"The Tech + Biotech" Crossover: A New Investment Consensus on Convergent Innovation

Source: 36Kr

Years of deep expertise in technology, distilled into a unique perspective that brings cross-disciplinary innovation to healthcare and biotech — this is Source Code Capital's investment philosophy for "technology + biomedicine," and the long-term commitment its healthcare team lives by every day.

— Yungang Huang, Partner at Source Code Capital

2021 is coming to a close.

This year, as the world continued to grapple with the pandemic, the biomedical field kept searching for dawn's first light — and after years of quiet accumulation, saw multiple breakthrough innovations finally emerge.

Among the major milestones: AlphaFold2, hailed as "one of the most important scientific achievements of the 21st century," whose rapid and accurate protein structure predictions opened new possibilities for disease prevention and treatment. There were also numerous cross-disciplinary applications of "technology + biomedicine," from AI-driven drug and formulation development to portable medical devices born from industrial design and technology integration — all aimed at continuously improving the quality of human life.

Technology Convergence, Cross-Disciplinary Innovation

Source Code Capital, known for its technology investments, began deploying in the technology + healthcare space as early as 2019. "Years of deep expertise in technology, distilled into a unique perspective that brings cross-disciplinary innovation to healthcare and biotech — this is Source Code Capital's investment philosophy for 'technology + biomedicine,' and the long-term commitment our healthcare team lives by every day," said Yungang Huang, Partner at Source Code Capital.

The firm's investment philosophy in this space can be summarized as "three commitments": a commitment to creating lasting, real value; a commitment to systematic, deep learning; and a commitment to believing in the innovative consensus that emerges from cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Biomedical research and commercialization require extraordinary patience and conviction, yet each innovation can transform human society on a massive scale. Source Code Capital sees the profound possibilities behind this significance, believes the future is already arriving, and has positioned itself early to support difficult but important directions. But seeing is only the first step — systematic understanding is required to provide precise support. Source Code Capital's healthcare investment team comprises industry experts who consistently pursue knowledge, true knowledge, and new knowledge. Their cross-disciplinary investment journeys reveal a team that practices what it preaches, busy in research labs, manufacturing facilities, and corporate offices. Most importantly, as technology advances, disciplinary boundaries have blurred. The development of biomedicine as a science now requires more powerful technological tools and their commercial applications. Source Code Capital's philosophy aims to bring entrepreneurs panoramic, integrated innovation and the power of cross-disciplinary collaboration.

To date, Source Code Capital has invested in numerous leading companies in healthcare-related fields, including METiS, Galixir, Nutshell Therapeutics, Bota Bio, Keya Medical, Jianhai Technology, WeiMai, Xiaoyaoyao,无疆脑科技, Sibionics,墨卓生物, and Qinno Robotics.

Three Investment Stories, Three Cross-Disciplinary Journeys

Yuhao Zhang, an investor at Source Code Capital, holds a PhD in biophysics from Peking University and has spent years working at the frontier of biomedical investing. DeepWise was a new investment Zhang led after joining Source Code Capital, deploying again from the "technology convergence, cross-disciplinary innovation" philosophy — leading the company's Series B of tens of millions of dollars.

DeepWise emerged from academia. Founder and Chief Scientist Linfeng Zhang's "deep potential" team won the Gordon Bell Prize, the highest honor in international high-performance computing and the "Nobel Prize of HPC."

Approaching from the technology angle, Zhang was initially struck by DeepWise's revolutionary new paradigm of "machine learning + scientific computing + high-performance computing." He also systematically understood how this paradigm applied to complex cross-scale modeling tasks — such as molecular dynamics problems, how precise physical modeling was brought into materials simulation, and what practical applications this held for chemistry, biology, pharmaceuticals, and beyond.

Over several months, Zhang visited DeepWise's founding team repeatedly, often from evening glow to late-night stars, talking for hours each time. Whiteboards in conference rooms filled with discussions on how to better commercialize "deep potential." The continuous collision and examination between teams crossed traditional disciplinary boundaries spanning mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine, ultimately clarifying that building a scientific computing ecosystem supported by high-performance computing would have profound significance for innovative drug and materials design. This investment reflected Source Code Capital's conviction in cross-disciplinary technology convergence.

Seeking new models through cross-disciplinary collaboration was also the fundamental path Source Code Capital took in leading Bota Bio's Series B. The technology + biomedicine combination manifested in the integration of synthetic biology, gene editing tools, and high-throughput automation.

Bota Bio is a synthetic biology company dedicated to enzyme engineering and strain development and optimization. By combining bio-computation and machine learning with systematic, engineering-based editing of organisms, it provides solutions for multiple industries including pharmaceuticals, ultimately reaching production. Machine learning and related fields are areas where Source Code Capital excels in technology investing, but translating this to synthetic biology and gene editing required the healthcare team to rapidly move from learning to practice — from understanding how strain engineering could sustainably reduce biosynthesis costs, to grasping how technology enables bio-manufacturing.

