Alioth Bio Secures Nearly RMB 100 Million Series A+ Financing to Advance Membrane Filtration Innovation for Pharmaceutical Processes

VCBeat has learned that Alioth Biotech (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (“Alioth”) recently announced the completion of its nearly RMB 100 million Series A+ financing round. The round was led by the AZ-CICC Fund, with participation from existing investors Legend Capital, MPCi, and Yishuishan. The proceeds will accelerate Alioth’s expansion of its North American membrane materials R&D team and the extension of its filter product portfolio.

ALIOTH is a biotechnology company specializing in process-supporting technologies for pharmaceutical manufacturing. It is committed to providing high-quality separation and purification solutions that comply with domestic and international regulatory requirements, thereby assisting pharmaceutical companies in optimizing drug R&D and production processes and safeguarding the supply chain security of local pharmaceutical enterprises.

With the booming development of China's biopharmaceutical innovation industry, the upstream bioprocessing market has witnessed rapid growth. As a core component of downstream bioprocessing, membrane filtration has achieved a global market size exceeding RMB 50 billion in 2022, while the domestic market has surpassed RMB 4 billion.

To accelerate breakthroughs in critical filtration membrane technologies, ALIOTH has established R&D centers for filtration membranes and filter products in Boston, USA, and Shanghai, China. It has assembled a research team led by scientists in life sciences and materials science, focusing on pharmaceutical customer applications to achieve innovation and breakthroughs in pharmaceutical filtration membranes and filter products. Products currently under development or already launched include cartridge filters, capsule filters, disc filters, depth filters, hollow fibers, filtration hardware systems, and laboratory filtration products.

To better safeguard the supply chain security and drug production safety of pharmaceutical enterprises, ALIOTH has established its own dual manufacturing bases in Shanghai Lingang and Hangzhou, as well as high-standard process development, validation, and quality laboratories, in accordance with GMP requirements. The company successfully passed the ISO 9001 audit in 2022.

Regarding this round of financing,Jia Qijun, Founder and CEO of ALIOTHstated: “In 2022, ALIOTH completed its Series A financing. With the support of Matrix Partners China and Legend Capital, we achieved numerous ‘zero-to-one’ milestones, including membrane material R&D, product development, manufacturing, quality systems, and customer product delivery. In this Series A+ round, investors such as the AZ-CICC Fund will help ALIOTH accelerate its ‘one-to-ten’ breakthrough over the next year, encompassing the extension of product capabilities, enhancement of organizational strength, and improvement of operational systems. ‘Creating value for customers’ is the foremost principle of ALIOTH’s corporate values. We remain committed to practicing this principle, supporting pharmaceutical companies in drug R&D and industrialization, and becoming a trusted partner in pharmaceutical filtration processes.”

Chen Bing, Managing Director of the AZ-CICC Fund and Vice President of International Business Development, Collaboration, and Strategic Investment at AstraZeneca“As a key technology in the upstream pharmaceutical industry, filters and filtration membrane materials complete the closed loop of China’s independently developed and produced industrial chain. With the rapid development of pharmaceutical R&D and innovation, we believe there will be greater market demand in the future. Leveraging AstraZeneca’s global experience in pharmaceutical R&D and manufacturing, we are confident that ALIOTH’s highly executive team with extensive industry expertise and its high-quality product standards will secure a unique market position both domestically and internationally.”

Mr. Shan Junbao, Chairman of CICC Capital and Designated Representative of the Executive Partner of the AZ-CICC Fund“We are delighted to participate in ALIOTH’s latest financing round. The biopharmaceutical industry features a highly specialized division of labor and strong industrial synergy, with an urgent need to overcome critical bottleneck technologies. ALIOTH focuses on the R&D and production of filtration membrane materials for pharmaceutical applications. With strong leadership from its founding team and support from its fund partners, the company is poised to accelerate its growth into a niche market leader in this field, contributing domestic strength to the upgrading of China’s biopharmaceutical industry.”

* Data source: BCC Research 2022

The AZ-CICC Fund, a private equity fund jointly initiated by AstraZeneca and CICC Capital, focuses on investments in the healthcare industry. By integrating AstraZeneca’s global industrial strengths with CICC Capital’s extensive expertise in capital operations, the fund targets investment areas such as biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostic services, and digital health. It is committed to pooling industrial and financial resources to provide dual empowerment—from R&D to commercialization—for enterprises and investment partners, jointly fostering innovative development in China’s healthcare industry.

Legend Capital, established in April 2001, is a fund management company under Legend Holdings Corporation, specializing in early-stage venture capital and growth-stage private equity investments. Over the past two decades, Legend Capital has adhered to international standards, creating best practices in fund operations and management. Through its proactive value-added service system, Legend Capital drives innovative growth for portfolio companies, delivering strong investment returns across multiple sectors while promoting industrial advancement and social development in China. With the vision of “becoming an investment firm with global influence,” Legend Capital upholds the core value of “Prosperity with Integrity” and actively fulfills its social responsibilities.

Matrix Partners China was founded in 2008 and is a leading venture capital firm in the industry with a long-term focus on early-stage and early-growth investments. It specializes in investing in new technologies, hard tech, industrial digitalization, healthcare, frontier technologies, and new consumption sectors. To date, it has invested in more than 700 companies, including Li Auto, XPeng Motors, Hithium Energy Storage, Chehaoduo Group, Ele.me, Youzan, Ronbay Technology, XGIMI, Momo, PingCAP, Peijia Medical, Beisen, Zihai Guo, MetaX, Jian Ai, SiEngine, and MegaRobots.

Since its founding over a decade ago, Matrix Partners China has built an investment team of more than 40 professionals, maintaining a strong focus on the Chinese market and early-to-growth stage ventures. Meanwhile, we firmly uphold the principle of “founders first” and have established a robust post-investment service system. Ten specialized post-investment teams, covering functions such as strategy, operations, and talent, comprehensively empower our portfolio companies. We are dedicated to delivering value to founders by providing support without interference.