Category: PE, VC & Alternatives

Legend Capital leads ForQaly Medical’s Series B financing

ForQaly Medical (hereinafter referred to as ForQaly), located in Shanghai Zhangjiang International Medical Zone, is a leading high-tech company focused on developing micro-traumatic circulatory assistant devices. Recently, it completed its Series B fundraising led by Legend Capital, followed by CD Capital, SAIF Partners, Chengwei Chuangban and Co-win Ventures. Existing investors Lilly Asia Ventures and Kaitai Capital also participated in the funding round.

This round of financing will be applied to promote the clinical research of ForQaly’s existing products, so that the transvalvular ventricular assist devices (VAD) could be affordable for patients with urgent needs as early as possible. On the other hand, the capital will go for the expansion of ForQaly’s research team to accelerate the parallel development of products, so that potential comprehensive solutions could be provided for high-risk PCI intraoperative protection and cardiogenic shock treatment.

Mr. Tang Zhirong, the founder of ForQaly, said: “For the past years, the clinical applications of the transvalvular VAD was uncommon in China. ForQaly, as a domestic pioneer in the field, will make full use of its resources to support pre-clinical training and ensure the quality of product clinical research, so as to collect reliable and evidence-based medicine data.”

Joe Zhou, the Managing Director of Legend Capital, said: “VAD, especially the interventional one, has a huge market prospect in China. ForQaly’s senior management team represented by Mr. Tang has dedicated and hardly-worked in this field for nearly 6 years with leading products launched both at home and abroad. We are glad to partner with ForQaly Medical and will establish a long-term cooperation with the company.

Legend Capital has long focused on its investment in medical devices and diagnostics, among which many portfolio companies have successfully went public at home and abroad, such as KingMed Diagnostics (603882.SH), Berry Genomics (000710.SZ), EasyDiagnosis (002932.SZ), Axonics (AXNX), CareRay Digital Medical (688607.SH), New Horizon Health (06606.HK), Singular Genomics (NASDAQ: OMIC), etc. In addition, Legend Capital has invested in a lot of leading companies in subdivisions of this field, such as Puyi Biotechnology, Reliable Med, StarSportMed, Genext, ET Healthcare, GKHT Medical Technology, GensKey, Best Brain Health, Bioheart, HeMo, Shanghai Aohua and Berry Oncology.

Pacer Ventures announces Pacer Labs, Pan-African software development firm

Sub-Saharan Africa venture firm Pacer Ventures is set to further unlock the power of digital transformation in Africa with the launch of Pacer Labs, a software development firm born to support the African digital ecosystem and the growth of forward-looking organisations by harnessing the power of advanced technologies.

Projections indicate that Africa will be the world’s next tech talent center due to the emerging mobile population. This in turn inspires Pacer Labs’ confidence for the future market in Africa, positioning them at the forefront of the push towards maximising the tech talent of the African economy.

Ray Sharma, Chairman, Pacer Labs and Founder, Extreme Venture Partners and XtremeLabs, says “Pacer Labs aims to become Africa’s leading software development firm as measured by sales and employees by 2025, leveraging the success of XtremeLabs and a soon-to-be-announced global partner for the success of Pacer Labs and its customers. Africa has risen. Pacer Labs is set to help deliver efficiency and digital transformation.”

The true acceleration potential of the African continent lies in the rapid spread of mobile digital technology, which will help the region in economic development. Mobile technologies and services generated 9% of GDP in sub-Saharan Africa in 2019, representing $155 billion in economic value-added. This figure will reach $184 billion by 2024.

Gbemi Akande, Director, Pacer Labs, speaking on the launch stated “The creation of Pacer Labs is deeply rooted in the organization’s belief in the African continent. Pacer Ventures and Pacer Labs are positioned in such a way that they will help deepen the development of technology in Africa.”

“Pacer Labs will ensure that the development needs of organizations and governments are met in a timely and cost-effective manner, while soon-to-be-launched Pacer University will be another curated platform by Pacer Ventures to equip startups and executives with the required technology skills,” said Geoffrey Weli-Wosu, General Partner at Pacer Ventures and Co-Founder of VoguePay.

This means that the organization will support in solving some of the most critical problems on the continent while facilitating the development of African enterprises, primarily early-stage startups, mid-market enterprises and large corporates through experience design, product development, engineering and digital transformation.

Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata, regional director of Founder Institute in Africa and General Partner at Pacer Ventures noted, “It is due to the rapid growth of startups in Africa that world-class development companies like Pacer Labs are born, while Founder Institute will ensure that forward-looking startups are given the opportunity to get access to world-class development tools and resources that will aid their continuous growth.”

The end-to-end solutions provided by Pacer Labs will help enterprises design, build and scale solutions that drive customer satisfaction, streamline operations and gain a competitive edge on both existing products or a new application.

