PangCe Medical Secures Tens of Millions in A++ Funding Within Two Months to Lead China's Robotic Hair Transplantation Revolution

People worldwide have long suffered from hair loss! Traditional manual FUE hair transplantation is time-consuming and expensive, leaving countless beauty-conscious individuals dismayed at the prospect. This situation may soon be transformed by a surgical robotics company based in Shanghai.

VCBeat has exclusively learned thatFollowing the completion of its nearly RMB 100 million Series A+ financing round in July，Puncture Robotic (Shanghai) Intelligent Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Puncture Robotic”)Announced the completion of tens of millions of yuan in Series A++ financing in recent days. This round of financing was exclusively invested by Huading Investment, with ROBE CAPITAL serving as the exclusive financial advisor. The funds raised will be used for clinical certification, capacity enhancement, and global promotion, comprehensively accelerating the arrival of the era of intelligent FUE worldwide.

Puncture Robotic, founded in Shanghai in 2019, is a company centered on surgical robots that provides specialized solutions for common clinical needs. Its product pipeline covers both serious medical care and consumer healthcare sectors, with existing products including hair transplantation robots and surgical robot puncture navigation systems, spanning fields such as medical aesthetics and oncology.

According to statistics from the National Health Commission, over 250 million people in China suffered from hair loss in 2022, while the number of hair transplant procedures was only approximately 630,000, resulting in a penetration rate of merely 0.25%—a significant gap compared to other medical aesthetic procedures. Driven by factors such as increasing life stress and irregular lifestyles, the demographic affected by hair loss is becoming increasingly younger, with hair loss anxiety spreading across multiple age groups, thereby continuously unlocking the demand for hair transplants.

The upstream segment of the hair transplantation industry features a diverse range of products, including follicle detectors, gemstone knives, implantation needles, and implantation pens. While each product has its unique characteristics, all require physicians to manually extract and transplant hair follicles. This not only demands high levels of professional expertise and surgical precision from physicians but also poses a dual challenge to their visual acuity and physical stamina, given that procedures often last 5–8 hours and require sustained high precision. Consequently, this results in a steep learning curve for physicians and elevated costs for hair transplantation procedures. Furthermore, it hinders the establishment of standardized protocols, thereby constraining the further expansion of hair transplantation clinics and relevant hospital departments.

Puncture Robotic is committed to laying out the entire industrial chain, focusing on providing consumers with scientific and efficient hair management solutions. It has independently developed and launched HAIRO^®Hair Transplant Robot: Utilizing stereoscopic vision positioning technology to identify hair follicles, it employs algorithms to plan and control a robotic arm for follicular unit extraction. Integrated with robotic force protection and patient motion tracking features, it ensures the efficiency, precision, and safety of the procedure.

Among these, hand-eye integration is one of the key challenges in the development of hair transplant robots, meaning that the camera must move in sync with the motion axes, representing the highest level of integration between robotics and visual artificial intelligence. According to Zhang Zhaodong, Founder and CEO of Puncture Robotic, in an interview with VCBeat, each hair has a diameter of approximately 0.05 millimeters. Ensuring the quality of follicular unit extraction without causing damage is a critical factor determining the success or failure of hair transplant surgery. This requires the overall precision of the surgical robot to be an order of magnitude higher than the diameter of a hair, and HAIRO^®Hair transplant robots can achieve precise extraction and implantation of hair follicles.

Recently, HAIRO^®Hair transplant robots successfully performed multiple surgeries at the Pudong Campus of Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, marking HAIRO^®The scientific rigor, precision, intelligence, and safety of hair transplant robotic systems have been validated through stringent testing, with clinical applications gradually reaching maturity.

Results from multiple clinical trials show that HAIRO^®The hair transplant robot’s dual-needle system efficiently isolates hair follicles, reducing the follicular transection rate compared to manual procedures. Its innovative minimally invasive needles cause less trauma, achieving virtually scarless results while effectively shortening the recovery period. The system’s exceptional consistency and stability meet the high-quality standards required for hair transplantation surgeries. It will effectively fill the domestic gap in China, break foreign monopolies, and benefit a larger number of patients suffering from hair loss.

