Recently, Chengdu Qi Tan Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Qi Tan Tech") announced that it had completed the financing round C of 700 million CNY. This round of financing was led by Mei Tuan Capital, and the Capital Great Health Fund managed by HG Capital and BioTrack Capital continued to make additional investments.

It is understood that this is the largest financing in the life science field in the domestic primary market this year. Founded in 2016, Qi Tan Tech is the first enterprise in China to independently develop a nanopore gene sequencer and take the lead in commercializing it. Solid technology accumulation, diversified product matrix and leading commercialization process have always attracted capital attention.

Qi Tan Tech said that after the financing, the company will keep close to the market demand, continue to improve the product matrix, and accelerate the launch of medium and high throughput sequencing platforms; At the same time, it will also expand more diversified application scenarios, increase market development efforts, and expand the commercial landscape.

As of December, the gene sequencing industry has only completed 49 financing projects in 2022. In the past 2016-2021, there were 105, 97, 109, 79, 100 and 110 cases respectively. It is not difficult to see that the financing of the gene sequencing industry has entered a contraction period this year. In this case, the successful completion of the 700 million CNY round C financing has made Qi Tan Tech a dark horse through the capital winter. Dr. Hu Geng, co-founder and chairman of Qi Tan Tech, said that thanks to rapid market expansion and leading commercialization process, the company successfully completed this round of financing. As the leading investor, Mei Tuan said that in the domestic nanopore sequencing platform, the commercialization process of Qi Tan is in the leading position. Gene sequencing technology is one of the core technologies to explore the frontier of life science. The gene sequencing market is in the process of rapid development and innovation iteration. Enterprises that can fully and independently master the core technology and quickly enter the market undoubtedly have broad prospects for development. Industry insiders said that after several years of rapid development, the upstream of China's nanopore gene sequencing industry has begun to take shape in a competitive pattern: most enterprises have not yet mastered the technology, and some enterprises have entered the stage of commercial model research and development, while only one equipment manufacturer can achieve mass production and officially enter into commercialization. Globally, there are only two enterprises competing in the commercial battlefield of nanopore gene sequencer, one is a British enterprise, and the other is Qi Tan.

At present, Qi Tan Technology has achieved more than 95% localization of the supply chain. In terms of patents, Qi Tan has broken through the overseas patent blockade. In terms of core technologies such as porin, speed control protein, fluid chip, electronic circuit, algorithm, etc., it has fully independent intellectual property rights, forming a perfect patent layout at home and abroad, and has formed more than 200 intellectual property achievements, including more than 100 invention patents.

In 2021, the global gene sequencing market will be about 15.722 billion dollars, including 1.59 billion dollars in China. It is predicted that by 2026, China's gene sequencing market will grow to US $4.235 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of about 21.6%. Among them, upstream equipment and consumables are the core of the industrial chain with the strongest voice. The global market size of gene sequencing equipment and consumables will be about 5.816 billion dollars in 2021, and CAGR will be 17.4% from 2021-2030. The market size of gene sequencing equipment and consumables in China will be about 6.514 billion CNY in 2021, and the CAGR will be 18.7% in 2021-2030. With the innovation and development of gene sequencing technology and the arrival of the era of precision medicine, gene sequencing has become the key cornerstone to support cutting-edge life science research and protect people's life and health.

About Qi Tan

Founded in 2016, Qi Tan Technology is committed to the independent research, development, manufacturing and application of nanopore gene sequencer, supporting chips and reagents. It is the first enterprise in China to fully master nanopore gene sequencing technology and promote it to commercialization. In December 2021, Qi Tan Technology launched the first commercial nanopore gene sequencer QNome-3841 in China, opening the era of localization of nanopore gene sequencing. In 2022, Qi Tan will enter the first year of commercialization, continue to improve the whole chain solution of nanopore gene sequencing, and actively expand new application scenarios. At present, there are more than 100 service agency users.