The Lab intends to partner with clients to tackle the toughest challenges and bring ideas to life. Enterprises will be supported by a team of experienced designers, engineers and product managers to deliver state-of-the-art products from operations bases in Lagos, Johannesburg, Cairo and Nairobi.

About Pacer Labs
Pacer Labs is a software product development firm that uniquely blends digital transformation, product development and design. The firm is focused on helping ambitious African companies leapfrog their innovation mandate: a uniquely integrated product development firm driven by a singular focus on realizing business impact.
Email: info@pacerlabs.co
Website: https://pacerlabs.co
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pacerlabsco
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/pacerlabsco/

About Pacer Ventures LLC
Pacer Ventures is well-positioned to support the growth of startups within Sub-Saharan Africa. A combination of attributes enables our deal-flow, sourcing and portfolio management which promises realistic returns to our
investors.
Pacer email: info@pacer.vc
Official website: https://pacer.vc/
Pacer blog: https://pacer.vc/blog/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pacerventures
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/pacerventures/

Society Pass (SoPa) Announces close of Series C funding to accelerate growth in Southeast Asia

  • Society Pass, Vietnam’s leading data-driven loyalty platform, has closed its Series C round.
  • The new funds will be used to help drive Southeast Asia M&As including in Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia.
  • Since its launch, Society Pass has amassed over 1.5 million registered users being served by over 3,500 registered merchants and brands

Society Pass (SoPa), Vietnam’s leading data-driven loyalty platform, has closed a Series C funding round. With the new funds, Society Pass will look to accelerate its growth and acquisition strategy in Southeast & South Asia, particularly acquiring companies with the existing user and merchant bases that can be quickly plugged into the Society Pass ecosystem.

Society Pass is a loyalty and data marketing ecosystem that operates multiple e-commerce and lifestyle platforms across its key markets. Its business model focuses on collecting user data through the expected circulation of its universal loyalty points. It seamlessly connects consumers and merchants across multiple product and service categories fostering organic loyalty. From its launch in 2019, Society Pass has amassed over 1.5 million registered users and over 3,500 registered merchants and brands.

Dennis Nguyen, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer Society Pass said: “Society Pass’s success up to this point has been built through offering unique value for both consumers and merchants, along with the infrastructure supporting that exchange. This new funding will allow us to replicate our success in our target markets and our ongoing aggressive M&A initiatives in the pipeline. We are very grateful to have found strong demand from quality investors, that share our vision.”

According to the Digital 2021 Global Overview Report (*) by HootSuite & We Are Social, Southeast Asia is sporting a 69% internet penetration rate with 9.6% YoY growth, and South Asia with a 42% internet penetration rate with 9.1% YoY growth. Both regions stand to see tremendous growth, with Google, Bain, and Temasek estimating Southeast Asia internet economy GMV reaching US$309 billion by 2025, while RedSeer Consulting estimates the South Asia internet economy to touch US$250 billion by 2025. e-Commerce and Online Travel are expected to take the lion’s share of this growth. Society Pass plans to expand its market presence by harnessing the untapped potential of South and Southeast Asia believing that developing countries are only now experiencing a surge in digital adoption, with large potentials for future growth.

Society Pass capitalises on the rapidly developing earlier stages of the internet economy in the region, spanning verticals such as F&B, beauty, travel and lifestyle.

(*) https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2021-july-global-statshot

About Society Pass
Society Pass’ customer loyalty and analytics platform has onboarded hundreds of thousands of registered consumers. Society Pass provides merchants with SoPa.asia – an online commerce platform for users, alongside with #HOTTAB Biz – a convenient order management app for business partners on SoPa.asia, and #HOTTAB POS – a specialized POS technology solution, a comprehensive system for payment, loyal customer management, user’s profile analytics, and convenient financial support packages for small and medium-sized enterprises. All tools offered above will allow businesses to attract and retain customers through personalized interaction based on analytics with a high profit margin. For more information, please check out: http://thesocietypass.com/.

Crypto Financial Services Firm Blofin Raises US$12 Million Series A2 Led by KuCoin Eco Fund

Crypto financial services firm Blofin has raised US$12 million in a series A2 round of financing, led by KuCoin Eco Fund, followed by Matrix Partners, Lingfeng Capital and Fenbushi Capital. In March of this year, Blofin finished a US$10 million A+ round of financing led by SIG and Matrix Partners.

At present, Blofin’s current global assets under management (AUM) has reached US$150 million. As a Cayman Island registered crypto finance service agency, its proprietary quantitative database covers over 50+ exchanges worldwide through real-time data and is connected with over 200 global quantitative trading teams.

Blofin also provides crypto asset management services by focusing on small and medium sized Quantitative Hedge Funds to provide capital investments, lower trading fees, and other financial services.

