Shanghai Zhangjiang, today out of a medical listed company.
Investment community news, today (November 2), the domestic well-known surgical robot unicorn - minimally invasive medical robot officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In this IPO, the company's offer price was HK$43.20 per share, the opening price was HK$39.8 per share, and the subsequent market value exceeded HK$40 billion.
Behind the minimally invasive medical robot is minimally invasive medical treatment known as the "Whampoa Military Academy" in the industry. The story of minimally invasive medical treatment begins with a post-60s returned scientist - Chang Zhaohua was born in Zibo, Shandong Province in 1963, and during his study and work in the United States, he found that most domestic hospitals rely on imported medical equipment. In 1998, he quit his high-paying job and returned to a small factory in Zhangjiang, Shanghai, to start Minimally Invasive Medical. After more than 20 years, Minimally Invasive Medical has grown into a leading medical device enterprise in China.
Since 2014, minimally invasive medical robots have been incubated within the company and have become independent the following year. From August to October 2020, MicroPort Medical Robot quickly completed two rounds of financing A/B, and gathered well-known investment institutions such as Hillhouse, CPE Yuanfeng, Beilin Capital, Yuanyi Investment, and E Fangda Capital, with a post-investment valuation of 25 billion yuan. Among them, Hillhouse is currently the largest external institutional shareholder.
The birthplace of minimally invasive medical robots, Shanghai Zhangjiang, is known as China's "Medicine Valley". Here is a set of data: Zhangjiang currently gathers more than 400 biomedical enterprises, more than 20 large pharmaceutical production enterprises, more than 300 R&D technology SMEs, more than 40 CRO companies, and more than 100 various R&D institutions. The minimally invasive medical robot is a typical representative of the field of medical devices in Zhangjiang. The hot unicorns in the medical circle are coming out of here.
The 36-year-old doctor is at the helm and has a market capitalization of HK$40 billion
The Department of Minimally Invasive ushered in the third listed company
The story of minimally invasive medical robots dates back to 2015.
According to the data, minimally invasive medical robots belong to a subsidiary of minimally invasive medical. Prior to independence, it was an incubation project within the parent company, MicroPort Medical Group, focusing on the development of endoscopic surgical robots. Until 2015, minimally invasive medical robots were officially registered in China, transforming from a project into a company, and in the same year, the feasibility research and development activities of The Bird ® Orthopedic Surgical Robot were launched.
In the following two years, the minimally invasive medical robot has completed the design of the dragonfly eye ® three-dimensional electronic abdominal endoscope and Tumai ®. It is worth noting that in October 2019, the endoscopic surgical robot Tumai was approved to enter the green channel; the first clinical human trial was completed in November. After 5 years of domestic independent research and development, minimally invasive medical robots focus on the research and development and industrialization of micro-trauma surgery robots, and gradually form multi-disciplinary intelligent surgical solutions represented by endoscopic surgical robots, joint replacement surgical robots, and three-dimensional electronic laparoscopy.
And the leader of this unicorn is a young expert - He Chao. He is 36 years old, has been in the research and development of surgical robots for more than 14 years, is the Chinese representative of the International Technical Standards Committee for Surgical Robots under the International Electrotechnical Commission, a member of the first expert group of the Chinese medical robot standardization technology focal point, and one of the heavyweight experts in China's surgical robot industry.
Looking at He Chao's previous resume, in July 2007, he graduated from Hefei University of Technology with a bachelor's degree in mechanics and electronics, and began to focus on the research of surgical robotic systems. Later, He Chao chose to pursue a doctorate in mechanical engineering at Tianjin University. During his Ph.D. in the United States John. He is a visiting scholar at Hopkins University. In the following two years, he engaged in the research of space robots and surgical robots at the China Academy of Space Technology, and was authorized 11 national invention patents, 5 Chinese patents and 2 US patents. In May 2015, He Chao joined MicroPort and served as the head of robotics.
