"TingSheng Technology" Secures Nearly 100 Million Yuan in Series B+ Financing, Launches First 4D ICE Human Clinical Study | Exclusive Report by 36Kr
36Kr learned that Tingsheng Technology recently completed a nearly 100 million yuan Series B+ financing round. This round of financing was led by Yifeng Capital, with existing shareholders Qiming Venture Partners and Huangpu Medical Fund participating in the follow-on investment. Xingqiao Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor. The raised funds will be used for the R & D and clinical investment of the 4D intracardiac ultrasound (4D ICE) products, laying the foundation for subsequent mass production.
It is understood that since 2019, Tingsheng Technology has been assembling a team to develop intracardiac ultrasound ICE (intracardiac ultrasound imaging technology). As a new imaging technology, ICE mainly inserts an ultrasound probe into the heart cavity through blood vessels to emit and receive ultrasound signals, thereby avoiding the interference of tissues such as the skin and chest wall on the ultrasound signals and achieving real - time imaging. Currently, intracardiac ultrasound ICE has been applied in many scenarios, such as interventional treatment of various complex arrhythmias and imaging in interventional surgeries for structural heart diseases.
From the perspective of review and approval, in the past, the intracardiac ultrasound catheter market was long - monopolized by overseas brands such as Johnson & Johnson and Siemens. In the domestic market, with the accelerated R & D progress of domestic enterprises in recent years, for traditional 2D ICE products, four domestic enterprises have obtained a total of seven registration certificates approved by the National Medical Products Administration. Among them, Tingsheng Technology has obtained four certificates.
When referring to the future market pattern of 2D ICE products, Tingsheng Technology believes that it is expected that more domestic enterprises will enter the intracardiac ultrasound track in the next 1 - 2 years. However, affected by factors such as the domestic market access environment, centralized procurement policies, and clinical usage habits, the enterprises that obtained approval earlier may "occupy more than 85% of the core market share".
In contrast, 4D ICE products with higher technical barriers have greater market potential. With dynamic four - dimensional imaging, 4D ICE can help operators quickly locate, reduce the risk of complications, and improve the safety of surgeries. It can be applied to all surgical scenarios where 2D ICE is used and provide precise imaging guidance for some surgical scenarios that 2D ICE cannot handle. In recent years, such products have been approved overseas for guiding electrophysiology and structural heart disease surgeries.
Tingsheng Technology explained that the technical difficulties in developing 4D ICE products include the R & D of ASIC chips, the design of ASIC and ultrasound transducers, and the successful tape - out of qualified 4D ICE chips. Moreover, at least three or more tape - outs are required to complete a qualified 4D ICE ASIC delivery, and the cost of a single ASIC design and tape - out is nearly 10 million yuan.
On the other hand, completing the ASIC tape - out is just the starting point. To achieve productization, a high - end transducer manufacturing system needs to be established. This system will perform micron - level precise cutting and bonding of ASIC - matrix transducers and output stable acoustic performance in batches.
"The construction of such a high - end transducer manufacturing system requires a minimum investment of 50 million yuan and a complete talent echelon in the fields of transducers and materials. It is a technology direction that requires long - term and high - level investment. In addition, to truly achieve high - quality imaging with 4D ICE, simply completing the probe manufacturing is far from enough. In - depth collaborative development of the ultrasound host is also needed. Currently, 4D cardiac ultrasound hosts with ASIC chip adaptation capabilities are extremely rare in China, and only one or two can meet the technical requirements."
It is reported that at the end of April this year, Tingsheng Technology completed the first human clinical study of 4D ICE.
Views of the founder and investors:
Zhang Dongyu, CEO of Tingsheng Technology, said that 4D ICE represents the top level of cardiovascular interventional imaging technology. The team was able to successfully develop this product and complete the first human clinical trial within four years, thanks to Tingsheng Technology's solid underlying technology accumulation, sufficient R & D investment guarantee, and excellent and efficient team execution. The successful R & D of 4D ICE has injected strong impetus into the company's future development, will significantly enhance the company's competitiveness in the global market, and marks a solid step forward for the team in realizing the vision of "becoming an influential Chinese - made brand of medical devices".
Fan Rongkui, Managing Director of Yifeng Capital, said that intracardiac interventional ultrasound (ICE), as the "eyes" of various cardiac electrophysiology and structural heart interventional surgeries, has been continuously recognized clinically. The overall product has a high technical barrier and is currently on the verge of domestic substitution. The Tingsheng Technology team has strong medical - engineering integration and innovation capabilities, profound technical accumulation and engineering transformation capabilities, as well as rich commercialization experience and execution ability. The core product, 2D ICE, is the first domestic product to obtain a certificate through the medical device green channel and has quickly achieved good commercial results. The 4D ICE was the first to complete the first human study, and significant breakthroughs have been made in the independent development of the underlying core component supply chain. It is expected to maximize its cost and differentiation advantages in future competition. Yifeng Capital is optimistic about Tingsheng Technology as a leading enterprise in the field of intracardiac interventional ultrasound, which will continue to lead the intelligent development of the industry.
Guo Kai, the person - in - charge of Xingqiao Capital, said that as a leading enterprise in the domestic intracardiac ultrasound field, Tingsheng Technology has achieved several "zero breakthroughs" in seven years, from 2D ICE to 4D ICE, from being the first domestic company to achieve self - research and self - production of transducers to completing the ASIC chip tape - out, realizing true domestic substitution. With technological leadership accompanying the rapid growth of China's electrophysiology - related fields, it is believed that Tingsheng will continue to shine on a broader stage.