With this new round of financing, Blofin will onboard more talent to develop new products and apply for more licenses globally. Blofin obtained the US federal MSB license (the last four digits are 0143) signed by FinCEN two weeks ago. Blofin is close to securing additional digital asset management licenses for Hong Kong, Singapore and other global financial centers around the world.

According to Matt, CEO of Blofin, “the funds raised will be used to bring in talents, develop new products and continue to apply for multi-country licenses.”

Media Contact:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/blofin-digital-asset-management/
https://twitter.com/Blofin1

ACROMEC’s associated Life Science Incubator launches Co-working Labspace

Serving start-ups in MedTech, Biotech, Biopharma and FoodTech, the Incubator aims to become a vibrant centre of entrepreneurship, technology and science.

ACROMEC Limited (ACROMEC; SGX: 43F), a specialist engineering services provider, announced that subsidiary ACROMEC Engineers Pte Ltd (ACROMEC Engineers) through joint-venture associate Life Science Incubator Pte Ltd, has launched the first Life Science Incubator co-working laboratory space, with a ceremony on location at the German Centre, International Business Plaza, Singapore.

The ceremony was attended by Mr Alvin Tan, Minister of State, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth and Ministry of Trade & Industry and others from the Economic Development Board, Enterprise Singapore, SGInnovate, A*STAR, NTUitiv and NUS accelerator. Members of Life Science Incubator’s current network of some 20 industry partners, including Merck, also attended the event.

Serving early-stage bio and pharma start-ups, companies and entrepreneurs in the MedTech, Biotech, Biopharma and FoodTech sectors, Life Science Incubator will provide flexible co-working laboratory spaces for research and development. With access to communal state-of-the-art technologies and facilities, start-ups will be able to fully focus on innovation and talent in science without having to think about hefty infrastructure capital.

Said Niamh Madden, General Manager of Life Science Incubator, “Today marks the start of our exciting journey at the Life Science Incubator. We look forward to supporting science and technology start-ups and being an integral launchpad for their endeavours. With our strong network of partner companies, we are confident that the incubator will become a vibrant centre of entrepreneurship, technology and science.”

Said Mr Lim Say Chin, Executive Chairman and Managing Director of ACROMEC, “The successful completion and launch of the Life Science Incubator attests to ACROMEC’s track record and success as a specialist engineering provider for controlled environments. We are excited to be a part of this vibrant ecosystem and will continue to serve companies and start-ups in the life science, biotech, healthcare, and research sectors.”

In July, the Group announced that wholly-owned subsidiary ACROMEC Engineers had entered into a joint-venture agreement with strategic partner Tako Ventures to build, own, and operate JVCo and co-working laboratory facilities. JVCo is 30% owned by the Group through ACROMEC Engineers, while Tako Ventures holds the remaining 70% stake, managing JVCo and the Life Science Incubator.

ACROMEC Engineers undertook the design, construction, and fitting-out works for the 600 square meter Life Science Incubator’s co-working lab facilities, which includes 8 suites, 51 lab benches, and 1 operating theatre.

About ACROMEC Limited
SGX Catalyst-listed ACROMEC (SGX: 43F) is an established specialist engineering services provider with more than 20 years of acquiring expertise in the design and construction of facilities requiring controlled environments, such as laboratories, medical and sterile facilities and cleanrooms. Amongst its customers, ACROMEC counts hospitals & medical centres, government agencies, educational institutions, research & development companies and multinational units, pharmaceutical, semiconductor manufacturing and engineering companies. For more information, visit www.acromec.com.

ACROMEC share information through SGX (43F), Bloomberg (ACRO.SG) and ThomsonReuters (ACRO.SI).

Analyst & Media contact:
ACROMEC Limited
Mr Jerry Tan, CFO
E: jerry.tan@acromec.com

Waterbrooks Consultants Pte Ltd
Mr Wayne Koo / Ms Raihana
T: +65 6958 8002 / +65 9338 8166
E: wayne.koo@waterbrooks.com.sg / raihana@waterbrooks.com.sg

UREEQA Appoints Technology Marketing Leader Kirk Fergusson as CEO

Harsch Khandelwal moves to Executive Chairman as UREEQA accelerates efforts to protect Creators’ work, rights and revenue through its blockchain platform

UREEQA, a blockchain platform for protecting, managing and monetizing creative work, today announced that the company is bolstering its executive core as technology marketing leader Kirk Fergusson becomes the new CEO.

Former CEO Harsch Khandelwal rounds out the executive team as Executive Chairman.

Kirk Fergusson

In barely a year, UREEQA has evolved from a compelling concept to a crypto project with a loyal, growing base of believers and Tokenholders as well as a healthy pipeline of clients excited to utilize the company’s revolutionary platform. UREEQA will increase its dedicated focus on proactively engaging its core audiences and demonstrating the platform’s full potential for helping Creators protect, manage and monetize their work. The organization is making valuable changes to its braintrust in order to maximize its ability to develop in a wide range of fields.