Moreover, in this partnership, Bota Bio's scientists brought deep expertise, while Source Code's team understood how to support fast-growing technology + biomedicine companies — a cross-disciplinary collaboration in itself. Scientists from different countries and talent with genuine global production experience converged at Bota Bio. Source Code Capital is particularly adept at helping R&D-focused companies navigate business development challenges. The post-investment team worked deeply with the company, and within six months assisted Bota Bio in organizational and talent structuring, incentive and performance system improvement, OKR implementation and execution; helped recruit for select senior positions; and provided systematic management courses and consulting empowerment.

Dr. Cheryl Cui, CEO of Bota Bio, holds a PhD in medical engineering and biophysics from the Harvard-MIT program. She believes that "transformations in human productivity come from a few technological innovations, and such innovations require free, inclusive environments. In such environments, innovation born from cross-disciplinary collaboration emerges naturally. Source Code deeply understands this new model of cross-disciplinary collaboration, and I can say with full conviction that this firm has genuine patience for technological innovation."

And cross-disciplinary collaboration, integrated innovation must also solve real societal problems and bring genuine, lasting value to more people. Source Code Capital portfolio company Sibionics has been continuously pushing boundaries in serving people with diabetes.

According to data from the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), 10% of adults globally suffer from diabetes, with patient numbers growing 16% in just two years. In China, diabetes cases have grown 50% over the past decade, with half of patients still unaware. Awareness requires continuous monitoring of blood glucose changes. Traditional blood glucose meters have significant drawbacks: patients must frequently prick their fingertips for blood, and cannot generate continuous data to observe trends. On November 4, the National Medical Products Administration approved Sibionics' independently developed domestic first continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system with full independent intellectual property — a 14-day calibration-free real-time CGM — and formally issued a Class III medical device registration certificate. From this point, people with diabetes can monitor at home, painlessly and seamlessly, with real-time data alerts.

Sibionics persisted for nearly six years to reach this day of commercialization, with Source Code Capital's steadfast support throughout. This product solved multiple complex cross-disciplinary challenges: basic hardware and proprietary chip development, how miniature enzyme sensors react with interstitial fluid glucose and transmit electrical current, how current converts to signals, how 25 signals are processed by algorithms and transmitted to terminals, and more.

Along the way, Source Code Capital's healthcare investment team built professional thinking systems through practicing what they preached. Beyond continuous deep learning, several investors pricked themselves with needles almost daily to test various devices and products, simulating patient experiences to record data and provide detailed feedback. The team also particularly emphasized guiding the integration of algorithms with medical analysis, and how to work backwards from the end goal to achieve product commercialization and mass production.

Yu Zhao, Chairman of Sibionics, said: "Communicating with Yungang, you see how he goes from unfamiliarity to quickly becoming an industry expert, and how he brings internet experience, strategic and management thinking to the company — his cross-disciplinary speed is remarkable." This time, Source Code Capital once again carried its "technology + biomedicine" investment philosophy through from beginning to end, landing it in reality.

Professional Systematization, Long-Term Patience

Biomedicine is not a sector easily mastered or systematically understood. Yungang Huang invested tremendous effort in pioneering Source Code Capital's "technology + biomedicine" exploration.

In recruiting talent, he was more like seeking kindred spirits. Today, Source Code Capital has assembled a five-person healthcare investment team: one Peking University PhD and two Tsinghua University PhDs, with diverse backgrounds but shared purpose — to cross boundaries with entrepreneurs and find new consensus through cross-disciplinary innovation. To spark more possibilities where technology meets biomedicine, and to support these idealistic entrepreneurs in making China's technology + biomedicine future more globally influential.

Yuhao Zhang holds a PhD in biophysics from Peking University and has led or participated in investments in DeepWise, Nutshell Therapeutics, Insilico Medicine,百奥智汇,普瑞基准, Polaris Biology, Qitan Technology, Keya Robotics,博睿康, and Bota Bioscience. Yankai Li received his PhD in engineering from Tsinghua University in 2018, previously worked at Boston Consulting Group and MSA Capital, and focuses on healthcare investing. Lu Ni received his PhD in immunology from Tsinghua University in 2020, studying under Academician Chen Dong, former Dean of Tsinghua University School of Medicine and Director of the Institute for Immunology; before joining Source Code Capital, he focused on frontier biology research and investing at Baidu Venture. Xufeng Li holds a master's degree in computer science from University College Cork, Ireland, previously worked at ByteDance's strategic investment department and Yingfeng Investment, led and participated in multiple AI and robotics projects, and invested in AI pharmaceutical company望石科技 and digital therapeutics company无疆脑科学.

The investment team's cross-disciplinary thinking has also been integrated into Source Code Capital's consistent post-investment services. Strategy, policy, organization, talent, marketing and other functions are all exploring the characteristics and needs of scientist-entrepreneurs, helping scientists leverage their expertise to achieve greater commercial success.

Cross-disciplinary collaboration, integrated innovation. Source Code Capital will always create lasting, real value and systematically empower entrepreneurs, working with "technology + biomedicine" founders to co-create products and services of tremendous value to humanity, enabling more people to access better life experiences through advanced medical services.

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