New Tracks, Interdisciplinary Fields, Down-Market Expansion, Data Infrastructure... Four Companies Raise Nearly 1.2 Billion RMB in Funding | FreeS Family Funding News · Vol 10

The "FreeS Family Funding News" column regularly publishes updates on portfolio companies from FreeS Fund. In addition to new investments, we also cover follow-on rounds for companies we've previously backed. Together, we witness every step of innovative enterprises as they grow from 0 to 1, 1 to 10, and 10 to 100.

This edition at a glance:

• Biotech and pharma: METiS Pharmaceuticals, a FreeS Fund angel-round portfolio company, completed two consecutive funding rounds totaling $150 million, with FreeS Fund continuing to increase its stake; Xisu Technology, another FreeS Fund angel-round project, completed a tens-of-millions angel+ round, with FreeS Fund also adding to its position.
• Hard and soft tech: Jinen Technology completed a tens-of-millions RMB Series A round, with FreeS Fund as the sole investor; DataPipeline, a FreeS Fund angel-round company, closed a 120 million RMB Series B+ round.

(Funding information in this summary is limited to publicly disclosed deals from April through May, sorted by announcement date.)

METiS Pharmaceuticals, focused on AI-driven drug development and delivery systems, announced the completion of two consecutive funding rounds totaling $150 million. Both rounds were led by PICC Capital and China Life Private Equity Investment Company Limited, with follow-on participation from both new and existing investors including HSG, 5Y Capital, CMB International, Lightspeed, Monolith, and FreeS Fund.

**/ What the Investors Say / **

In the two-plus years since receiving FreeS Fund's angel investment, the METiS team has experienced rocket-ship growth. In 2022, a modified new drug developed by the METiS team is expected to enter clinical trials. Meanwhile, METiS has built proprietary, integrated nucleic acid drug development capabilities spanning mRNA sequence design and LNP delivery system design — with its LNP nucleic acid delivery system achieving expression efficiency more than 10 times above industry standard. We look forward to METiS leveraging AI to bring more drugs into clinical trials and improve human health.

**/ Company Details / **

METiS is dedicated to advancing AI drug and delivery system platform development. Through independent R&D and active external partnerships, the company is working with collaborators to advance high-value drug pipelines in both small molecule and nucleic acid therapeutics toward clinical stages.

Under the leadership of Hongming Chen of the US National Academy of Engineering, Dr. Caida Lai, Dr. Wenshou Wang, and multiple top MIT scientists, METiS has pioneered a new track for artificial intelligence in drug delivery. The company combines its self-developed drug delivery "high-throughput experimental platform" with data-driven "AI algorithms" and mechanism-driven "quantum chemistry and molecular dynamics simulations" to predict the physicochemical and biological properties of small molecule and nucleic acid drugs in specific microenvironments. Using AI-driven dry-wet experimental iteration, METiS achieves more effective lead optimization, nucleic acid sequence design and optimization, and designs superior formulation recipes or nucleic acid delivery systems.

To date, METiS has filed multiple patent applications with significant application value and established pipelines across small molecule and nucleic acid R&D, with its most advanced programs expected to begin pivotal clinical trials in 2023. (See full report: Cell and Gene Therapy — METiS Pharmaceuticals Completes Two Consecutive Funding Rounds Totaling $150 Million to Advance Small Molecule and Gene Therapy Drug Delivery Platform and AI Drug Development)

Xisu Technology, dedicated to developing molecular chip-based DNA synthesis technology, announced the completion of a tens-of-millions RMB angel+ round. The round was led by Qiming Venture Partners, with FreeS Fund and Xinhang Capital participating.

**/ What the Investors Say / **

Xisu Technology is focused on empowering healthcare through semiconductors. Chips plus microfluidics can provide truly high-throughput, ultra-high-sensitivity detection capabilities and highly integrated, compact hardware for biological applications — becoming intelligent infrastructure for biotechnology. Since completing its angel round, the company has overcome pandemic-related challenges, assembled a world-class R&D, engineering, and service team, advanced chip design and tape-out, and brought services to market. Xisu Technology has demonstrated exceptional execution capability and vibrant energy. Congratulations to all shareholders — we look forward to and believe in Xisu's ability to synthesize cheaper, better, longer-chain DNA, empowering more synthetic biology and cutting-edge biotech companies.

