On September 4, 2024, the NUS Guangzhou Research Translation and Innovation Institute (NUS-GRTII) successfully hosted the BLOCK71 GUANGZHOU Medical Device Special Investment and Financing Symposium. The event showcased the innovative power of the Singapore National University in the medical device sector and its integration with the capital market, highlighting the necessity of combining technology and finance.
Activity information
Organizers:
Guangzhou Development Zone State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Bureau
National University of Singapore Guangzhou Research Translation and Innovation Institute
Speakers' Remarks
Bai Yunpeng, Director of the Guangzhou Development Zone Enterprise Investment and Financing Service Center, emphasized the recognition of the NUS-GRTII's technological innovation capabilities. He stated that the Guangzhou Development Zone will strive to provide services for high-tech projects introduced, and the investment and financing symposium plays a significant role in promoting regional economic development.
Fu Xiaofang, Senior Associate Director of the NUS Guangzhou Research Translation and Innovation Institute, mentioned that the symposium organized jointly by the institute and the State-owned Assets Supervision Bureau is not only a bridge for communication between outstanding projects and visionary investors but also a place where capital and innovation intersect, sparking collaboration and embarking on a new journey of win-win outcomes.
The Block71 Guangzhou Medical Device Investment and Financing Symposium featured three enterprises and attracted nine investment and financing institutions, including the Development Zone Fund, Science City Venture Capital, and Knowledge City Venture Capital. The project founding teams had extensive exchanges with the investment and financing institutions, and representatives from the investment and financing institutions provided many professional suggestions and opinions for the market-oriented development of the projects.
Introduction to Participating Companies
JN Medsys
JN Medsys, founded in late 2010, is a genomic tools company at the commercial stage. Since its founding, the company aims to develop simplified genomic tools to make them accessible to more people, starting with the digital PCR market. The company was founded by Dr Johnson Ng, who has more than 10 years of experience developing innovative platform technologies for DNA diagnostics. Johnson graduated with Bachelor and Ph.D degrees from NUS and currently leads JN Medsys as its CEO. The company was awarded the TECS proof-of-concept (POC) grant in 2011 followed by the proof-of-value (POV) grant in 2013. It had successfully gone through a few rounds of funding, with Seeds Capital co-investing in early 2016 and more recently at the end of 2019. The strong support from Enterprise Singapore has enabled the company to build up its core team and capabilities, and complete the development of the first and the second generations of the Clarity digital PCR (dPCR) system.
Yimiji Technology (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd.
Yimiji Technology (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. was jointly founded by artificial intelligence experts, product and business teams from Singapore and China. It provides an artificial intelligence based medical image processing and collaborative communication platform, as well as smart surgical robots, to meet the different needs of clinical surgery during the perioperative period. The platform mainly includes preoperative planning, intraoperative navigation, postoperative evaluation, surgical plan discussion and sharing, and precise surgical execution. The platform has obtained the Singapore HSA、China's NMPA and EU CE medical device licensing certification to serve clinical departments such as neurosurgery, cardiothoracic surgery, hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery, urology, gastrointestinal surgery, orthopedics, etc. It has been applied in more than 20 well-known hospitals in Singapore and China, and has been highly recognized by users.
MicroVeNUS Pte. Ltd.
Founded in March 2024, MicroVeNUS Pte. Ltd. is a science and technology company dedicated to building super-resolution confocal microscope and light sheet microscope products and technical services, with customers including universities and research institutes, hospitals, and biopharmaceutical research and development companies.
The project team has an overseas background, and the founder is Prof Chen Nanguang of National University of Singapore, who has long been engaged in the field of biomedical optical imaging research. He owns 5 international invention patents, including the patent of "Fluorescence Focal Modulation Microscopy System and Method", which was licensed to Carl Zeiss in 2010, with a licensing agreement price of more than 25 million RMB. Focusing on the national imaging needs in basic life science research and medical and health diagnosis, the company has transformed, designed and developed confocal microscope and light sheet microscope model prototypes with independent intellectual property rights. Based on the confocal and light sheet imaging technology, the company provides stronger imaging solutions for research institutes of life science and material science, meeting the needs of customers for high-frame-rate imaging speed, high-resolution and large-scale imaging depth compared with the international standard. It fulfills customers' expectations for high frame rate imaging speed, high resolution and large-scale imaging depth. At the same time, as a domestic manufacturer, it has the advantages of price and local service over the four major international microscope brands.