There is Bole first in the world, and then there is Maxima. This time, He Chaoneng led the team of minimally invasive medical robots, which is inseparable from a Bole - Chang Zhaohua, the founder of the parent company Minimally Invasive Medical.
In 1998, returned scientist Chang Zhaohua founded Minimally Invasive Medical in Zhangjiang, Shanghai. He was born in July 1963 in Zibo, Shandong. From the perspective of his academic career, Chang Zhaohua is also a bully. In 1979, he went to shanghai mechanical institute to study power engineering. Although he is a Doctor of Thermal Engineering, out of his love of life sciences, he decided to start from scratch and spent only 5 years to complete his undergraduate and master's degrees. In 1987, Chang Zhaohua went to the State University of New York to pursue a doctorate in the Department of Biological Sciences.
While working in the United States, Chang zhaohua was directly involved in and led the work of micro-trauma technology in a variety of cancer treatments. At that time, the use of this technology in European and American countries has accounted for more than 80% of the total number of surgeries, but only a few hospitals and a few doctors in China can perform similar surgeries, and all the equipment used depends on imports, the cost of surgery is several times higher than that of Europe and the United States, whenever he sees the helpless eyes of patients, as a medical worker, he is very sad.
In 1994, in a "return to China to the province" activity, Chang Zhaohua moved the strong idea of returning to Shanghai to start a business. Four years later, Chang Zhaohua gave up his position as vice president of a listed company in the United States and returned to Zhangjiang, Shanghai, to establish minimally invasive medical care in several ordinary factories.
With more than 20 years of development, minimally invasive medical treatment has started from the earliest balloon catheter, to the subsequent bare metal stent, and then to the latest targeted elution stent, represented by minimally invasive domestic heart stents, step by step from follower to global leader.
It is worth noting that minimally invasive medical also has the name of "Whampoa Military Academy" in the field of medical devices, and this minimally invasive medical surgical robot is not the first time it has split its subsidiary and listed it. Previously, Sinopulse Medical and Xintong Medical, which were spun off from Minimally Invasive Medical, have successively landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board and Hong Kong stocks. Today, MicroPort Medical Robot was successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the third listed company in the MicroPort Medical Incubation, with a market value of more than HK$40 billion.
Two rounds of financing in half a year, Hillhouse and CPE Yuanfeng have invested
It's a two-hundred-billion-dollar track
How can minimally invasive medical robots support the market value of HK$40 billion?
In fact, the IPO of minimally invasive medical robots in Hong Kong has attracted much attention, because the medical robot track has given birth to big bull stocks like da Vinci surgical robots. According to the data, this is a company that has risen nearly 6 times in the US stock market in the past 10 years, and the latest market value is more than 120 billion US dollars (about 767.7 billion yuan).
So, what is the color of minimally invasive medical robots? Frost & Sullivan shows that minimally invasive medical robots are the only robot companies in the world that cover five major specialty surgeries: endoscopic, orthopedic, pan-vascular, transnatural cavity and percutaneous puncture surgery. It has 3 flagship products: Dragonfly Eye ™DFVision™ three-dimensional electronic laparoscopy, ToumaiToumai™ ™endoscopic surgical robot, and Honghu ™Skywalker™ joint replacement surgery robot.
In addition, minimally invasive medical robots are also developing spinal surgery robots, R-OneTM vascular interventional surgery robots, TAVR surgical robots, transbronchial surgery robots, automatic needle aiming robot systems, ISR'obotTM Mona Lisa robot prostate puncture biopsy system, with the goal of creating a full platform of surgical robots covering a full range of surgical specialties.
Let's look at the revenue. From a financial point of view, since 2019, minimally invasive medical robots have not yet made a profit. According to the prospectus, in Q1 of 2019, 2020 and 2021, the net loss of minimally invasive medical robots reached 69.801 million yuan, 209 million yuan and 115 million yuan, respectively. The loss was mainly due to the large expenditure on R&D expenses, and the R&D and production costs in the same period reached 61.881 million yuan, 135 million yuan and 90.067 million yuan respectively.
