Rongbao | Hydrogen energy and battery management tech firms secure new funding; innovative drug targets precise efficacy

About Rongbao

All things grow, and spring is not to be missed. Technology and innovation serve as the driving force, enabling future-facing applications and products to break through the soil and grow into lush oases and forests. This edition of Rongbao rounds up breakthroughs by leading companies in innovative drug R&D, carbon neutrality, AI, globalization, and more.

News

Alto Neuroscience Lists on NYSE Pioneering Precision Medicines for Mental Health

On February 2, Alto Neuroscience ("Alto"), a precision medicine company focused on mental health, successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "ANRO." Gaorong Ventures participated in Alto's Series C round in 2023.

Alto is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing personalized and effective treatments for patients with psychiatric disorders through big data analytics in mental health, redefining psychiatric therapeutics.

Founded in 2019 by Stanford University psychiatry professor Dr. Amit Etkin, Alto aims to leverage a deep understanding of brain function to develop precision therapeutics more efficiently through a differentiated drug development approach, sparing patients potentially lengthy and ineffective treatment journeys.

Alto has advanced five clinical-stage pipelines, initially targeting major depressive disorder (MDD) and schizophrenia populations characterized by specific brain biomarkers. All of these pipelines have passed Phase I clinical validation with favorable safety and tolerability profiles observed. Read more

Chint Group's Tai Hydrogen Energy Completes 150 Million RMB Pre-A Round Expanding "Green Power + Green Hydrogen" Applications

Shanghai Tai Hydrogen Energy Technology Co., Ltd. ("Tai Hydrogen Energy") announced the completion of its Pre-A round, raising 150 million RMB. This round was led by Gaorong Ventures, with Boyu Capital co-investing and existing shareholders making additional investments.

Tai Hydrogen Energy was established in March 2022 by Chint Group, a globally renowned smart energy systems solutions provider, with Shanghai REFIRE Group, a leading global hydrogen technology enterprise, participating as a founding shareholder. Since its inception, Tai Hydrogen Energy has been guided by Chint's hydrogen energy strategy, continuously promoting the integrated development of "hydrogen power + energy." The company is anchored as a system solutions provider for hydrogen production and hydrogen power generation equipment, committed to advancing hydrogen energy technology and applications. It has already built a professional team, developed mature hydrogen production and power generation products, and secured MW-scale orders and demonstration applications.

Going forward, Tai Hydrogen Energy will strengthen its industrial capabilities through multiple initiatives: developing high-performance core equipment, bringing in expert teams, laying out key hydrogen production materials, and expanding manufacturing capacity. The company will continue to expand clean energy integrated application models based on "green power + green hydrogen," providing global customers with higher-quality, more reliable hydrogen energy solutions. Read more

Xieneng Technology Completes Series C Round Building Industrialized Battery Management Technology and Product Matrix

Recently, Hangzhou Xieneng Technology Co., Ltd. ("Xieneng Technology"), a leading third-party BMS provider for energy storage, completed its Series C round. Gaorong Ventures participated in the investment, alongside Xiaomi's strategic investment arm, CITIC Securities, Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group, Geely, and others.

Xieneng Technology has focused on new energy battery management technology for over a decade, mastering core BMS (battery management system) technology and building a full-scenario energy ecosystem, enabling energy digitalization through technology. Based on BMS, the company serves applications including energy storage, power systems, telecom backup power, and second-life battery utilization, providing high-safety, high-reliability, high-performance products and quality services.

As a leading third-party energy storage BMS company, Xieneng Technology served over 2,500 projects in 2023, with products and footprints spanning more than 50 countries and regions worldwide.

ProfoundBio Completes $112 Million Series B Round Advancing Key Clinical Development of ADC Drugs

Recently, ProfoundBio, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing next-generation antibody-drug conjugates ("ADCs") for cancer patients, announced the completion of a $112 million Series B round. The round was led by Ally Bridge Group, with participation from numerous top-tier specialist healthcare and mutual fund institutional investors. Gaorong Ventures had previously participated in ProfoundBio's Pre-A and Series A rounds in 2021.

ProfoundBio's product pipeline primarily comprises antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and other antibody-based therapeutics. Leveraging its proprietary innovative technology platforms, the company has developed a portfolio of ADC drug candidates targeting multiple tumor targets, currently at various stages of drug discovery, preclinical, and clinical development.

