Recently, AccuPulse Medical Technology Co.Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "AccuPulse") completed a Pre-A roundof financing with tens of millions RMB. The investment was jointly led by Med-FineCapital and Shanghai Biomedical Industry Equity Investment Fund, followed byYuanBio Venture Capital. Start Point Advisors was the exclusive financialadviser.
Founded in November 2020, AccuPulse is committed tobecoming an internationally leading innovative platform in cardiacelectrophysiology (EP) industry. The core team members come from multinationalenterprises or industry leaders, such as Johnson & Johnson, GE, AcutusMedical and Abbott. They have rich experience in R&D, registration, and commercializationof EP medical devices. Since its establishment, the company opened centers in Suzhou,China and United States and has built a R&D team led by well-knownelectrophysiological experts in the United States. AccuPulse has strong supportsfrom famous EP physicians and returning overseas scientists, and is backed by venturecapitals.
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiacarrhythmia. The main risk caused atrial fibrillation is stroke, which inpatients with AF is 5 times more than that in patients without AF. There areabout 13 million patients with atrial fibrillation in China, and the prevalenceis increasing with the aging of the population. Currently, catheter ablation targetingfor pulmonary vein isolation is still the cornerstone of atrial fibrillationtreatment. In 2020, the number of atrial fibrillation ablation operations inChina was nearly 100,000, with a compound growth rate of 25%. However, thepenetration rate of ablation therapy was less than 1%, which was much lower comparedwith more than 10% in the United States, Japan, and other developed countries. Tillnow, the most commonly used ablation energy is radiofrequency (RF) energy,supplemented by Cryo energy. However, they have some limitations for shortfallsin the clinical practice, such as insufficient ablation, long procedure andablation time, high recurrence rate and thermal injuries to surrounding tissues.Meanwhile, the learning curve is long for physicians to become proficient inskills. Pulsed field ablation (PFA) is the next generation of subversiveablation technology. It will be safer and faster. PFA depends less on theadhesion between catheter and tissue compared with RF or Cryo ablations, but highercontinuity and uniformity of transmural lesions. It is widely believed that PFAwill become the major player in AF treatment in the future.
AccuPulse has independently developed a PFA systemincluding generator and caheter. The company is also developing athree-dimensional cardiac mapping system and the accessories.
Yu Jing, the partner of Med-FineCapital, said:"We have focused on innovation in the cardiovascular field and think thatatrial fibrillation ablation has large patient pool, high market potential, andhuge domestic product substitution space. PFA, as a product of the nextgeneration ablation technology, is the general trend. AccuPulse is aninnovative ablation technology platform with strong scalability. The company'sexcellent international team, has rich experience in all aspects of EP medicaldevices development. We have reasons to believe that the company will providemore simple and effective solutions for clinical practice and become anindustry leader in innovation ".
Dr. Liang Weibin from Shanghai biomedical foundationsaid: " The penetration rate of catheter ablation still has large spacefor improvement and there are huge unmet clinical needs in the field of cardiacEP. PFA is expected to achieve leapfrog development with its unique advantagesof clinical safety and convenient operation. We highly recognize the richaccumulation and business layout of the company's core team in the field ofcardiac EP in the past. We believe that AccuPulse will play an important new rolein the field of cardiac EP in China and provide more effective treatment optionsfor the majority of patients. "
Chen Jie, the founding partner of YuanBio VentureCapital, said: "There is still a huge unmet demand for the treatment of AFin China. Catheter ablation, as an important treatment of AF, still has a lotof space for market improvement, and the new generation of pulse ablationtechnology is expected to greatly surpass the traditional ablation methods interms of safety, effectiveness, and universality. We are optimistic about therich industrial experience accumulated by the team in the field of atrialfibrillation and the platform product layout built by the team. With highefficient execution, the company is expected to become a star enterprise of AFpulse ablation in China, benefiting the majority of patients. "
Li Qiang, managing director of Start Point Advisors,said: "We are honored to help AccuPulse complete this round of financing.AccuPulse is a rare innovative technology enterprise in the field of cardiacelectrophysiology in China and will build a comprehensive platform forminimally invasive interventional therapy with global R & D capability. Weare glad to witness the continuous improvement and rapid development ofAccuPulse, and look forward to accompanying AccuPulse in the future."