Due to the lack of awareness of surgical robots in many hospitals and customers at present, the market still needs education, so marketing expenses are also a big expense. According to the prospectus, minimally invasive medical robots are gradually increasing sales investment, from 0 costs in 2019 to 4.095 million yuan in the first quarter of 2021. Minimally Invasive Medical Robots has said that the company will begin to expand its marketing team in 2020.
But this is a huge untapped market. According to Frost & Sullivan, China has a large, fast-growing and low-penetration market for surgical robots. It is expected that China's surgical robot market will increase from US$400 million in 2020 to US$3.8 billion (about RMB24.3 billion) in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 44.3%, while the global market is expected to expand from US$8.3 billion in 2020 to US$33.6 billion in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 26.2%, with great market potential.
To this end, a number of well-known VC/PE institutions have also appeared behind the minimally invasive medical robots. At the end of August 2020, MicroPort Medical Robot completed the A round of financing, this time introducing Hillhouse, CPE Yuanfeng, Hainan Beilin, Yuanyi Investment, E Fangda Capital and other investors; at the end of October of the same year, the B round of financing was completed, and the investors appeared Shenzhen Xin Long, Huiyuan Capital, Hillhouse, E Fangda Capital and other well-known institutions. After the completion of this round of financing, the company's valuation is as high as 25 billion yuan.
So far, Hillhouse has become the largest institutional investor in micro-invasive robots, from the A round, B round to the cornerstone, Hillhouse Venture Capital has supported for 3 consecutive rounds.
In fact, surgical robots are the focus of Hillhouse's layout. According to statistics, Hillhouse Venture Capital's investment in this field includes robot-related projects such as Jianjia Robot, Minimally Invasive Medical Robot, Weimai Medical and Yuanye Technology, Demei Medical, etc., covering joints, endoscopic, vascular intervention, natural cavity, rehabilitation and other fields.
Almost everyone believes that surgical robots are an important tool to change the way doctors operate in the next decade. The training of doctors is very difficult, usually it takes more than ten years to train a doctor, but the surgeon's golden surgical insurance is very short, the patient demand is very large, and there is a huge demand in the middle. In addition, although minimally invasive surgery can benefit patients, it is very technically demanding on doctors, and it will damage the health of doctors due to the need to eat radiation during surgery. Surgical robots can extend the career of doctors and treat more patients, while ensuring that the health of doctors is not damaged, alleviating doctor-patient conflicts, and meeting patient needs.
To date, Hillhouse is one of the largest investment institutions investing in the number and field of medical robots. Hillhouse shared a point of view: surgical robots are technology-intensive, patent-intensive fields, with extremely high technical barriers. China's surgical robot market has long been monopolized by foreign companies, and has not yet achieved large-scale products. With the expiration of the first batch of patent protection of foreign enterprises, the abundance of talents, technology and clinical practice in China, the support of domestic policies, and the domestic surgical robots represented by minimally invasive medical robots will gradually enter the clinic to alleviate the pain of patients. In the future, domestic surgical robots will usher in major development opportunities.
This year, there was an explosion of medical robots
Shanghai Zhangjiang ran out unicorns
The rise of minimally invasive medical robots is not unique. Shanghai Zhangjiang is running out of medical robot unicorns.
In July this year, the official website of the Shanghai Securities Regulatory Bureau disclosed the counseling filing of Shanghai Titanium Robot Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Titanium Robot"), and proposed to be listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board. According to the counseling materials, Titanium Robot, founded in 2015, is the first high-tech enterprise in China to provide robot solutions for smart medical scenarios, focusing on the research and development, design, production and sales of medical robots.