This financing will advance ProfoundBio's preclinical and clinical-stage ADC pipeline, including: Rina-S, an ADC targeting folate receptor alpha (FRα), currently in Phase II studies for ovarian and endometrial cancer patients, with pivotal clinical studies in ovarian cancer expected to initiate later this year; and PRO1160, a CD70-targeting ADC currently in Phase I studies, with initial results expected to be published in 2024. Read more

Data Insights

XVerse Unveils AI Voice Solution High-Naturalness Voice Generated from Just 5 Minutes of Data

Recently, XVerse introduced a highly customizable voice solution that leverages large-model text preprocessing, semantic understanding, and emotion modeling, among other technical approaches, to generate high-naturalness voice from as little as 5 minutes of data. This addresses the limitations of traditional voice solutions in naturalness and newer large-model-based approaches in cost-effectiveness in one go. The solution can be widely applied in customer service, virtual IPs, live streaming, audiobooks, voice assistants, and other fields.

Through multi-layered technical processing, XVerse's voice solution supports high-naturalness, high-stability, multi-emotion, multi-scenario adaptive voice synthesis, as well as low-cost, high-precision voice cloning. Technically, the company uses a self-developed large model to convert written text into more natural spoken language, incorporating more paralinguistic features such as hesitations and stutters to ensure the final voice output approaches real conversation. For voice generation, it employs models such as BERT for deep semantic and emotional modeling, ensuring not only accurate pronunciation but also richer emotional expression.

Voice is the most natural form of interaction in the real world and a key to immersion in virtual worlds. XVerse will continue to deepen its R&D in related technologies, pushing for on-the-spot voice cloning and voice synthesis that is more human-like, emotionally nuanced, and highly controllable (output based on arbitrary text prompts).

Vertilite Pioneers Ultra-Small Divergence Angle AR-VCSEL Enhancing Detection Range and Resolution of VCSEL-Based LiDAR

Recently, Vertilite showcased its innovative product for automotive LiDAR — the ultra-small divergence angle AR-VCSEL (anti-reflective vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser) — in a paper published in Nature Communications online. This marks a major breakthrough for Vertilite in achieving low divergence and high brightness, overcoming limitations faced by conventional long-cavity multi-junction VCSELs.

AR-VCSEL technology is pioneered by Vertilite. To date, AR-VCSELs have shipped over one million units, making Vertilite the first company in the industry to mass-produce small-angle VCSELs. AR-VCSEL has set multiple world records in the VCSEL field, including small divergence angle, high brightness, and single-mode optical power, significantly improving the detection range and resolution of VCSEL-based LiDAR.

AR-VCSEL represents a major breakthrough in VCSEL fundamental structure design. Conventional small-divergence-angle long-cavity VCSELs are often plagued by multi-wavelength lasing issues. AR-VCSEL introduces anti-reflective and light-storage regions, dramatically reducing the resonator cavity length to ensure single-longitudinal-mode (single-wavelength) lasing. Furthermore, AR-VCSEL can control its D86 divergence angle to any angle between 8-20 degrees by controlling the oxide confinement factor, conveniently enabling customization for automotive LiDAR customers' angle requirements. While conventional VCSELs in LiDAR struggle to detect distances beyond 200 meters, AR-VCSEL is expected to excel in the 200-400 meter range.

Fable Pharma: AI-End-to-End-Enabled FB1006 Project Completes Full Patient Enrollment for ALS IIT Study

Recently, Fable Pharma announced that its FB1006 project, empowered by AI throughout the entire process from target discovery to clinical trials, has successfully completed enrollment of all 64 patients. This investigator-initiated trial (IIT) is being conducted at Peking University Third Hospital as a proof-of-concept study for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The double-blind dosing observation period is expected to complete in August this year, with the one-year clinical treatment observation concluding in February 2025.

This fully AI-enabled IIT study was advocated by Fable Pharma founder Professor Bai Lu of Tsinghua University, with Professor Dongsheng Fan, a renowned ALS clinical expert at Peking University Third Hospital, serving as the principal investigator, in close collaboration with Fable Pharma and multiple other institutions. The study innovatively applies AI technology in patient selection and efficacy assessment. These technologies not only significantly shorten patient recruitment time, enabling precise screening and enrollment of all patients within one year, but also maximize the use of subjects' clinical data to address the challenge of insufficient sample sizes in rare diseases. This IIT study explores a globally leading clinical research model for effectively improving ALS clinical trial success rates and reducing R&D costs.

FB1006 employs a drug repurposing strategy, completing rapid iteration from target to clinic in less than one year. During this period, leveraging its accumulated expertise in translational and clinical medicine for neurological diseases, Fable Pharma completed target validation and candidate drug molecule selection, and quickly initiated the drug's IIT study.

