DCP, Sequoia lead Series B for China's Valgen Medtech
DCP Capital has continued its run of investments in China’s medical devices industry by participating in a Series B funding round for Hangzhou Valgen Medtech.
The round amounted to multiple hundred million dollars, according to a statement, which gave no further information on the financial terms. DCP co-led with Sequoia Capital China, and then additional contributions came from Venus Medtech, Qiming Venture Partners, Lake Bleu Capital, a healthcare fund operated by China Life, and Ascendum Capital Partners.
Ascendum is a healthcare investment firm established last year by DCP, Qiming, and Venus. They provided the capital for a $43.9 million first close on Ascendum’s debut fund, which has an overall target of $200 million. The fund invests exclusively in medical device businesses.
DCP and Qiming are both investors in Venus, which specializes in transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), a minimally invasive heart procedure commonly used on patients who are thought likely to experience complications in open-heart surgery. The company listed in Hong Kong in late 2019.
Valgen develops technologies used in the treatment of structural heart disease, notably lesions to the mitral and tricuspid valves. Mitral regurgitation – where the mitral valve on the left side of the heart does not close properly – is the most common heart valve disease, with more than 10 million patients in China classified as moderate to severe sufferers.
About half of the few million patients who require instant treatment are inoperable due to age, poor heart function, and other complications. However, advances in the transcatheter mitral valve space, especially minimally invasive procedures enabled by the likes of Venus and Valgen, have broadened the treatment options.
Valgen’s flagship product is DragonFly, the only transcatheter mitral valve repair technology developed by a Chinese company. Last December, a team of doctors at the Second Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine became the first in China to complete a human repair procedure, using DragonFly. The patient was discharged from hospital two days later.
Valgen was founded in 2015 and incubated by DiNova Medtech, a leading domestic incubation and investment group in the life sciences space. Venus is one of its portfolio companies.
“DiNova is the most successful platform for disruptive medical technology in China. Since its establishment, DiNova has successfully incubated numerous leading medical device companies in the interventional cardiology space. Valgen’s great achievement in the most difficult field of structural heart disease once again showcases DiNova management team’s unparalleled vision,” said David Liu, executive chairman of DCP.
DCP was established by Liu and Julian Wolhardt, who previously held leadership positions with KKR in China. A debut fund closed at $2.5 billion in 2019. Other healthcare investments include Tonghua Dongbao Pharmaceutical, a Chinese pharmaceutical company specializing in diabetes treatment.
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