Qitan Tech Closes RMB 700 Million Series C Round to Advance Commercialization of Domestic Nanopore Sequencing Technology

Qitan Technology (齐碳科技), a Chengdu-based biotech company, recently announced the completion of a 700 million yuan Series C funding round. The round was led by Meituan, with continued follow-on investment from the Capital Health Big Data Fund managed by Huagai Capital and BioTrack Capital.

Founded in 2016, Qitan Technology is the first Chinese company to independently develop nanopore gene sequencers and bring them to market. Gaorong Ventures led the company's Series A round in 2020 and also participated in its Series B.

Following this funding round, Qitan Technology plans to stay closely attuned to market demand, continue refining its product portfolio, and accelerate the launch of mid- and high-throughput sequencing platforms. The company will also expand into more diverse application scenarios, intensify its market development efforts, and broaden its commercial footprint.

Ushering in the Era of Domestic Nanopore Gene Sequencing

In December 2021, after five years of independent R&D, Qitan Technology successfully launched China's first commercial nanopore gene sequencer, the QNome-3841, and announced the completion of its first production base — officially marking the beginning of the domestic nanopore gene sequencing era. In June 2022, the company released the QNome-3841hex, signaling the start of a product matrix strategy for domestic nanopore sequencers. This development provided new solutions for flexible sequencing scenarios and better addressed the diverse needs of market applications.

Dr. Geng Hu, co-founder and chairman of Qitan Technology, stated: "Thanks to rapid market expansion and our leading commercialization progress, the company has successfully completed this funding round. In 2022, we continued to increase R&D investment, improved our end-to-end nanopore gene sequencing solutions, and actively expanded the market applications of the QNome platform. Our commercialization strategy has yielded results on multiple fronts, with the number of institutional clients exceeding one hundred. Going forward, Qitan Technology will double down on commercialization, continue to leverage the technical advantages of nanopore sequencing, enrich and iterate our products, and constantly explore new application scenarios. We remain committed to leading the domestic nanopore sequencing industry in creating greater real-world productivity and safeguarding human health."

Crossing the "No-Man's-Land of Mass Production"

In the view of Qitan Technology co-founder Dan Xie, as a pioneer of domestic nanopore sequencing technology, the company spent its early years heads-down on technology development, traversing the "no-man's-land of scientific research." In the past two years, it has pressed forward into the "no-man's-land of mass production."

The R&D and mass production of nanopore gene sequencers span multiple disciplines including protein engineering, fluidic chips, electronic circuits, and algorithms. Qitan Technology has assembled multidisciplinary talent through internal cultivation, continuously integrating expertise through the practice of R&D and production testing, ultimately building a team with industrialization capabilities and experience. The company currently employs over 270 people, more than 75% of whom are in technical R&D roles, and over half hold master's or doctoral degrees.

In terms of infrastructure, Qitan Technology has established China's first nanopore gene sequencer production base in Chengdu Tianfu International Bio-Town, with a total investment of nearly 200 million yuan. The facility has an annual capacity of 2,000 sequencers and 1 million sets of supporting detection reagents and chips.

Advancing Commercialization, Building a Fully Domestic Supply Chain

2022 marked Qitan Technology's first year of commercialization. Since launching its domestic nanopore gene sequencers, the company has pursued multiple initiatives to ensure smooth commercialization progress, including talent acquisition, team integration, market expansion, and product iteration. To date, over one hundred institutional users have adopted the QNome sequencing platform, encompassing leading domestic research institutes, universities, hospitals, and CDCs. Application areas include pathogen research, animal disease prevention and control, molecular breeding, forensic investigation, and public health epidemic prevention.

Throughout commercialization, Qitan Technology has remained committed to building a fully domestic supply chain. For the most critical and technically demanding component — the biochip — the company handles everything from chip substrate to coating and pore embedding in-house. For other components, Qitan Technology has maximized the use of domestic raw materials and production equipment from the outset. Currently, more than 95% of the company's supply chain has been localized.

On the intellectual property front, Qitan Technology has broken through overseas patent barriers and holds complete independent intellectual property rights across core technologies including pore proteins, speed-control proteins, fluidic chips, electronic circuits, and algorithms. The company has established a comprehensive domestic and international patent portfolio, with over 200 IP achievements to date, including more than 100 invention patents.

According to BCC Research data, the Chinese gene sequencing market is projected to grow to $4.235 billion by 2026, representing a compound annual growth rate of approximately 21.6%.

As gene sequencing technology continues to innovate and the era of precision medicine arrives, gene sequencing has become a foundational pillar supporting cutting-edge life science research and safeguarding public health. To better meet growing market demand, Xie noted that in 2023, Qitan Technology will launch a mid-throughput sequencing platform along with multiple supporting products, providing customers with higher-quality sequencing solutions.

Looking ahead, Qitan Technology — committed to driving industry development from the upstream and to exploring frontier technologies — expressed its hope to work hand-in-hand with industry peers to explore the advantages and broad market prospects of domestic nanopore gene sequencing technology across multiple scenarios, build an ecosystem platform for nanopore gene sequencing, and jointly contribute wisdom and strength to the steady development of China's healthcare industry.