Cathay Biotech's Class I New Drug CS060304 Approved for Clinical Study For Treatment of Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) Patients

On February 19, Cathay Biotech announced that the clinical trial application (IND) for CS060304, a Class I new drug with independent intellectual property rights developed by the company, received implicit approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

CS060304 is a small-molecule agonist targeting thyroid hormone receptor beta (TRβ), intended for the treatment of patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). In NASH mouse models, CS060304 significantly improved NAS scores and fibrosis, demonstrating characteristics of low effective dose, significant efficacy, and good tolerability. Its clinical trial approval offers a potentially safe and effective treatment option for NASH patients.

NASH is a chronic metabolic liver disease that can progress to cirrhosis and even liver cancer. Currently, no drugs are approved for NASH treatment in either China or the U.S., and effective, tolerable treatment options are urgently needed clinically.

Beyond CS060304, Cathay Biotech's CS0159 has received FDA Fast Track designation and PSC Orphan Drug designation, with Phase II clinical trials progressing simultaneously in China and the U.S. Meanwhile, two additional innovative drug molecules are advancing toward IND, potentially bringing more innovative therapies to patients with metabolic diseases including NASH, PBC, and PSC in China and globally.

Dianxiaomi Acquires Cross-Border Compliance Platform KuaiXinTong Serving 2 Million+ E-Commerce Sellers, Globalization Accelerating

On February 20, cross-border SaaS e-commerce service provider Dianxiaomi announced the acquisition of a majority stake in KuaiXinTong, a one-stop compliance platform covering global VAT taxation, product compliance, intellectual property, business registration, and more. This move marks another expansion of Dianxiaomi's global service footprint and continued acceleration of its globalization. KuaiXinTong maintains offices in Frankfurt, Germany; Besançon and Antibes, France; London, UK; Milan, Italy; and numerous other countries and regions.

As a global leading e-commerce IT service company, Dianxiaomi focuses on providing SaaS system services for global e-commerce sellers, addressing their pain points and making global business more efficient. To date, it has served over 2 million e-commerce sellers worldwide. KuaiXinTong has years of deep experience in cross-border compliance, specializing in secure compliance registration and filing services for cross-border sellers, having cumulatively served over 120,000+ clients.

Cross-border SaaS products and compliance registration services are key drivers for refined operations management among cross-border sellers. KuaiXinTong will complement Dianxiaomi's existing diversified product ecosystem spanning ERP, intelligent customer service systems, global logistics tracking, European and American coupon communities, and cross-border shared warehousing, filling the gap in compliance services. This will further promote the upgrade toward compliant and refined business models in the cross-border market, helping sellers achieve compliance and reduce risks across all business segments.

Aqara Enters Japan Amazon, Best Buy, and More International Expansion Rapidly Accelerating

Recently, Aqara announced deepened cooperation with Amazon, launching seven smart products for Japanese users on Amazon Japan for the first time, including the Hub M2, Smart Camera E1, Door and Window Sensor P2, Temperature and Humidity Sensor, Motion Sensor, Wireless Mini Switch, and Door and Window Sensor. This cooperation marks Aqara's continued strengthening of overseas market efforts, advancing its brand's international layout at a faster pace.

As one of the most beloved smart home brands among global users, Aqara products support mainstream smart home standards and platforms including Matter, Apple Home, Samsung SmartThings, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home. Currently, Aqara has launched over 30 categories and 1,000+ SKUs covering hubs, controllers, sensors, lighting, smart locks, and more.

Aqara's international development is entering a phase of rapid acceleration. In late January, Aqara announced a deep cooperation with Best Buy, the world's largest retailer of consumer electronics and appliances, officially listing multiple Aqara smart products on BestBuy.com. Currently, Aqara products have established presence across Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania; completed launches of self-operated Amazon stores in the U.S., Canada, UK, France, Italy, Spain, and other countries. Additionally, numerous Aqara products are displayed and sold in Apple Store retail locations and online stores in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, France, Germany, UK, South Korea, and more.

Nothing Announces Its Third Smartphone — Phone (2a)

Nothing announced the launch of its third smartphone — the Nothing Phone (2a) — on March 5. Nothing stated that the Phone (2a) is the product of bold design decisions and meticulous engineering.

Building on its transparent back cover foundation, the Phone (2a) unlocks new design possibilities by fusing human warmth with cutting-edge engineering. The Phone (2a) emphasizes outstanding performance and camera capabilities while prioritizing design innovation and software.

The Phone (2a) is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro processor and introduces Smart Clean technology, maintaining flash storage performance close to new-device levels even after extended use, enhancing the user experience.

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