Medical Technology Investment View Of Chinese VC In Silicon Valley

With the development of targeted therapy, precision medicine and other technologies, cancer diagnosis and treatment has gradually become the focus of the academic and industry, favored by venture capital institutions.

In August this year, mission bio, an American genetic diagnosis company, completed a round C financing of US $70 million. Novo growth is the leading investor in this round of financing, and the following institutions include Mayfield, fusion fund, COTA, Agilent and soleus capital.

Mission bio was founded in 2012. The technical solution is derived from the research carried out by the founding team at the University of California, San Francisco. The technology has been applied to many large pharmaceutical companies and cancer treatment institutions.

Mission bio is not just a medical device company. Relying on its platform based bioinformatics technology, it detects different types of cancer, and combines data analysis, artificial intelligence and medical treatment. Therefore, the potential withdrawal return of the fund in this project in the future will be very considerable.

Recently, 21st century economic reporter interviewed Zhang Lu, the first institutional investor of mission bio and the founder and managing partner of fusion fund, an early VC Fund in the United States.

"Change the world and become rich, but the most important thing is to change the world." Zhang Lu said that this is the original intention of her investment, and the investment in medical technology can also make this a reality.

Against the trend in epidemic period

In the first half of 2020, the new crown pneumonia epidemic and macroeconomic factors led to a decline in the activity of early VC investment trading in the United States, especially in the second quarter when the government issued a foot ban order and proposed home office.

According to the report jointly released by pitchbook and NVCA, the number of investment transactions of early VC investment in the United States was 848 in the first quarter and 630 in the second quarter, compared with 1169 and 1069 in the same period last year.

When the market as a whole is affected, some investment institutions are cautious in investment in new projects, and some investors are seizing the opportunity to carry out high-quality asset layout.

The reason why VC firms are cautious is that some of the TOC projects that VC laid out earlier have been greatly impacted by the epidemic, which requires financial support from investors, and some VC investors hope to further observe the impact of the epidemic on various industries.

"I'm going to invest in a fifth company this year, which is quite active in Silicon Valley." Zhang Lu is on the positive side. She thinks that the low tide period is a good opportunity for early science and technology. "Relatively speaking, there is not so much noise in the market, high-quality companies are relatively clear, and the price is very good.".

It should be pointed out that the main investment line of fusion fund is the digital transformation of industries driven by new technologies. Most of the projects invested by the fund in the three major fields of industrial technology, enterprise services and medical science and technology performed well during the epidemic period.

In the medical field, fusion fund focuses on early diagnosis of cancer, early diagnosis of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and early diagnosis of brain diseases. The team believes that the digital transformation of the medical industry is a major trend, whether it is pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, or the integration of new technologies with existing companies and markets.

Healthcare + edge computing

Fusion fund is the earliest investment institution of mission bio, and the latter is also one of the earliest investment projects of mission bio.

The investment in mission bio in 2015 is optimistic about the application of new technologies in early cancer diagnosis. In this project, microfluidics at the hardware level and artificial intelligence at the software level are more widely used.

Zhang Lu told reporters that the team's current focus on new technologies in the medical field also includes edge computing: "the value of edge computing is that local sensors can not only collect data, but also conduct intelligent data analysis. We have been focusing on this field since 2017, and one of the invested enterprises has raised a lot of over raised funds in the latest round. "

At the JP Morgan medical and Health Industry Conference earlier this year, she presented the report "how edge computing will accelerate the data revolution in the field of health care": health care in the future will be another scene. Medical devices and intelligent sensors can obtain health information in real time, integrate intelligent data analysis of edge computing technology, eliminate the problem of delay, and can better provide real-time information feedback for patients and doctors. Under the effect of this technology, personalized medical care can also better save lives and prolong life.

Fusion fund's understanding of technology depends on its founding team's technical background and industrial investment experience, as well as its "CXO" network. It is reported that more than 30 chief technology officers (CTOs) from Fortune 1000 companies are in its resource network.

"How high the cost of technology integration and whether the industry is ready for digital transformation is the information we get through direct communication with industry decision makers." Deep communication with the industry made Zhang Lu understand technology, but she was not paranoid about the "best" technology. She said: "what the market needs is not" the best ", but" good enough. ". What enterprises need is good enough technology, reasonable application cost and appropriate integration opportunity. "