In his new role as Executive Chairman, Khandelwal will focus on strategic development and implementation to support UREEQA’s continued growth. Meanwhile, Fergusson – a distinguished technology marketing executive – moves into the CEO role. Altogether, the rearrangement will allow Khandelwal, Fergusson and the rest of UREEQA’s highly-esteemed executives to naturally become more keenly focused on their respective wheelhouses moving forward.

“As we’ve built this company from the ground up, we’ve learned a lot about ourselves and our place in this constantly changing industry,” Khandelwal said. “One thing we’ve realized is just how important it is to employ the best possible talent across the board. Adding Kirk Fergusson as CEO is a move in lockstep with that approach, and it will enable me to focus on continuing to strategically build UREEQA into an industry powerhouse.”

This is yet another critical maneuver for UREEQA from a personnel standpoint. In May, former KPMG director of market relations and versatile industry executive Rakan Aown became UREEQA’s new Vice President of Business Development, while former SAS director of consulting services and celebrated business leader Joe Pillitteri became the company’s new Executive Vice President. In July, music and entertainment legend Harvey Mason Jr. joined an Advisory Board that already contained Michael Sheresky and Ramses IsHak of United Talent Agency, official Community CEO Kevin Leflar and former SOCAN VP Janice Scott. All of these experts and many others have worked throughout 2021 with Khandelwal to lay down the puzzle pieces. Now, with Khandelwal’s oversight, Fergusson will play a major role in putting these pieces together as UREEQA continues to evolve.

With over 30 years’ worth of functional experience in marketing, corporate communications, sales/business development, and general management, Fergusson is a black belt in strategic and tactical marketing, solution development, business development/sales, and start-up/scale-up management.

Prior to joining UREEQA, Fergusson led sales operations for SecureKey Technologies, which employs blockchain technology to underpin its innovative identity network. He previously held leadership roles with several Toronto-based start-ups, one of which was focused on deploying a blockchain-based supply-chain management SaaS solution.

While serving as Managing Director of Canada’s leading digital medical education firm, MDBriefCase, Fergusson led Canadian business development activities as well as the shared services provided to the company’s global operations. And prior to that, he was VP of Corporate Services at Canada Health Infoway, where he led corporate communications and marketing activities for the national electronic health records agency.

Fergusson has also acted as a public relations executive in Ottawa, where he served a multitude of federal government clients including the Copyright Board of Canada, Canadian Heritage, and Industry Canada.

“I’m thrilled to be joining UREEQA at this juncture,” Fergusson said. “The team is first-rate and the company has made terrific progress to date. I look forward to helping Creators of all stripes discover our unique platform, and encouraging them to leverage it to the fullest extent to protect, manage and monetize their creative work.”

To learn more about UREEQA and the company’s executive team, please visit our website: www.ureeqa.com/about-us

About UREEQA
The UREEQA platform strives to protect Creators’ work, their rights and their revenue by harnessing the power of blockchain technology.

Established in Canada in 2020, UREEQA will modernize the inefficient and bureaucratic systems currently in place for copyright, patent, industrial design and trademark protection. By building a robust and compelling Package of Proof for source creative work, UREEQA only mints Validated NFTs to represent creative rights. This helps keep buyers safe by giving them confidence that the work they are purchasing was minted by the smart contract approved by the Creator of the work and is therefore authentic.

UREEQA provides value and opportunities for its Creators, Validators and Tokenholders via URQA, the token at the heart of the UREEQA ecosystem.

For more information on UREEQA and upcoming announcements please visit our website (https://www.ureeqa.com/), join our Telegram channel (https://t.me/UREEQA), and follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/UREEQA_Inc).

Legend Capital Led a New Round of Investment of Etana

Legend Capital led a new round of investment of PT Etana Biotechnologies Indonesia (Etana), along with Innovent Biologics, Inc. (Innovent) (HKG: 1801), and a consortium led by UOB Venture Management (UOBVM). This round of funds will be used to further strengthen the company’s production, registration, clinical and commercialization capabilities, promote the company’s extensive and in-depth cooperation with biopharmaceutical companies, and lead the development of the Indonesian biopharmaceutical industry.Legend Capital led a new round of investment of PT Etana Biotechnologies Indonesia (Etana), along with Innovent Biologics, Inc. (Innovent) (HKEX: 01801), and a consortium led by UOB Venture Management (UOBVM). This round of funds will be used to further strengthen the company’s production, registration, clinical and commercialization capabilities, promote the company’s extensive and in-depth cooperation with biopharmaceutical companies, and lead the development of the Indonesian biopharmaceutical industry.

Nathan Tirtana, President Director of Etana stated “Etana, as an Indonesian biopharmaceutical start-up, always strive to provide high quality, affordable and innovative biopharmaceutical products to serve the patients in Indonesia and South-East Asian countries. We will use the support obtained from the investors to develop local biopharmaceutical production capabilities in line with the policies promoted by the Indonesian government. Etana aims to tackle challenges in oncology and other life-threatening diseases for the South-East Asian market. We believe these biological products can provide better treatment and greatly improve healthcare for the population.”

