"Inside Listed Companies - LEPU Medical Technology" and "Medical Device Overseas Expansion" Post-Investment Events Successfully Held!

Tong Academy

Inside Listed Companies Series

From founding to going public, building a company is a long and arduous journey. While pursuing technological breakthroughs, healthcare startups also face challenges spanning corporate strategy, business models, capital operations, and management.

To better support the steady growth of portfolio companies, we launched the "Inside Listed Companies" series of post-investment events, aiming to create a platform for entrepreneurs to exchange ideas and learn from industry leaders and innovation pioneers, fostering collaboration and synergistic innovation across the industrial chain.

For this edition, we visited Lifotronic.

On January 24, 2024, Dalton Venture, together with its family companies, successfully held the "Inside Listed Companies — Lifotronic" event.

Dalton Venture has long focused on investment opportunities in healthcare innovation, with medical devices being its largest investment area. Medical devices represent a segment that has matured sufficiently to enable steady, iterative innovation, offering multiple sources of investment value: social impact, technological advancement, and long-term returns. As a mid-to-early-stage investment firm focused on healthcare, Dalton Venture applies an industrial investment philosophy to the full lifecycle of fundraising, investing, portfolio management, and exits, while continuously identifying new opportunities arising from resource integration, diversification, and cross-boundary collaboration. The Inside Listed Companies series aims to build an efficient and convenient exchange platform for industrial synergy and potential partnerships within our ecosystem.

At this event, Dalton Venture brought its family companies to the Greater Bay Area, organizing two themed sessions around two hot topics of recent interest. In the morning, we visited Lifotronic to discuss the development opportunities of diversified strategies for medical device companies; in the afternoon, we visited family company Hanuo Medical for a session on the positioning and strategy of medical device international expansion. At this "Going Global" event, Mindray Vice Chairman Cheng Minghe was invited to share his experience with Dalton Venture's family companies.

Vol. 1

Lifotronic Session

Differentiation as Foundation, Iterative Innovation

Founded in 2008, Lifotronic initially focused on therapeutic and rehabilitation devices, before entering the in-vitro diagnostics segment in 2013. In recent years, with the rise of the "appearance economy," the skin and medical aesthetics industry has grown rapidly. Building on its deep expertise in wound phototherapy and through successful acquisitions, Lifotronic has gradually expanded into skin aesthetics and consumer health, becoming one of the domestic manufacturers with the most comprehensive series of medical aesthetics equipment. With its rich product portfolio, differentiated product strategy, and successful cross-boundary expansion, Lifotronic's multiple business segments continue to unlock new growth momentum.

Pictured: Scenes from the Lifotronic exhibition hall tour

Themed "Differentiation as Foundation, Iterative Innovation," the event featured in-depth sharing and discussion around differentiated product line positioning, trends and opportunities in crossing from serious medicine to consumer health, and other topics. Lifotronic Chairman Liu Xiancheng, Lifotronic President Hu Minglong, Lifotronic Chief Operating Officer Zeng Ying, Dalton Venture Founding Managing Partner Sun Qi, Dalton Venture Founding Partner Huang Ning, the Dalton Venture team, and over 30 founders and senior executives from more than ten Dalton Venture portfolio companies including Bochuang Bio, Great Orion, Forerunner Medical, Hanuo Medical, Juhuan Tech, Kangyuan Medical, Rui'anxing, Weituo Bio, Xingchenhai Medical, and Zhiting Tech attended the event.

The event began with Lifotronic General Manager Hu Minglong leading attendees on a tour of the Lifotronic exhibition hall, providing an in-depth introduction to the company's development history, diversified industrial layout, and market applications.

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Remarks by Dalton Venture Founding Partner Huang Ning

Remarks by Lifotronic Chairman Liu Xiancheng

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Scenes from the Q&A session

In his opening remarks, Dalton Venture Founding Partner Huang Ning stated, "The Inside Listed Companies series is one of Dalton Venture's most valued post-investment strategic initiatives. We hope that through these hands-on learning and exchange opportunities, we can create chances for portfolio companies to benchmark against industry leaders and gain insights for their own development. In this process, entrepreneurs can openly observe and absorb the valuable experience of ecosystem companies' growth. The intention behind every post-investment event we organize is for family companies to come with their own needs, to uncover the specific methods and paths behind successful companies, and to build a mutually supportive ecosystem where everyone grows together. In the long run, we are all contributing to the development of China's healthcare technology industry as a whole."

