BlueRun Ventures | BlueRun Ventures Continues to Double Down, Zhitai Bio Closes Nearly RMB 200 Million Series B+ Round

Zhitai Biomedical Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. ("Zhitai Bio") announced the completion of a nearly RMB 200 million Series B+ funding round. The round was led by Imeik Technology Development and China-US Green Fund, with other major investors including Jiayuan Fund, Chengdu Sci-Tech Innovation Investment Group, and Jincheng Fund. Existing investor BlueRun Ventures continued to increase its stake. Proceeds from this round will primarily advance clinical trials for its first-in-class and biosimilar pipelines. Zhitai Bio's production base is nearing completion and will soon become operational; with this funding round closed, the company is positioned to accelerate industrial scaling and expand into domestic and international markets.

BlueRun Ventures led Zhitai Bio's Series B round.

BlueRun Ventures stated: Zhitai Bio has consistently pursued differentiated innovation. Its ultra-long-acting GLP-1 product features a uniquely extended dosing interval that could offer patients a differentiated therapy with significantly improved compliance. We remain confident that Zhitai will become a major player in weight management, both in China and globally.

Zhitai Bio — A Recombinant Protein Drug Innovation Platform Focused on Metabolic Diseases

Founded in 2018, Zhitai Bio specializes in developing recombinant protein therapeutics using its E. coli technology platform. The core team largely hails from international metabolic drug giant Novo Nordisk. Chairman Xujia Zhang holds a PhD from Peking University and previously served as a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Biophysics. He joined Novo Nordisk in 2007 as VP of R&D, where he established the company's E. coli recombinant protein technology platform and led more than 30 R&D programs built on that platform, accumulating over three decades of experience in biopharmaceuticals and scientific research.

In March 2023, Zhitai Bio announced its Series B funding of over RMB 100 million, led by BlueRun Ventures. This marks its second financing within a year, bringing total capital raised in 2023 to nearly RMB 300 million — a strong signal of investor confidence in the company's value despite the current market environment. Zhitai Bio's pipeline now comprises more than 10 programs, with comprehensive coverage of major indications in metabolic disease centered on the GLP-1 target. Global pharmaceutical sales data shows the GLP-1 drug market has grown rapidly in recent years, reaching $22.6 billion in 2022 and capturing nearly 38% of the diabetes drug market, making it the largest growth driver in diabetes care today. Beyond their established efficacy in weight management, GLP-1 drugs are also being explored for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, Alzheimer's disease, and other indications — with broad potential for label expansion, cementing their status as the "gold standard" foundational therapy in the global metabolic disease field.

Differentiated Innovation — A Next-Generation GLP-1 Product with Global Competitiveness:

Ultra-Long-Acting Injectable & Oral Formulations

Since its Series B round earlier this year, Zhitai Bio's core pipeline has achieved major clinical milestones. Its self-developed novel ultra-long-acting GLP-1 receptor agonist ZT002 has completed Phase I clinical studies in Australia for glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes. Domestically, ZT002 received clinical trial approvals in the first half of 2023 for three indications: glycemic control in type 2 diabetes, weight management in obese or overweight adults, and Alzheimer's disease.

ZT002, positioned as an iteration on semaglutide, is the world's first novel ultra-long-acting GLP-1 receptor agonist, with primary indications in diabetes and weight management. Through optimized molecular design, ZT002 achieves the longest half-life of any known GLP-1 analog, potentially enabling once-monthly injection — dramatically reducing dosing frequency, improving patient compliance, and alleviating the burden of frequent injections. This breaks through the weekly dosing ceiling of market-leading products including Novo Nordisk's semaglutide. Leveraging its proprietary QLLong long-acting technology platform, QLFold E. coli technology platform, and QLOral oral drug technology platform, Zhitai Bio has addressed the critical pain points of extremely low bioavailability and insufficient production capacity for oral peptide drugs through optimized formulation and molecular engineering.