**/ Company Details / **

Founded in 2021, Xisu Technology's vision is to develop molecular chips using integrated circuit and other semiconductor technologies, enabling high-throughput synthesis and detection of DNA, RNA, proteins, and other molecules. Xisu Technology is among the first domestic companies developing molecular chip-based DNA synthesis technology.

Since establishing operations in Suzhou Industrial Park in Q4 2021, Xisu Technology has completed proof-of-concept for high-throughput DNA synthesis technology and developed a prototype desktop high-throughput DNA synthesizer. Leveraging its self-built gene synthesis platform and full-process automation management system, the company has successfully developed a series of technical methods and established fully automated sequence analysis, sequence optimization, and order management platforms. Xisu Technology has already begun serving biotech companies and research institutions, with business spanning primer synthesis, gene synthesis, subcloning, site-directed mutagenesis, strain library preparation, and various combination services. (See full report: VB Healthcare — Xisu Technology Raises Tens of Millions in Angel+ Round, Developing Molecular Chip-Driven Biotech Semiconductorization)

Jinen Technology, a one-stop DTC infrastructure service operator for new energy vehicles, announced the completion of a tens-of-millions RMB Series A round, with FreeS Fund as the sole investor.

**/ What the Investors Say / **

New energy has long been a key focus area for FreeS Fund. We see new energy vehicles driving not just product upgrades, but also restructuring downstream channels and services. In recent years, traditional dealership networks have been disrupted, with direct sales, online sales, and other consumer-centric service networks emerging. At the same time, the enormous potential of consumption in lower-tier markets cannot be ignored — this will become a critical battlefield for brands. Founder Rui Zhang and his team understand the business, understand the technology, and can execute — as serial entrepreneurs, they have deep roots in the automotive downstream industry. We believe Jinen can seize this historic opportunity and grow into a leader in new energy services.

**/ Company Details / **

Jinen Technology is currently focused on lower-tier markets, building a one-stop new energy vehicle infrastructure service ecosystem around usage scenarios in smaller cities, thereby promoting broader adoption of new energy vehicles and providing consumers with convenient, economical, low-carbon full-lifecycle automotive services. Beyond new energy vehicle distribution, Jinen Technology's business covers after-sales service and charging/energy replenishment services.

Jinen Technology's core team has long-standing industry experience in automotive industry informatization. Its self-developed "Automotive Distribution Intelligent Collaboration Platform" combines deep industry expertise with extensive industry resources. Its portfolio of over 20 SaaS products connects key nodes across the entire automotive service chain, including supply chain management, vehicle-cargo matching, logistics and warehousing, dealer management, store management, sales management, CRM, after-sales management, financial services integration, insurance services integration, payment settlement, and even vehicle registration system integration. The company is also actively exploring cutting-edge hardware technologies such as lithium battery repair and remote fault diagnosis, aspiring to become a technology-driven service enterprise. (See full report: 36Kr — Jinen Technology Completes Series A, Building New Energy Vehicle Infrastructure Services from Lower-Tier Markets)

DataPipeline, a next-generation data infrastructure provider, announced the completion of a 120 million RMB Series B+ round from prominent investors.

**/ What the Investors Say / **

Congratulations to DataPipeline on completing this new funding round. Digital transformation across industries has now reached deep waters — evolving from early informatization to data intelligence, with the value of data assets rising significantly. But this has also brought new challenges: the cost and complexity of data collection, transmission, storage, operations, management, and analysis have all increased substantially. Data infrastructure has broken free from IT to become an independent, critical topic in its own right. Since its founding, DataPipeline has been deeply rooted in this space, starting from data pipelines and gradually expanding into other directions of data infrastructure, providing enterprises with safer, more flexible, real-time data application capabilities. We believe that with this round of funding, DataPipeline can go even further, providing stronger support for society's digital upgrade.

**/ Company Details / **

DataPipeline focuses on the full landscape of organizational data management, building next-generation data infrastructure based on DataOps principles. The company has developed a clear product line: data fusion products that build core automated data pipeline capabilities, elastic system resource management and automated observability products, and algorithm-driven intelligent data discovery and data security products — covering a complete set of core components around "data pipeline development, management, and security." This product system has consistently led best practices in next-generation data infrastructure across finance, energy, telecommunications, manufacturing, real estate, retail, internet, and other industries, earning recognition from hundreds of customers including multiple Fortune 500 companies. (See full report: DataPipeline — DataPipeline Completes 120 Million RMB Series B+, Defining Next-Generation Data Infrastructure Based on DataOps Principles)

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