In his keynote sharing, Lifotronic Chairman Liu Xiancheng detailed the company's development history and strategic layout. In his advice to startups, he emphasized that building a company into a platform-type enterprise with diversified products and diversified markets is essential for achieving sustainable long-term development and stable revenue growth. "Stay customer-centric and focus on differentiated value creation. Prioritize R&D, because high investment in R&D is the internal driving force for rapid company growth. At the same time, strengthen deep integration with industry-academia-research collaborations — this is the external traction that helps propel the company forward." He shared his entrepreneurial philosophy and practices with the family companies.

In the subsequent Q&A session, Lifotronic Chairman Liu Xiancheng, Lifotronic President Hu Minglong, and Lifotronic Chief Operating Officer Zeng Ying engaged in in-depth discussions with attendees on core topics including "how to balance R&D and sales investment at different development stages," "how to build diversified market and product strategies," "opportunities and challenges in crossing from serious medicine to consumer health," and "how to establish sales channels shifting from in-hospital to out-of-hospital settings." "A company's value is the value of its product differentiation. And to make differentiation real requires dynamic research and tracking of the market and competitive landscape, striving to offer what others don't have and to do better what others do, creating unique product value. Only this way can you avoid getting trapped in price wars on the same track." In closing the Q&A, Liu Xiancheng shared his thoughts on the essence of differentiated competition.

Vol. 2

Going Global Session

Breaking Out of the Price War, Setting Sail for the Sea

In recent years, as medical insurance payment pressures have increased and centralized procurement has become the industry norm, domestic medical device companies face intense price competition. At the same time, global demand for relevant medical device products remained high over the past three years, with Chinese device products playing important roles in supply chain stability and international procurement, creating unprecedented opportunities for Chinese medical devices to go global. Both innovation intensity and registration volumes have increased significantly. Statistics show that overseas registration volumes for Chinese medical device manufacturers have been rising sharply year by year.

Chinese medical device companies are increasingly looking to overseas markets, and Dalton Venture has also made international expansion capability one of the key criteria in its subsequent investment decisions and post-investment management. In the afternoon session, we visited Dalton Venture family company Hanuo Medical for a "Going Global" post-investment event. Cheng Minghe, Vice Chairman of international medical device leader Mindray, attended as a special guest to share his experience and advice on Chinese medical device companies expanding into international markets. The event was held both online and offline, with over 60 participants in total.

Remarks by Hanuo Medical Chairman Liu Yang

Hanuo Medical Chairman Liu Yang welcomed the attending guests and members of the Dalton Venture Tong Academy family. As the first domestic ECMO manufacturer with independent intellectual property, Hanuo has now launched its global commercialization strategy, advancing its domestic ECMO and other extracorporeal life support innovative products to overseas markets. Sharing his thoughts and preparations for going global, Liu Yang said, "We positioned ourselves for international development from day one. From product R&D, manufacturing, and quality control to subsequent registration and promotion, Hanuo has brought in management and technical talent with extensive experience in this niche globally, which has laid a strong foundation for our international business. Of course, the prerequisite for going global is that products must achieve quality reliability and safety, complete international market certification and compliance, and thoroughly research market conditions, regulatory policies, and local reimbursement systems in each region. Whether in the domestic or international market, across the full product lifecycle, only through focus and continuous innovation can a company survive."

Keynote sharing by Mindray Vice Chairman Cheng Minghe

Mindray launched its internationalization strategy as early as the 1990s. Its medical device products are sold in over 200 countries and regions, with subsidiaries in 40 countries. The company has not only accumulated rich channel resources but also developed deep localized operational expertise. Mindray Vice Chairman Cheng Minghe shared with Dalton Venture's family companies around topics including "regional selection and product strategy for medical device international expansion," "core competencies companies need to build for going global," and "how to identify and select professional partners," drawing on specific cases. He noted that companies need patience when going global: first identify market gaps, establish product positioning, then build comprehensive product competitiveness, and develop a thorough going-global strategy based on market research. Beyond pursuing technological innovation and product performance, companies must also pay close attention to after-sales service, product accessories, intellectual property, and regulations.

In his closing remarks, Dalton Venture Founding Managing Partner Sun Qi stated that as Chinese medical device companies' innovation capabilities and scale expand, the new landscape is driving industry development. China's medical device exports will continue to grow steadily, and Chinese device companies will play an important role in global device trade. Going forward, we can expect to see more outstanding Chinese innovative companies on the international stage.

Pictured: Scenes from the Q&A session

After the event, participating guests expressed that they gained much from the exchanges. Going forward, Dalton Venture will provide support and empowerment around specific questions regarding industrial resource synergy raised by family companies. We sincerely hope that facing the current complex and changing market environment, ecosystem companies can unite, communicate, and collaborate, working together to meet every challenge and achieve mutual value growth.

END

ID: daltonventure

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