As the helmsman of the titanium robot, Pan Jing has a deep relationship with Shanghai Zhangjiang. After graduating from Wuhan University, Pan Jing was admitted to Shanghai Jiao Tong University to study control theory and control engineering at Shanghai Jiaotong University. After graduation, he entered a foreign company to work in research and development, which is located in Zhangjiang, Shanghai. After working for more than ten years, Pan Jing saw the prospects of robots in the medical field and resolutely resigned and continued to start a business in Zhangjiang. Since its establishment in 2015, Titanium Robot has been favored by the capital market, and has successively received investment from investment institutions such as GuokeJiahe, IDG Capital, Coworth, Gimpo Investment, CDH Investment, Pudong Kechuang, Zhangjiang Ketou, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech and so on.
Almost all people in the industry agree with one point: medical robots are likely to become a "just needed" market in the future. In the past year, dozens of VCs/PEEs, including Sequoia China, IDG Capital, Hillhouse Venture Capital, SoftBank, Linear Capital, etc., have extended their tentacles to the medical robot track, and a financing has been born. The medical robot company from Zhangjiang, Shanghai, is even more eye-catching.
Fourier Intelligence is one of the typical cases. In July 2015, Gu Jie, who has many years of industry experience, chose to create Fourier Intelligence in Zhangjiang, Shanghai, mainly engaged in product research and development of rehabilitation robots. At the beginning of its establishment, the company completed the angel round of financing jointly invested by IDG Capital and Zhangjiang Science and Technology Investment.
Since then, Fourier Intelligence has attracted the attention of the VC/PE circle. According to the data, the company has completed a total of 8 rounds of financing, and the investors include IDG Capital, Zhangjiang Science and Technology Investment, Volcanic Stone Capital, Qianhai Fund, Guozhong Capital, Yuanjing Capital, Lingang Science and Technology Ventures, Saudi Aramco's Prosperity7 Ventures Fund and many other well-known investment institutions. In the first half of this year alone, the company completed two consecutive rounds of financing.
In addition, large foreign medical robot companies have also poured into Zhangjiang. In October this year, Intuition Fosun, a joint venture between Intuitive Medical Devices and Fosun Pharma, signed a contract with Zhangjiang Group to set up a da Vinci surgical robot manufacturing and research and development base in Zhangjiang, Pudong, which is the second manufacturing and research and development base of Da Vinci Surgical Robot in the world after Silicon Valley in the United States.
Why did they all choose Zhangjiang? This may be related to Zhangjiang's industrial agglomeration advantages. Founded in 1994, Zhangjiang Medicine Valley is one of the earliest science and technology parks developed in Shanghai's "Focus on Zhangjiang" strategy. After years of incubation, Zhangjiang Yaogu has become a first-class biomedical industry base in Asia and a biomedical innovation platform with world influence, gathering more than 1,000 biomedical innovation enterprises.
At present, 6 of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies have set up regional headquarters or R&D centers in Zhangjiang; among the top 100 pharmaceutical companies in China, 17 have set up R&D centers and operation centers in Zhangjiang. Here, there are more than 60 "unicorns" and quasi-"unicorns" with a valuation of more than 500 million yuan.
Shanghai Zhangjiang has developed for 30 years and has gathered a huge group of medical talents. A medical robot company said that the development and manufacture of surgical robots requires "high, fine, and sharp" talents, "These talents are actually difficult for us to recruit in other places, but Shanghai Zhangjiang has unique advantages." ”
As entrepreneur Pan Jing lamented: "Zhangjiang has changed from a high-tech park to a science city. In the past 20 years, from interns, to foreign employees, to entrepreneurs, we have the privilege of accompanying Zhangjiang to complete the role change again and again, using Zhangjiang as a platform for their work and value display. "Today, Zhangjiang Medicine Valley has become an eye-catching and innovative landmark in Shanghai. A group of medical entrepreneurs with dreams set off from here and began their own entrepreneurial journey.