Taimei Technology, a Chinese provider of tech-enabled life science solutions, has secured over 1.2 billion yuan ($176 million) in a new funding round co-led by Tencent, Hillhouse’s venture capital arm GL Ventures, and YF Capital, a private equity firm backed by Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma Yun.
Chinese early-stage VC Morningside Venture Capital; Matrix Partners China, which is affiliated with US-based Matrix Partners; and SoftBank China Venture Capital (SBCVC) also participated in the fundraising, Taimei announced on Monday.
Other investors included Zheshang Venture Capital (ZSVC), a VC located in eastern China’s Zhejiang province; China’s Cowin Ventures, which primarily invests in the TMT and life science industries; Beijing-based boutique investment bank Fanzhuo Capital; and Ivy Capital, which focuses on RMB-denominated equity investments in China.
Founded in June 2013, Taimei offers AI-based software products suites and service systems to help clients in drug research and development, clinical trial data management, and pharmacovigilance among other things.
Pharmacovigilance, also known as drug safety, is related to the collection, detection, assessment, monitoring, and prevention of adverse effects of pharmaceutical products.
Dual-headquartered in eastern China’s Shanghai and Jiaxing cities, Taimei delivers the cloud-enabled platform TrialOS for seamless clinical research collaboration among sponsors, sites, clinical research organisations (CROs), patients, regulatory agencies, and third-party providers.
TrialOS platform supports one-third of registered clinical research and one-fifth of adverse drug reaction (ADR) submissions in China, according to Taimei’s website. The firm co-operates with over 500 pharmaceutical companies and CROs, as well as over 1,600 hospitals worldwide.
“In past years, Morningside witnessed Taimei evolve from a software-centric business model to an industry collaboration platform, and further develop into an innovative firm providing digital empowerment solutions. The company is on a path to building a perfect second-growth lifeline,” said Ted Jing Xutian, vice president of investor Morningside in a statement.
Jing said that Morningside Venture Capital had oversubscribed in the new round.
After the new financing, Taimei will continue to serve as a digital operation platform in the life sciences industry to promote the integration of resources for drug R&D, the construction of IT infrastructures, and the expansion of innovative services, said the company.
In October 2019, Taimei had raised a combined 1.5 billion yuan ($212 million) across Series E and E+ rounds, which were led by New York-based investment company Tiger Global Management and Tencent, respectively.