Hong Tan, Managing Director of Legend Capital, said “We appreciate Etana’s vision to provide Indonesia with cost-effective biopharmaceuticals. We look forward to working with Etana to achieve this goal. Etana has significant synergy with China’s biopharmaceutical industry. It will become an important bridge to promote cross-border pharmaceutical trade between China and Southeast Asia. Through this cooperation, we believe that Etana will grow into a leading biopharmaceutical company in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.”

Seah Kian Wee, the CEO and Managing Director of UOB Venture Management, said, “We are pleased to be able to support Etana in its efforts to improve the lives of Indonesians through the development of biological medicine using advanced technology. At UOBVM, we have built a deep understanding of ASEAN and its diverse business landscape through our 20 years of experience facilitating the growth of promising private companies through direct equity investments. Building on our regional expertise and collaboration with Etana, we can help to advance the biopharmaceutical industry in ASEAN and reinforce our commitment to promoting the well-being of communities in the region.”

About Etana
PT Etana Biotechnologies Indonesia (Etana) established in 2014 is an Indonesian biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the development and commercialization of biological drugs in the oncology field and other life-threatening disease for the Southeast Asian market. Etana has biotechnology production facilities that meet international standards including Indonesian FDA to produce biologics with aggressive expansion in the progress. Through experienced and dedicated sales and marketing team, Etana aim to serve patients by providing high-quality, affordable, and innovative biopharmaceutical products with a passion to improve healthcare.

About Legend Capital
Legend Capital is an independent professional venture capital company under Legend Holdings. It was established in April 2001. Its core business is positioned at the initial stage of venture capital and expansion stage growth investment. At present, Legend Capital’s USD and RMB funds under management total USD 9 billion, and have been invested in more than 500 companies, of which more than 90 have gone public, and more than 70 have exited through mergers and acquisitions. As a pioneer in the industry, Legend Capital began investing in the medical field since 2007. For many years, Legend Capital has established professional investment capabilities in various segments of medical and healthcare industry, and has worked closely with its portfolio companies to form an unique healthcare ecosystem resource.

About UOB Venture Management Pte Ltd
UOB Venture Management Private Limited (UOBVM) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB), a leading bank in Asia with a global network of around 500 branches and offices. UOB is rated among the world’s top banks: Aa1 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA- by both S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings. Since 1992, UOBVM has been providing financing to privately-held companies in Southeast Asia and Greater China through direct equity investment. UOBVM advocates responsible investing through impact investments and integrating ESG considerations into its investment process. UOBVM is a signatory of the Operating Principles for Impact Management and the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment. UOBVM has assets under management in excess of S$2 billion.

About Innovent
Inspired by the spirit of “Start with Integrity, Succeed through Action,” Innovent’s mission is to develop, manufacture and commercialize high-quality biopharmaceutical products that are affordable to ordinary people. Established in 2011, Innovent is committed to developing, manufacturing and commercializing high quality innovative medicines for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune, metabolic and other major diseases. On October 31, 2018, Innovent was listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited with the stock code: 01801.HK.

Since its inception, Innovent has developed a fully integrated multi-functional platform which includes R&D, CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls), clinical development and commercialization capabilities. Leveraging the platform, the company has built a robust pipeline of 26 valuable assets in the fields of cancer, metabolic, autoimmune disease and other major therapeutic areas, with 5 products – TYVYT (sintilimab injection), BYVASDA (bevacizumab biosimilar injection), SULINNO (adalimumab biosimilar injection), HALPRYZA (rituximab biosimilar injection) and Pemazyre (pemigatinib oral inhibitor) – officially approved for marketing, 1 asset’s NDA under NMPA review, sintilimab’s Biologics License Application (BLA) acceptance in the U.S., 5 assets in Phase 3 or pivotal clinical trials, and an additional 15 molecules in clinical studies.

Innovent has built an international team with advanced talent in high-end biological drug development and commercialization, including many global experts. The company has also entered into strategic collaborations with Eli Lilly and Company, Adimab, Incyte, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Hanmi and other international partners. Innovent strives to work with many collaborators to help advance China’s biopharmaceutical industry, improve drug availability and enhance the quality of the patients’ lives. For more information, please visit: www.innoventbio.com and www.linkedin.com/company/innovent-biologics/.

Legend Capital enjoys 4 MedTech IPOs in 1H2021, focusing on long-term and innovation investment

Recently, Berry Oncology, a company focusing on genomic testing of cancers in China, announced the completion of a US$99.15 million Series B1 financing round, with Legend Capital’s continuous support. This B1 financing round was led by China Merchants Capital Management Co., Ltd. Existing investors Qiming Venture Partners, along with new investors, including Zhongjin Qichen Industry Equity Investment Fund, E Fund, Fujian Venture Investment Management Co., Ltd., Xiamen C&D Emerging Industry Equity Investment Co., Ltd. and other prominent investors also participated in the funding round.

