What's new at Qiming
Duane Kuang, Nisa Leung and William Hu Recognized as Top 100 China Investors 2023
Qiming's Duane Kuang, Nisa Leung and William Hu are recognised as the Top 100 China Investors 2023. Jointly launched by PEdaily and ZERO2IPO Research, the list recognizes leading investors who have achieved outstanding performance, making significant contributions to the venture capital industry in China.
Nisa Leung Awarded PEI Women of Influence in Venture Capital
Private Equity International enlists Nisa Leung, Managing Partner of Qiming Venture Partners, as one of the "Women of Influence - Venture Capital" for 2023.
Insights
An efficient capital market with a robust listing regime is essential to long-term science and technology development, said William Hu, Managing Partner of Qiming Venture Partners on the 4(th) anniversary of the STAR Market of Shanghai Stock Exchange. He believes that China expects more technological breakthroughs in the life-science and biotech sector as the world's second largest healthcare market reaches the inflection point.
Qiming's Partner Bonnie Wang shared with AVCJ on why pet smart devices and services can thrive in China, citing the example of Petkit, a Qiming portfolio company.
"Qiming has been supportive of medical device companies in their overseas initiatives, including setting strategic roadmap, securing capital & resources, talent acquisition as well as building the ecosystem," said Oscar Zhang, Principal at Qiming Venture Partners at the recent China-Go-Global Medical Device Conference. The scale of China's medical device market is estimated at over RMB958 billion in 2022, ranking 2nd globally.
Yi Tang, Principal at Qiming Venture Partners, shared with TechCrunch on Qiming co-leading p0x labs' Series A round, explaining why ZKP is becoming an essential tool to build trust and safety into blockchain protocols.
Portfolio News
ESG
WeRide organized educational events in Guizhou and Guangdong Province, creating opportunities for local students to learn about autonomous driving technologies and experience WeRide’s self-driving vehicles.
Moodytiger launched a campaign, inviting parents and children to trade in their old pants for a new pair of moodytiger athletic leggings. In cooperation with environmental organizations, the campaign recycled a total of 4,225 pairs of old pants and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 2,558.62 kilograms.
Financing
Perovskite solar module company Photon Crystal Energy announced the completion of RMB160 million Series A financing, co-led by Qiming Venture Partners. The fundraising brings its valuation to $500 million. The proceeds of this financing round will be used primarily for the construction of its 100MW perovskite pilot line, continuing technology R&D, optimizing processes and improving overall performance. The company plans to kick off the 100MW production line construction in the second half of 2023, ramping up production capacity in 2024 with a goal for mass production in 2025.
P0x labs, the cryptographic development team building Manta Network, announced US$25 million Series A co-led by Qiming Venture Partners. In addition, Manta Network, the fastest zero-knowledge (ZK) Layer 1 that supports modular on-chain privacy, launched the testnet of its Layer 2 for ZK (Zero Knowledge) applications, Manta Pacific. The proceeds will be used to scale the project’s network, user base and use cases for Manta Pacific, and to support the expansion in key Asia markets.
Sinotau Pharmaceuticals announced the completion of RMB 1.1+ billion financing to support its R&D as well as clinical application of its diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals. Qiming previously led Sinotau's Series B round fundraising.
Technology & Consumer sector
Hesai Technology (NASDAQ: HSAI) continues its lead in the global lidar market, securing almost half of the total market share by revenue, according to Yole Group. Hesai also secured a partnership with SAIC Commercial Vehicle Group - the new vehicle models will be equipped with Hesai's ultra-high-definition long-distance LiDAR AT128. AT128 also supports HiPhi's new SUV HiPhi Y, continuing Hesa's partnership with HiPhi since HiPhi Z.
The UAE cabinet has granted its first road licence for self-driving vehicles to WeRide, the first national-level, region-wide autonomous driving road license in the Middle East and the world.
Chuhang Technology joined Baidu's Apollo autonomous driving ecosystem as one of the first millimeter-wave radar sensor makers in China, jointly developing comprehensive and intelligent mobility, connectivity and autonomous driving solutions.
Tungee and Avicrobot reached a cooperation to utilize Tungee's advanced CRM (Customer Relation Management) system to develop an intelligent digital sales system for Avicrobot's core robot products.
Yunji Technology forged a partnership with leading Chinese domestic hotel brand H World Group, expanding the adaption of service robots in more hotels across Chinese cities.
NEIWAI officially opened its first overseas retail store in Singapore, a major step in its international expansion. The flagship store presents a full range of products, including underwear, loungewear, casual and sportswear.
Healthcare Sector
Atantares announced China's largest synthetic DNA supply agreement to date with Bluepha, including supplying 100 million synthetic DNA base pairs and integrating the two companies' R&D platforms. The agreement also includes the supply of genes with ultra-long fragments up to 30kb and the establishment of technical standards for high-throughput R&D in synthetic biology.
The US FDA has approved the Phase I clinical trial of Abbisko(HKSE: 2256)'s ABSK112 for the treatment of patients with NSCLC (non-small cell lung cancer). ABSK112 is a potentially best-in-class EGFR Exon20ins inhibitor.
Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals (SHSE:603087)'s self-developed Secukinumab biosimilar, GLR1023 Injection, has received China's approval to initiate clinical trials for the treatment of adults with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis who are eligible for indications for systemic therapy or phototherapy.
Zai Lab (NASDAQ: ZLAB; HKEX: 9688)'s Phase 3 PRIME study, published by JAMA Oncology, confirming the benefit of ZEJULA monotherapy as first-line maintenance treatment in patients with newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer. ZEJULA significantly extends progression-free survival, reducing the risk of disease progression by 55%. Zai Lab also completed the treatment of the first bemarituzumab patient in China as part of its global Phase 3 study.
Insilico Medicine nominated a preclinical candidate inhaled formulation of ISM001-055, an anti-fibrotic small molecule inhibitor for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
CanSino Biologics(HKSE:6185)' Recombinant Zoster Vaccine CS-2032 has obtained approval to initiate clinical trials in Canada. Recombinant Zoster Vaccine (RZV) can prevent shingles.
MEDx TMC joined hands with Univ Group and STARTER to deepen collaborations to build comprehensive solutions in the areas of in vitro diagnostics (IVD) and companion diagnostics.
TandemAI launched its new end-to-end drug discovery platform - TandemViz™ 2.0, integrating scientific modeling, AI algorithms, high-performance computing clusters with cutting-edge wet lab experiments. The new platform will greatly enhance the research efficiency in the chemical compound space.
Awards
Jane Zheng, Co-Founder and CEO of Belief Biomed, was awarded as one of the Endpoints Women in Biopharma 2023. Jane is a seasoned entrepreneur and a pioneer in gene therapy in China.
Two portfolio company founders who are recognized by Fortune China on its 40 Under 40 List: Bo Zhiyuan from Qingflow and Pan Zhen from Reunion.
Venus Medtech(HKSE:2500) was awarded "2023 Best International Strategy for China Medical Device Enterprise Going Global".
iMile's CEO Rita Huang Zhen is named one of 20 Women Behind Middle Eastern Tech Brands 2023 by Forbes Middle East.
Cornerstone Robotics, Broncus Medical and Venus Medtech (HKSE:2500) were awarded the Best Medtech Companies in International Strategy for their progress in the international markets.
Xiaomi AI Lab won the top spot in English-Chinese Speech-to-Speech Translation at the International Conference on Spoken Language Translation (IWSLT) 2023.
