for diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic interventions in diseases associated with the human microbiome, facilitating multifaceted collaborations with government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, probiotic manufacturers, hospitals, and other stakeholders.

Quantified Health has completed the first phase of construction for its strain bank laboratory and officially commenced trial operations in December. Quantified Health has reached a strategic cooperation intention with Autobio Diagnostics (Zhengzhou) Co., Ltd. The two parties will engage in in-depth collaboration in areas such as the establishment of a new mass spectrometry database for microbial strains and the digitization of microbial resource data, including bacteria and viruses.

In October 2015, Quantified Health completed its Pre-A financing round of RMB 20 million, led by Beijing Dingxing Venture Capital Co., Ltd., which is managed by General Technology Venture Capital Co., Ltd.

The company’s current round of financing was led by Qingdao Tsinghua Holdings Jinxin Blue Microbiology Venture Capital Center, with follow-on investments from BGI Genomics Co., Ltd. and Yunnan Dianshang Equity Investment Fund Management Co., Ltd. Qingdao Tsinghua Holdings Jinxin Blue Microbiology Venture Capital Center is China’s first microbiology-focused fund, jointly established by Beijing Tsinghua Holdings Jinxin Investment Management Co., Ltd. and the Blue Economic Zone Industrial Investment Fund. In alignment with the “13th Five-Year Plan for Bioindustry Development,” the fund strategically positions itself in the microbiome industry, aiming to become a leading investment vehicle in the microbiome sector and drive the development of China’s microbiome industry.