CVSource investment data shows that, the number of financing projects for medical devices in China reached 248, with a financing scale of approximately RMB26 billion in 2020, reaching five-year highest. According to iiMedia Research’s data, the market size of China’s medical devices industry reached RMB765.5 billion in 2020. However, Legend Capital has started investing in the medical device sector as early as 2010, exploring global investment opportunities for innovation continuously.

In the first half of 2021, Legend Capital’s four portfolio companies in the field of medical devices and diagnostics went public successfully; including New Horizon Health (06606.HK), the first public listed cancer screening company in China, Singular Genomics (NASDAQ: OMIC), an innovative sequencing technology research and development company, Chemclin Diagnostics Corporation (688468.SH), the clinical immunology diagnostic product company, and CareRay Digital Medical (688607.SH), a leading company in flat panel detector industry.

In addition, Legend Capital has also invested in projects including Axonics (AXNX), KingMed Diagnostics (603882.SH), Berry Genomics (000710.SZ), EasyDiagnosis (002932.SZ), Aohua Endoscopy, Bioheart, StarSportMed, ET Healthcare, Gkht Medical, Best Brain Health, Puyi Biological, and Reliable Med.

At present, Legend Capital’s investment in the medical and healthcare field mainly involves innovative drugs and biotechnology; medical device and diagnostic; professional services and digital healthcare. In 2021, seven of Legend Capital’s portfolio companies in medical and healthcare industry were successfully listed, while four more are currently in process. Half of them is in the medical device and diagnostic industry.

Legend Capital adheres to three investment principles: early, long-term and innovative investment. For example, as an early investor in Berry Genomics, Legend Capital supported the company’s development all the way to the capital market, and participated in each round of financing of Berry Oncology. ZHOU Jun, the CEO of Berry Oncology, expressed that Berry Oncology took fancy to Legend Capital’s reliable reputation and post-investment value add. Legend Capital has provided a lot of assistance on the business side as well as management and operation.

Legend Capital also invested in New Horizon Health, the first public listed cancer screening company in China, at a very early stage. In 2015, Legend Capital participated in New Horizon Health’s A1 financing round as a lead investor. Furthermore, CHEN Yiyou, the Chairman of New Horizon Health, recalled that when financing difficulties occurred in 2018, Legend Capital, as a shareholder, mobilized multiple resources to help New Horizon Health connect with follow-up lead investors, and over-proportionately participated in the investment, becoming the largest institutional investor of New Horizon Health. “At that time, the increased holdings of Legend Capital also gave new shareholders a lot of confidence,” he mentioned.

Legend Capital divides innovation into two categories, namely continuous improved innovation and disruptive innovation. Among them, Legend Capital attaches particular importance to disruptive innovation. This type of innovation not only requires technology, but also emphasizes more on demand-side scenario innovation. When judging innovation, Legend Capital starts from the demand side of the product, including three types: clinical unmet needs, new user groups, and temporary marginal but long-term promising non-mainstream markets.

In early 2012, the investment in ET Healthcare, as a typical project, examplifies Legend Capital’s foresight in identifying a star innovative company in the field of in vitro diagnostics. ET Healthcare’s underlying technology is world leading, with its headquarter in Silicon Valley. The company’s Pylon3D is a small-scale fully automated immunoassay system, and its sensitivity exceeds the level of the world’s most advanced large-scale immunoassay equipment, redefining POCT.

Jafar Wang, the Co-Chief Investment Officer of Legend Capital, said that, Legend Capital will consider to invest fast-follow or first-in-class companies and believes that Chinese first-in-class companies will definitely appear in batches in the next 5-10 years. Legend Capital is working hard to stay ahead of the curve in this trend. According to Jafar, Legend Capital’s investment pace has accelerated in the first half of 2021, and will continue to maintain the intensity.

Legend Capital makes systematic and detailed research to achieve a head start in research and investment. Joe Zhou, the Managing Director of Legend Capital, expressed that the team puts 80% of its energy on identification and selection before making the decision.

Over 80% of Legend Capital’s medical projects are selected based on its in-house investigation or ecosystem resources. The logic behind Legend Capital’s investment ecosystem lies in the establishment of several sub-industry clusters on the strength of the agglomeration effect of its portfolio companies. Starting from these niche clusters, the investment roadmap is extended outwards to build a larger and unique ecosystem. Besides attracting companies with better quality, Legend Capital leverages the ecosystem to incubate innovative projects, realizing a virtuous circle of multiple wins for all parties involved.

