Cygnus Biosciences (Beijing) Co., Ltd., a leading domestic company focusing on developing local High-Throughput DNA sequencing platform, announced its Series B financing of RMB 130 million which was jointly led by Oriental Yirui (Shanghai) Fund and the Zhongguancun Development Group Sailing Fund, and followed by Longpan Investment, Jinggong Hongyuan Investment, Proxima Ventures, and A round investor, General Technology Venture Capital Co., Ltd.

CEC Capital served as the Exclusive Financial Advisor to Cygnus.

Cygnus is a high-tech company that specializes in DNA sequencing platform R&D and commercialization. It is committed to independent R&D of innovative DNA sequencer and affiliated chip and reagent, in accordance with our national strategy of precision medicine, and aims to upgrade DNA sequencing technology applied in disease detection, diagnosis and screening. The core sequencing technology with independent IPR of Cygnus comes from the original DNA sequencing technology developed by professor Xie Xiaoliang, AAAS academician, director of Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics and a world-renowned scientist. The team is led by professor Huang YanyiofPeking University College of Engineering, who is a research fellow of Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics and the leading expert in the R&D of the next generation sequencer and affiliated reagents, a project of the National High-Tech R&D Program of China (863 Program). Dr. Wu Lei, the co-founder and CEO of Cygnus, is a world-class scientist and entrepreneur in the industry with a PhD degree in Physics from Chicago University and a postdoc experience in MIT. He founded AVIVA in America and served as the GM of Fortebio (China) which was acquired by Poll led by him.

Cygnus has formed an impeccable and multidisciplinary team. Its R&D division personnel carry either a MA or PhD degree, accounting for one-third of the department. All members of its engineering team are recruited from top IVD enterprises and own sophisticated experience in clinical equipment development. Cygnus has achieved the development of its core technologies of Fluorogenic and ECC, and has successfully developed its first prototype, which performs as well as or even better than many international comparable models in sequencing costs, accuracy and time cost. In September 2017, Cygnus applied successfully for the “Special Fund for the Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises of Science & Technology” approved by Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission. This round of financing will help Cygnus in the listing and clinical registries of its products.

Dr. Wu Lei, CEO of the company, said that, “Our goal has always been to develop independently high-end DNA sequencing platforms that can compete with foreign products, while also meeting the needs of the Chinese clinical market and customers in price. Our goal is closely related to the national strategy of promoting innovation and intelligence manufacturing. The success of this round of financing also demonstrates the faith these excellent investment institutions have put into our goal. Our unique and innovative technologies, ever-growing R&D team, and the resources provided and grafted by our partners are all powerful acknowledgments of our achievements.”

Bao Jingming, GM of General Technology Venture Capital Co., Ltd., said that, “Cygnus’s sequencing platform and products will contribute to the adoption of precision medicine in China’s clinical care market.”

Zhang Lu, GM of Oriental Yirui (Shanghai) Investment Management Co., Ltd., said that, “Cygnus’s original and creative R&D in DNA sequencing and affiliated chip and reagent is at the commanding height of the whole DNA sequencing service production chain. This technology has a high barrier and is very likely to see an increasing value in the future. It is a very promising field. We want to put our investments in companies like Cygnus with core patents, technologies and products. Cygnus is exactly the one we are looking for.”

Long Yibin, GM assistant of the Zhongguancun Development Group, said that, “our investment will mainly go to info-tech and the healthcare industry. We are working on relevant production chains, driven by our mission of fostering the Beijing Tech Innovation Hub. We are pleasantly surprised to see Cygnus’s achievements within a short term and have felt the rigorous and earnest working attitude of scientists. We are totally optimistic about the future of Cygnus and the national precision medicine strategy, with technological support from Peking University and successful experiences from business leaders.”

Yu Zhihua, investment executive partner of Longpan, has stated, “Cygnus’s DNA sequencer involves independent leading technology in every part of its design architecture, reagent and algorism. The new light-emitting mechanism and algorism has initially enabled this product to compete with other international mainstream DNA sequencing platforms in cost and efficiency. We hope this product can go public as soon as possible.”

With this round of financing, Cygnus will accelerate its plans of upgrading its industrial prototypes, manufacturing innovative instruments and chips and advancing the product registering process. Driven by the Series B funding, this company is going to lead the domestic precision medicine industry with its robust DNA sequencing technology to compete with other international business giants. It can make China more competitive in the field of DNA sequencing and will afford benefits to more clinical patients.