Director Wu Wenyu of Huashan Hospital Uses Puncture Robotic's HAIRO^®Hair Transplant Robots Perform Hair Transplant Surgery

At the recently concluded 7th National Hair Academic Conference, Puncture Robotic’s HAIRO^®The hair transplant robot, with its outstanding precision, intelligence, safety, high efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, has become a major highlight of the conference, drawing keen attention from industry experts, hospital representatives, and hair transplant institutions across China.

HAIRO^®Hair Transplant Robot Attracts Experts and Peers to Stop and Observe

For this round of financing,Zhang Zhaodong, Founder of Puncture Robotic“He stated: ‘Through the efforts of Puncture Robotic, we aim to promote the universalization of medical technology and address issues of healthcare equity, accessibility, and consistency. We strive to bring happiness, confidence, and good fortune to patients, and we hope that Puncture Robotic will leave a valuable footprint in the history of medical technological advancement.’”

Huading Investment“The issue of hair loss among Chinese people has become increasingly severe in recent years, with a noticeable trend toward affecting younger demographics. Consequently, the demand for hair transplantation is growing rapidly. Puncture Robotic has deeply cultivated the field of percutaneous puncture robots, and its flagship product, the hair transplantation robot, is poised to become the first approved robot of its kind in China. This hair transplantation robot has undergone extensive clinical validation and has received widespread acclaim from industry experts in the field of hair restoration. Furthermore, the company has established strategic partnerships with numerous hospitals, hair transplantation centers, and medical aesthetics institutions. With advancements in medical technology and increasing public attention to hair loss, hair transplantation robots, as an innovative technology in the medical sector, hold immense potential for development and significant market opportunities. As investors, we are confident in the prospects of the hair transplantation robot sector and will continue to monitor the company’s growth, supporting Puncture Robotic in becoming an industry leader.”

Yan Jingjing, Partner at ROBE CAPITALROBE CAPITAL stated: “We are honored to serve as the exclusive financial advisor for Puncture Robotic in this round of financing. Despite the pressures of the pandemic, the demand for hair transplantation in China has continued to grow rather than decline. We are very optimistic about this segment of consumer healthcare. Robotics are inherently suited to hair transplantation scenarios, offering significant improvements over manual procedures in terms of efficiency, quality, and cost. After years of refinement, Puncture Robotic’s hair transplantation robot has undergone the most extensive human clinical trials among domestically produced hair transplantation robots. We are confident in its technology and its eventual regulatory approval. We believe that Puncture Robotic will become the leading hair transplantation robotics company in China.”

Huading Investment, established in 2014, is a fund management company registered with the Asset Management Association of China (AMAC) and affiliated with Wuxi Venture Capital Group. Huading Investment focuses on the “hard tech” real economy, primarily investing in high-quality early-to-mid-stage projects in sectors such as advanced manufacturing, integrated circuits, new energy, and medical devices. The firm currently manages six funds, with assets under management exceeding RMB 4 billion. Its core team boasts over ten years of experience in the capital markets and possesses extensive expertise in industrial and equity investment.

ROBE CAPITALEstablished in 2017, ROBE CAPITAL is a boutique investment bank specializing in healthcare and life sciences. Its business portfolio encompasses financial advisory, direct investment, industry consulting, and innovation incubation. The founding team hails from leading private equity firms, financial advisory institutions, management consulting companies, and vertical healthcare media outlets. Since its inception, ROBE CAPITAL has consistently completed double-digit private financing and M&A transactions annually, with cumulative transaction values exceeding RMB 10 billion. The firm’s team also possesses extensive industry expertise in providing value-added services to portfolio companies. In 2020, the ROBE New Healthcare Fund was established and has since invested in more than ten leading companies within the sector.

References:

1. “Strength in the Spotlight | Puncture Robotic’s HAIRO Hair Transplant Robot Debuts at the 7th National Academic Conference on Hair Disorders”

2. LeadLeo: “Hair Transplant Robots Alleviate Supply-Demand Imbalance in Services: Can the Billion-Yuan Hair Transplant Market Reach New Heights?”

3. [Domestic Breakthrough | Puncture Robotic’s HAIRO Hair Transplant Robot Clinical Trials Successfully Launched at Huashan Hospital!]