Fresh Air Path Secures Over RMB 100 Million in Series B Funding to Strengthen Leadership in Laboratory Air Control and Files IPO Prospectus

In September 2023, Wuxi Fresh Air Air Quality Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Fresh Air”) completed its Series B financing round of over RMB 100 million, led by Long Hill Capital, with participation from Lichen Investment, Wuxi Hi-Tech Venture Capital Co., Ltd., Guolian Investment, and Wuxi New District Technology Financial Venture Investment Group Co., Ltd. In early October, BGI Songhe also made a follow-on investment in the company, which was already its supplier.

Through this round of financing, Wuxi Fresh Air will further consolidate its leading position in the hospital and life sciences air environment control sector.

Fresh Air operates in a trillion-yuan market encompassing clinical medical laboratories, hospital airborne infection control zones, and the broader life sciences laboratory sector.According to reports, leveraging years of technological innovation and high-quality service, Fresh Air has expanded its user base across more than 90% of China’s provinces. Meanwhile, Fresh Air has secured the leading market share in China’s medical laboratory sector.

In the post-pandemic era, the healthy building market is experiencing rapid growth. The WELL Building Standard, proposed by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), is intensifying its market promotion efforts, and the market size for healthy living technology services has exceeded RMB 1.6 trillion. Consequently, Wuxi Fresh Air Air Quality Technology Co., Ltd. has extended its mature technologies, honed in medical institutions and life sciences environments, into the vast multi-trillion-dollar market of low-carbon and healthy buildings.

Chen Yongqiang, Founder and Chairman of Fresh Air, told VCBeat that following the completion of its Series B financing, the company has initiated its IPO plans. It will further increase investment in R&D and commercialization to accelerate technological innovation and the application of its products in the field of indoor air environments. Meanwhile, the company welcomes communications with more investment institutions to leverage capital market support for Fresh Air’s continued growth.

When it comes to reagents in hospitals, the names most familiar to the general public are alcohol, formalin, and the like.

Formalin possesses antiseptic, disinfecting, and bleaching properties, and is extensively used in hospital pathology laboratories for the preservation of biological specimens. However, formalin is essentially an aqueous solution of formaldehyde, which not only emits a pungent odor but is also classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as a known human carcinogen, posing risks to human health.

Prior to this, Chen Yongqiang had founded a medical software company that held considerable influence within the industry. In 2003, during a client visit, a pathologist complained to him, “If you could help us resolve the odors in the specimen processing room, it would be even more meaningful than developing software!”

It was this single statement from frontline medical staff that launched Wuxi Fresh Air’s “pioneering journey” in the hospital air environment control sector.It is worth noting that, in contrast to the continuous advancements in indoor air quality control in developed countries such as those in Europe and the United States, China did not begin using air conditioning in key departments of some large hospitals, along with simple exhaust fans and fume hoods, until the 1970s.

Based on dedicated, specialized development from 2003 to 2006 and over a hundred innovative iterations, Chen Yongqiang, a graduate of the Department of Physics at Wuhan University, spearheaded the development of a series of quality control products. Among these, the FPAQS system, through innovative product features and specialized design, reduced formaldehyde levels in hospital laboratory air from 0.5 mg/m³Reduced to 0.1 mg/m³³The following meets the quality standards for residential and office buildings.

With innovative products and high-quality services, Wuxi Fresh Air has garnered increasing attention and recognition from hospitals. Procurement demand initially emerged from top-tier (Grade III) hospitals in East China, such as Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital and Jiangsu Province People's Hospital, and has gradually expanded to nearly 1,000 graded hospitals across China.

Co-founders Chen Yonggang and Zhou Wen,Together with Chen Yongqiang, she has shared weal and woe for over a decade. In line with the company’s evolving needs, she has successively served as Sales Manager, Product Manager, Deputy General Manager, General Manager, Vice President, and President.

“Fresh Air’s ability to define industry standards for environmental control in the life sciences sector stems from its long-term accumulation of scientific research and technological development,” said Luo Jia, Chief Operating Officer of Fresh Air, in an interview with VCBeat.

As a company that has enshrined “sustained and steadfast technological innovation” in its corporate vision, it has actively integrated into the global innovation network over the past two decades since its establishment. In addition to its R&D centers in Wuxi and Foshan, China, the company has established an independent R&D center in Germany, accelerating the development of an open innovation ecosystem with global competitiveness.