AppsFlyer Launches Conversion Studio to Enable Single Source Mapping for SKAdNetwork Post-install Measurement

AppsFlyer’s latest SKAN innovation provides advertisers full control over metrics measurement in the era of iOS 14+

AppsFlyer, the marketing measurement and experience platform, today launched Conversion Studio, a hyper-flexible solution for conversion value measurement. Conversion Studio enables marketers to master conversion values by maximizing the lifetime value measurement for post-install activity simply and effectively within the limited capacity of the SKAN framework.

“With Conversion Studio, we set out to help marketers with a challenge that has plagued them in the post iOS 14 era: the difficulty in understanding how valuable their acquired users are in the long run,” said Roy Yanai, Head of Product, SKAdNetwork, AppsFlyer. “By design, SKAN limits advertisers to a single conversion value, which only captures one aspect of the user’s post-install activity. With Conversion Studio, AppsFlyer is giving marketers the power to master SKAdNetwork conversions and take back control over SKAN post-install measurement with insight into the lifetime value of their users.”

Conversion Studio provides marketers the ability to easily set their conversion value mapping with the flexibility to measure several metrics simultaneously. With visual cues that show the conversion value capacity and how each metric is measured, advertisers can easily fine-tune their mapping to make sure they’re making the most of virtually any post-install events, including metrics such as revenue, engagement, retention and conversion. Once the conversion value mapping is housed in AppsFlyer, it can be easily shared with all the SKAN integrated partners, serving as a single-source-of-truth for SKAN measurement.

With Conversion Studio, marketers will now be able to:

  • Split measurement metrics. Marketers can now customize their measurement, simultaneously measuring metrics that’s most important to them, such as revenue, in-app engagement, retention and more.
  • Extend the post-install user activity timer to a 72 hour window. By extending the activity timer, marketers will be able to measure longer lifetime value. In addition, marketers have an additional option of knowing when a user was last active, which facilitates the measuring of critical aspects like retention and cohorts.
  •  Measure ranges within any specific metric. Defining flexible ranges within a specific metric enables marketers to be more efficient with the number of conversion values they implement.
  • Measure funnels to optimize the full capacity of lifetime value. By choosing the funnel function in Conversion Studio, advertisers can efficiently measure sequential events by using fewer values, optimizing the amount of in-app events measured.

“With AppsFlyer’s solution for custom conversion value mapping, we finally have the freedom in what and how we want to measure on iOS,” Michal Prokop Grno, Head of Marketing Analytics, Pixel Federation. “And all of that without the need to write a single line of code.”

More information on Conversion Studio is available here:
https://www.appsflyer.com/product-news/marketing-analytics/introducing-conversion-studio/

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ZALL Smart Commerce Group (2098.HK) increased revenue by 40.3% in 1H2021, aims for RMB100 billion on year

ZALL Smart Commerce Group (ZALL; 2098.HK), Asia’s largest B2B e-commerce group, today announced its results for the first half 2021 (January 1 – June 30, 2021). ZALL’s revenue rose by 40.3 per cent year-on-year to RMB 50.16 billion (US$7.76 billion), on the back of stronger Group operating capacity. Gross profit rose to RMB 607 million (US$93.96 million), an increase of 8.1 per cent year-on-year, and profitability remained stable.

Revenues from ZALL’s offline wholesale markets and online Industrial Internet platforms such as Shenzhen Sinoagri, ZALL Steel, and Huasuhui steadily increased, benefitting from the gradual increase of services in ZALL’s ecosystem, spanning wholesale trade markets, agriculture, steel, plastics and chemicals and other industries. Supply chain services such as finance, warehousing, and logistics also continued to empower upstream and downstream customers in the industry value-chain, laying a solid foundation for rapid growth.

Previously, ZALL embarked on a new strategic rebrand and is committed to becoming the world’s largest digital trade platform. The Group looks to incorporate “New Trading Methods” and use advanced digital technologies, such as Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain to achieve this goal.

Mr Qi Zhiping, CEO of ZALL Smart Commerce Group said: “ZALL will focus on innovation and the development of digital trade, leveraging data as the driving force to build a new B2B digital trade ecosystem and improve the efficiency of the industrial chain.”

New brands, New directions, New trends

During the first half of 2021, the Group saw a growth in customer loyalty as its industry vertical platforms such as Shenzhen Sinoagri, ZALL Steel, and Huasuhui expanded into subcategories to provide practical, efficient and convenient supply chain services for upstream and downstream customers in the industry value-chain:

– Shenzhen Sinoagri has been enhancing their online trading of cocoon silk, sugar, and expanded to include live pigs, corn, coffee and other product categories.
– ZALL Steel has successfully passed the CMMI3 international certification, and its SaaS cloud service was significantly upgraded.
– ZALL Steel Warehouse (Fengshan Port) was successfully inaugurated, and its supply chain service system was gradually improved.
– Huasuhui’s supply chain financial service “Plastic Loan” celebrated its first anniversary since its launch and has helped nearly a thousand Micro-, Small- and Medium-Enterprises (MSMEs), enabling a coordinated development ecosystem of industry and finance.
– Leveraging the service capabilities of ZALL’s intelligent trading ecosystem to interconnect domestic and international resources, Zallgo facilitates commodity trade flow between wholesale markets and commodities, creating a trillion-level market of commercial tools through digital empowerment, and is committed to becoming a super portal for industrial Internet transactions and services.
– ZALL’s offline flagship project, North Hankou International Trade Centre (“North Hankou”) actively promotes the integrated development of traditional commerce and live streaming e-commerce. The industry ecology of the live-streaming trade has started to develop, with orders happening at major specialised trading markets in an orderly manner, and the construction of 12 major projects of Wuhan International Trade City progressing smoothly after its upgrade. North Hankou is overall ranked second among China’s commercial markets, and is China’s largest and the world’s leading commercial and logistics platform.

ZALL has also established integrated online and offline development while contributing to China’s economic circulation. As a leader in global digital trade, ZALL established ZALL International Trade Group to service MSMEs that is committed to becoming a large-scale comprehensive import and export trade group that “buy from the world and sell to the world”. Its principal businesses include operating the national pilot market for foreign trade, comprehensive foreign trade services, and import and export trade. The Group’s commodities marketplace, Commodities Intelligence Centre (CIC) uses blockchain technology to provide one-stop cross-border B2B trade to support the entire process of commodity-related transactions, helping companies uncover new business opportunities, reduce transaction costs, and achieve greater trading synergies globally.

ZALL’s robust strategic layout and strong operating capabilities are highlighted in the integration of domestic and foreign trade, both online and offline, and the construction of an efficient supply chain service system. During the first half of 2021, ZALL continues to provide services such as smart warehouse logistics and supply chain finance. Powered by information technology, smart warehouse logistics uses Internet of Things (IoT) to integrate automation, informatization, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies for cargo delivery and storage applications, and has helped companies to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Supply chain financial services such as “factory loans” and “supply-guaranteed E-loans” use real-trading scenarios to promote enterprise innovation through the integration of industry and finance, optimizing the overall capital flow of the industrial supply chain, and improving circulation efficiency.

In addition, ZALL is committed to help companies kickstart their business growth through data technology. During the first half of the year, Wuhan City announced their first batch of 271 digital economy application scenario projects. Two solutions developed by ZALL Research Institute, a subsidiary of ZALL, were selected. They include “Banking Financial Product Data Mutual Trust Project based on Low Code Blockchain Solutions” and “Data Cross-Chain Platform based on Privacy Protection”. This has further enhanced commercial efficiency in the digital realm.

Coupled with its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts, as well as its extraordinary achievements in promoting the digitalisation of traditional enterprises, ZALL has been growing its influence in the field of digital trade for many years. These accomplishments have been widely recognised by the government, financial and industry leaders, media and the general public. During the first half of 2021, ZALL has consecutively won the best new economy award; the most value-added company award; Top 10 listed China Industrial Internet companies; Top 100 in China Industrial Internet (Industrial Digitalization); Hubei’s Best Hong Kong Stock Listed Company among other awards, and was ranked 155th in the Fortune China 500 list in 2021.

In 2020, ZALL achieved a revenue of RMB 72.769 billion (US$11.27 billion), in line with expectations. With steady growth of 40 per cent in 2021, ZALL is expected to achieve RMB 100 billion (US$15.49 billion) in revenue this year and reach the top echelon of the industrial digital trade industry. Through this process, ZALL intends to emerge as a leader in new trading methods, while maximising the value of digital trade, and becoming the world’s leading digital trade platform.

About ZALL Smart Commerce Group

ZALL Smart Commerce Group is a leading Chinese B2B e-commerce group (ranked 155th of Fortune China 500 companies) with a truly global footprint, and its companies trading worldwide: HKSE, NYSE, SSE and SZSE. ZALL Group develops and operates Asia’s largest B2B offline-to-online trade ecosystem, in China and Southeast Asia, including Singapore, with more than 30 B2B platforms in China, US and Singapore, and a GFA of more than 10 million sqm of wholesale trade centres in China. In 2018, ZALL Group achieved a GMV of more than RMB 600 billion (US$85.2 BN), serving over 1 million SME customers worldwide. ZALL has also obtained a virtual banking licence and currently operates Z-Bank in China since 2017, one of China’s Top 5 digital banks that has supported more than 5.5 million SME and individual customers.

Since 2018, ZALL has invested in five projects in Singapore, including the Commodities Intelligence Centre (CIC), Singapore’s first physical commodity eTrading platform (B2B) powered by blockchain technology; ezbuy.sg, Singapore’s leading global online shopping platform; ZMA Smart Capital, an online trade finance company; ZALL Chain Technology, a blockchain solutions company.