Dual-Engine Growth — A Semaglutide Biosimilar with Significant Market Advantages,

Partnering with Imeik to Capture the Weight Management Gold Rush

Beyond innovative drugs, Zhitai Bio has moved early to secure domestic commercialization opportunities with a competitively positioned semaglutide biosimilar, pursuing a "two-winged, synergistic development" strategy combining innovative and generic medicines. Its self-developed ZT001 is a biosimilar of Novo Nordisk's long-acting GLP-1 drug semaglutide, targeting diabetes and weight management indications. Zhitai Bio has reached a co-development strategic partnership with this round's lead investor Imeik, a leader in biomedical technology, signing a "Technology Licensing and MAH Cooperation Agreement" that grants Imeik Greater China rights for ZT001's weight management indication. This powerful alliance positions Zhitai Bio to capture significant share of the weight management market. With the expansion into weight management indications, semaglutide has effectively taken on consumer product characteristics, and Zhitai Bio will continue to unlock its substantial commercial potential going forward.

Commercial Potential — Targeting Critical Scale-Up Bottlenecks with Technology Platforms,

Aiming to Break Through GLP-1 Industry Capacity Constraints

From a process perspective, peptide drug manufacturing encompasses fermentation, separation, refolding, purification, and other steps, with industry-wide bottlenecks at each stage. Zhitai Bio's QLFold technology platform targets the most critical inclusion body refolding step at the industry's core, raising the refolding rate from the prevailing sub-20% level to over 90%, substantially improving overall yield and potentially breaking through the most fundamental capacity constraint in the GLP-1 industry. With this process, Zhitai Bio has significantly increased unit production capacity while reducing construction and manufacturing costs. The company's Taizhou production base is scheduled to commence operations in March 2024, with annual production capacity of 40 million doses of semaglutide biosimilar.

Xujia Zhang, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Zhitai Bio, said: "We are deeply grateful to our new and existing investors for their recognition and continued support of Zhitai Bio. We have navigated the arduous early stage of 'a long and difficult road, yet arrival comes to those who walk it,' and through persistent effort — 'walking without ceasing' — we have reached a point where 'the future holds promise.' Our team's more than ten years of accumulated expertise in metabolic disease has yielded technology platforms with distinctive strengths and competitive advantages, a pipeline matrix around GLP-1 analogs, and continuous innovation and iteration capabilities. Through the dedicated efforts of our entire team, several programs have already achieved important clinical milestones. Zhitai Bio remains committed to 'maintaining sharp industry insight' and 'developing products that benefit more patients.' Our future goal continues to be patient-centered: through independent R&D and continuous innovation, leveraging our platform's technological advantages, cost advantages, and production capacity advantages, to provide more accessible, more effective, and more competitive products — rooted in China, facing the world."

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Originating in Silicon Valley, BlueRun Ventures was established in 2005 as a venture capital firm focused on early-stage startups.

BlueRun Ventures currently manages multiple USD and RMB dual-currency funds in China, with assets under management exceeding RMB 15 billion, making it one of the largest early-stage funds domestically. The firm invests primarily at Pre-A and Series A stages across technology, consumer, and healthcare sectors, with nearly 200 portfolio companies including Li Auto, Waterdrop, QingCloud, Guazi.com, Qudian, Ganji.com, Energy Monster, Gaussian Robotics, Songguo Mobility, Yuntu Semiconductor, Machenike, Yunheng Intelligence, Anxinnet, and BioMap.

BlueRun Ventures has been ranked #1 on Zero2IPO's "China's Top 30 Early-Stage Investment Institutions," #1 on ChinaVenture's "China's Best Early-Stage Venture Capital Institutions TOP30," and named among Preqin's Top 10 VC fund managers globally for consistent high-return performance.

The firm has also received consecutive recognition from Forbes China, 36Kr, Cyzone, Caixin Media, CBNweekly, Jiemian, and other media organizations as "China's Best Early-Stage Institution of the Year," "China's Top-Tier Venture Capital Institution," "Most Entrepreneur-Friendly Early-Stage Institution of the Year," and "Most Influential Early-Stage Institution of the Year."