The R&D team at Wuxi Fresh Air includes members of the scientific committees for international conferences such as Indoor Air, domain experts who contributed to the World Health Organization’s guidelines on “Natural Ventilation for Infection Control in Health Care Settings,” and some of Germany’s first certified passive house design engineers.A group of scientists and senior engineers specializing in heat transfer and fluid mechanics, indoor environment and health, and mechanical and electrical systems for ultra-low-energy buildings.

Leveraging its strong, interdisciplinary top-tier team’s deep expertise in innovative healthcare institutions and the life sciences sector, along with its substantial accumulation in product and system solutions, Wuxi Fresh Air currently holds over 100 independent intellectual property rights, has established a product portfolio comprising more than 100 items, and possesses core technological advantages in multiple related fields.

Specifically, the German R&D team of Wuxi Fresh Air Air Quality Technology Co., Ltd.Breakthroughs in Low-Temperature Plasma Precision Control Technology and Dynamic Derivative Algorithms Have Significantly Enhanced the Treatment Efficiency of Spatially Distributed Low-Concentration Chemical Pollutants; the globally leading "Time-Series Aerodynamics Laboratory" established in Wuxi,It enables trajectory tracking and velocity measurement of invisible microscopic particles and gas molecules, thereby facilitating quantitative analysis of the emission characteristics of bioaerosols and chemical pollutants, as well as evaluation of aerodynamic efficacy.

The company's 2022 IPOMulti-channel Bioaerosol Xenon Light Source Detector, simplifying the traditional lengthy detection cycle of air microbial aerosols—“sampling, submission for testing, and report issuance”—into a real-time detection and instant reporting model, thereby achieving multi-point real-time monitoring and early warning of environmental microbes.

At the end of last month, as appraised by the expert panel jointly organized by the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology and the Jiangsu Refrigeration Society,Wuxi Fresh Air’s independently developed “Cold Sail Radiant Air Conditioning System for Respiratory Disease Diagnosis and Treatment Environments” has reached an internationally leading level overall.

Chilled Beam Radiant Air Conditioning System

Comparison of Airflow Velocity Fields between Diffuser Heating (Left) and Cold Sail Radiant Air Conditioning Heating (Right) in Healthcare Facilities

After securing a leading position in the environmental control market for hospital pathology laboratories, Wuxi Fresh Air proceeded to conduct in-depth research into the environmental control improvement needs of five other hospital departments.Successfully developed products such as the ClabAir system, designed to improve environmental control indicators in hospital clinical laboratories and blood transfusion departments, and the GirFa-ICU air quality control system, designed to reduce infection rates in hospital intensive care units.These products have also successfully led the development path in China’s medical laboratories and hospital infection control environments.

GirFa-ICU Air Quality Control System for Improving Environmental Parameters in Hospital Intensive Care Units

As demand in the scientific research laboratory market continues to emerge, the management team of Wuxi Fresh Air has identified market opportunities in precision medicine and translational medicine within the field of life sciences research.Developed system products including a green laboratory animal environmental control system, a high-precision constant temperature and humidity environmental control system, and the Deph.X total heat exchange fresh air system.

Major life science research institutions, including the Chongqing Jinfeng Laboratory, BGI-Shenzhen, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Nanjing University’s Institute of Artificial Intelligence for Biomedicine, and Jiangsu Dingtai Pharmaceutical Research, have successively introduced Fresh Air’s system products and comprehensive solutions.

Upholding the corporate mission of “Fresh Air Smartly Creates Good Air,” Wuxi Fresh Air delivers its technical products to customers in accordance with the standard of “based on national standards, exceeding national standards.” “This is a true reflection of the company’s primary value among its nine core values—making customers more satisfied.”

Next, when discussing the meaning of the company’s name, Chen Yongqiang explained to VCBeat that,“‘Fresh Air’ is derived from our original aspiration—fresh air for you, representing the way of air and the foundation of life.”

References:

1. “Bright Moon Over Changling, New Ventures; Gentle Breeze Across Taihu, Feilan | Guolian New Ventures Helps a ‘Unicorn’ in the Medical Air Environment Control Sector Complete Series B Financing” Guolian New Ventures

2. “New Design Concepts for Fresh Air Radiant Air Conditioning in Hospital Infection Control” Doi:10.3969/j.issn.1671-9174.2020.09.018

3. “Insights from Nearly 30 Industry Experts: Analyzing Three Major Trends in the Billion-Dollar Smart Medical Laboratory Market” by Fan Xiaoyu, VCBeat

4. Fresh Air Official Website Information http://www.freshair-path.com/productscenter/sterilization/natur-o-fp/