On October 18, Salus Innovation in Biomed, an enterprise settled in the Innovation Center, announced the completion of the pre-A round of financing with more than 100 million yuan, in which the pre-A1 round was exclusively invested by Qielou Investment, and the pre-A2 round was jointly led by Qianhai Great Wall Fund and Qielou Investment, and Longping Biotechnology involved in the investment. So far, the pre-A round of financing has come to a perfect conclusion, with a total financing amount exceeding 100 million yuan.
The pre-A round of funding will be mainly used for the declaration and continuous research and development of the gene sequencing platform with independent intellectual property rights of Salus and the world’s leading super-resolution space omics products, as well as the exploration of other innovative products. Previously, Salus also received investment from investors and industrial parties such as Zhen Fund and Pinnacles Medical in the angel round of financing.
“Competing” against time to open up a free “land” for gene sequencing
The gene sequencing industry has gradually matured, which is mainly applied in fields such as non-invasive prenatal genetic testing, microbial testing, tumor diagnosis and treatment, assisted reproduction, multi-omics research, population cohort gene sequencing plan, new drug development and innovation. The rapid growth of downstream sequencing applications has greatly increased the demand for upstream equipment and reagents, while prominent problems such as information security and gene security pose new challenges to all homemade sequencers.
As a platform enterprise with self-developed sequencing technology as the core, Salus has achieved innovation and iteration in many fields, including surface chemistry, sequencing enzyme, optical module and data analysis, through overall design and core module optimization in the segment of gene sequencing. With the aid of these proprietary technologies and new developments in multiple fields, the company has successfully developed a flexible, modular, high-performance domestic sequencing platform that adapts to different application scenarios and flux requirements.
The first mid and high-flux sequencer Salus ProTM has achieved mass production and demonstrated differentiated advantages in clinical and scientific applications. After testing and feedback in different application scenarios, Salus ProTM can better meet the multi-dimensional demands of users. This was the positioning of Salus ProTM when it was designed. Salus ProTM is a product that can achieve free clinical sequencing, promote downstream applications, and realize the clinical value.
Salus Pro Sequencer
Break through the diffraction limit and deploy super-resolution spatial omics
Spatial omics is a science to study the spatial location information and interactive relationship between cells and gene expressions. It provides an important tool for the in-depth study of histocyte functions, microenvironment interaction, lineage tracing of developmental processes, disease pathology, etc., which is crucial for clinical and medical research and development. Taking tumors as an example, the core factor affecting the effect of tumor treatment is the heterogeneity of TME in the tumor microenvironment, which is reflected in the spatial distribution of various cell types and gene expressions, and greatly affects all therapies related to genes and signaling pathways.
Compared with single-cell transcriptome, spatial transcriptome can provide one more dimension of research data for the interpretation of life phenomena. Therefore, the spatial transcriptomics was selected by the journal of Nature Methods as Method of the Year. Today, the application of spatial transcriptomes has surged like a wave.
In the segment of spatial omics, based on its own high-flux sequencing platform and its own super-resolution imaging technology that has broken through the optical limit, the company has launched a number of world leading super-resolution spatial omics chips, which boast the capacity of super-resolution analysis and large tissue bearing. The omics chips developed by Salus have achieved a sub-micron level resolution, which can obtain transcriptome information at the sub-organelle level in tissues, and have entered the top ranks in the field of cutting-edge scientific research equipment. The company has cooperated with a number of well-known research institutions to promote the application of distinctive super-resolution spatial omics tools in scientific research and clinical diagnosis and build a world-leading omics enterprise.
Spatial omics chip
Dr. Zhao Luyang, founder and CEO of Salus, said, “Multi-omics research tools such as genome and transcriptomes can deeply reveal the underlying information of life development, and can bring all-round data support to life and health management. As the upstream innovator of sequencing and spatial omics platform, Salus strives to improve performance and build a domestic national brand in the field of gene sequencing through independent research and development, and achieve world-leading super-resolution analysis and domestic cutting-edge scientific research tools in the field of spatial omics. Salus continued to be supported by investors in this round of financing, which will greatly accelerate its development, enhance the competitiveness of local enterprises in the multi-omics field, and facilitate the sound development of China’s biomedical industry in the scientific research and clinical end. Salus is willing to work with partners of the ecosystem to seize the historical opportunity of comprehensive localization, play the role endowed by the times, and assume its responsibility on the race track of upstream tools of life science.”
Young scientists and entrepreneurs tend to be innovative and creative, said Zhang Kun, founder of Qielou Investment. Frankly speaking, I came to contact with Dr. Zhao and his team when I was allocating young scientists. I was infected by the curiosity, thirst for knowledge and fighting spirit of young scientists and their enthusiasm from the heart. I also witnessed the team’s devotion to research and development and the rapid maturity of the products since its establishment.
Due to the high technical barriers, in the field of gene sequencing instruments, the core tool of life science, there are very few players, and the foreign enterprises are in the dominant position. Such kind of industrial background directly leads to the consequence that downstream service providers and enterprises can not get good services, and due to the problems such as supply and bargaining power, they are under great pressure in their overall business conditions. Therefore, it appears particularly valuable that Salus adheres to independent innovation, emphasizes comprehensive domestic production, and strives to break the “bottlenecks”, and deploy in the key equipment at the upstream of the industry. We expect that under the leadership of Dr. Zhao, the team will do their best to provide partners with good services with competitive prices, continuously create value for employees and shareholders, and make continuous contributions to human health.
