- Chinese startups in advanced manufacturing, optical interconnects and AI-driven biotech secured fresh funding
- The latest rounds will support next-generation lithography, high-speed optical links and AI-native clinical trials
Yuzhiquan closes pre-Series B financing to advance lithography
Hangzhou-based micro- and nanolithography equipment maker Yuzhiquan (玉之泉) has completed a pre-Series B financing round worth hundreds of millions of yuan.
The round was jointly led by Shenzhen Capital Group and JIC Group, with participation from Hengxu Capital, the investment arm of SAIC Motor, as well as Boyan VC, China IC-Tech Capital Ningbo Fund, Jinhua Capital, Silicon Harbour and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Entrepreneurial Investment Guidance Fund, among others.
The financing marks a new round of backing from state-linked investors for Yuzhiquan, an early-stage investment of Hangzhou’s two major science and technology funds.
Founded in 2022, Yuzhiquan builds on more than three decades of micro- and nanolithography research at Zhejiang University.
Its founding team includes professors Liu Xu (刘旭) and Kuang Cuifang (匡翠方) and other researchers from Zhejiang University’s School of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering.
The company’s flagship two-photon three-dimensional laser direct-writing lithography system can achieve processing precision of 40 nanometers.
Its proprietary “10,000-channel 3D nanolaser direct-writing lithography system” can generate more than 10,000 parallel laser focal points simultaneously and process wafers with a maximum area equivalent to a 12-inch wafer.
Yuzhiquan’s equipment is used in semiconductors, optical communications, quantum technology and nuclear fusion.
Following the latest financing, the company plans to allocate capital across technology development, production capacity expansion, market operations and talent recruitment.
Lightepoch secures angel+ funding to scale optical interconnect tech
Shanghai-based optical interconnect startup Lightepoch (芯光界) has completed an angel+ financing round worth hundreds of millions of yuan. The investors were not disclosed.
The round comes shortly after the company raised a 100-million-yuan ($14.9 million) angel round led exclusively by Qiming Venture Partners around August 25.
The new financing will support the development and iteration of its NPO and CPO optical interconnect technologies and products, customer validation and commercialization, as well as the recruitment of senior R&D talent and expansion of its team.
Founded in 2026 by internationally recognized experts in silicon photonics and optical interconnects, Lightepoch is developing optical interconnect technologies and solutions for large-scale AI computing clusters.
The company follows a three-stage technology roadmap: entering the market with NPO, making CPO its mainstream platform and eventually expanding into OIO. It has developed in-house capabilities spanning chip design, packaging and coupling through to system-level signal integrity.
Its first NPO optical engine has entered technical discussions and validation with leading Chinese GPU manufacturers and data-center customers.
Lightepoch is also participating in the development of industry standards including those promoted by ODCC and the OPEN CPX MSA.
Prime Life Sciences raises nearly $15 million in Series A1 round
Hangzhou-based Prime Life Sciences, an AI-native clinical-trial infrastructure company, has completed an A1 round worth nearly 100 million yuan ($14.9 million).
The financing was led by CICC Capital, with Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia, Suzhou New District Hi-Tech Industrial Co. and other investors participating.
Founded in 2021 by Wang Zheng, a PhD in cardiac surgery from Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, the company has developed an end-to-end AI platform covering the full eSource-to-eCRF workflow.
Prime Life Sciences says its platform can increase clinical-trial efficiency tenfold, reduce labor costs by 80% and cut R&D timelines by 50%.
The platform currently covers more than 80 top-tier hospitals across 25 cities in 15 Chinese provinces.
The company says it ranks first by market share among China’s top 100 and top 300 clinical-trial institutions and has completed proof-of-concept projects or supplier onboarding with more than half of the world’s top 20 multinational pharmaceutical companies.
Wang said the company has already begun preparing for another financing round. The new capital will be used to expand its global AI-native clinical network, further develop its agent-based systems and support international expansion.
HaiNa SmartCool snags angel+ round to bet on cooling tech
Hangzhou-based chip thermal-management company HaiNa SmartCool (海纳智冷) has completed an angel+ financing round worth tens of millions of yuan.
Founded in February 2026, the company focuses on the development and commercialization of thermal-management technologies for high-performance chips and components, providing solutions for three key markets: AI computing centers, AI chips and embodied robots.
HaiNa SmartCool has completed two financing rounds since its founding. It raised tens of millions of yuan in an angel round in May led by Ofound Angel Investment, followed by another angel+ round in August backed by multiple prominent investment institutions.
The two rounds have raised approximately 100 million yuan ($14.9 million) in total.
The company’s core technologies originated from a team of nationally recognized high-level talent at Zhejiang University. Its core members are graduates of Zhejiang University, Tsinghua University, MIT, EPFL and the University of Tokyo, with experience at leading international research institutions and multinational companies.
The latest financing will be used to advance core technology development, expand the team and accelerate product engineering and market expansion across AI data centers, AI chips and embodied AI robots.