Mao Zhiwei, investment director of Qianhai Great Wall Fund, said, the team built by the company around sequencers was quite strong, with a great potential in the future. Salus has gathered talents in industries such as gene sequencing, omics, semiconductor, and optics. The team boasts a strong executive force and achieves a rapid progress in research and development, and has given full play to its late-comer advantages. There will be a brilliant future of super resolution imaging technology and spatial omics. Salus will transcend itself on a higher dimension and help downstream enterprises to make new exploration in spatial omics. Dr. Lv Yuping, founder and CEO of Longping Biotechnology, said, the high-flux domestic sequencing platform of Salus with independent intellectual property rights has broken through the technology bottleneck in the field of gene sequencing and significantly reduced the sequencing cost especially on the basis of staying leading in terms of quality, performance and flux, which is particularly important for biological breeding industry. Low-cost sequencing technologies enable the large-scale application of sequencing technologies to assist molecular breeding, which is expected to have a revolutionary impact on the biological breeding industry. With sequencing technology, it can improve the basic research of genome and gene mining in the breeding process, and promote the cultivation of new varieties and the research and development of new technologies. As an industry-leading research and development enterprise of biological breeding properties, Longping Biotechnology, through in-depth cooperation with Salus, can enhance its own capabilities in the identification, analysis and application of functional genes of main crops such as corn, soybean and rice and accelerate its technological innovation and product development in the research and development of biological breeding properties.
About Salus
Salus was founded in October 2020 in Shenzhen. In 2021, it settled in Shenzhen Industrial Innovation Center for Engineering Biology. In December 2021, it officially moved into the Heng Tai Yue Synthetic Biology Industrial Park. The company is specialized in the development of upstream sequencing platforms with independent intellectual property rights and on this basis has built a world-leading super-resolution spatial omics platform and achieved independent innovation and transformation at the end of scientific and clinical research for genomics and spatial omics products. The company has developed rapidly since its establishment two years ago. Now it has built R&D and equipment production lines of 8,500㎡ in places such as Guangming of Shenzhen, and maintained continuous and in-depth cooperation with various organizations. The scientist startup team led by Dr. Zhao Luyang has broken through the bottlenecks of precious sequencing products in such aspects as flux, cost, resolution ratio, and automation, and localized its platforms.
About Qielou Investment
Qielou Investment is a service-oriented investor established on the basis of trust. We always believe that however the times may change, there must be entrepreneurs in line with the times who will eventually advance social progress. Since its establishment, Qielou Investment has focused its deployment on the upstream and downstream fields of biomedicine, medical devices and synthetic biology. It has invested in enterprises including Mgi Tech (688114), Patho-Genesis, Tidetron, GeneWell, Neurophth, Newfus, Xiaozao Technology, Han’s Robot, Huayuan Regenerative Medicine, Regend Therapeutics.
About the Qianhai Great Wall Fund
Qianhai Great Wall Fund is a professional investor focusing on strategic emerging industries such as biomedicine, semiconductor, new energy, and advanced materials. Adhering to the investment strategy of “investing on early, small, new, hardware, domestic and advantaged fields”, the company has invested in more than 60 excellent enterprises, including Snibe (300812), Kangtai Biological Products (300601), Mgi Tech (688114), Torey, Menovo (603538), Bebetter, Avit (300264), Jiuri New Materials (688199), Lihexin (301013).
About Longping Biotechnology
Longping Biotechnology (Hainan) Co., Ltd. is a controlled by a rural investment fund of a central enterprise under the State Investment Group. The company aims to create a world-class research and development platform of agricultural biological “chips”, focusing on the improvement of key traits of major crops and the research and development of precision biological breeding products. At present, it has built research and development technology platforms such as molecular biology, genetic transformation, trait analysis and annual four-generation backcross, with an equal R&D strength and technology development capacity as multinational seed enterprises in the fields of transgenosis and gene editing. After more than three years of development, the company has completed several rounds of financing, and has been the leading R & D enterprise with the fastest development in the biological breeding industry of China.
About the Innovation Center
Shenzhen Industrial Innovation Center for Engineering Biology (hereinafter referred to as the “Innovation Center”) is an innovation and entrepreneurship platform co-built by the Government of Guangming District and SIAT and led by the Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, with a construction area of more than 12,000 square meters. The Innovation Center focuses its deployment on nine industrial tracks, including materials and energy, synthetic biology industry, environment and sustainable development, basic theory, modeling and automation, gene synthesis and assembly, DNA storage and biological computing, related professional media, biomolecules, paths and routes, food, consumer goods and agriculture, health, diagnosis, testing equipment and technology. It was built centered on the industrial application research at the upstairs and the business incubation management at the downstairs, where the former releases research outputs relying on the infrastructure and the Synthetic Biology Institute and launches technology cooperation, while the latter docks with the source of innovation and attracts startups with core competitiveness from the society and provides them with excellent innovation and entrepreneurship environment, infrastructure and high-end shared laboratory equipment, so that the enterprises can “move in directly”, and boost the high-quality development of enterprises with the empowering of the nationally first policy on synthetic biology. Since its construction and operation, a complete set of operation and management mechanisms has been established in such aspects as basic operation management, selection and settlement of enterprises, enterprise assessment, events and activities, property services, and policy declaration.
The model of “upstairs and downstairs innovation and entrepreneurship complex” initiated by the Innovation Center opened up the innovation path from original innovation to entrepreneurial development, which was included among the 47 pieces of Shenzhen experience by the National Development and Reform Commission.