China-based clinical contract research organisation (CRO) dMed closed a $100m series C round yesterday featuring Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Lilly Asia Ventures, vehicles for healthcare consortium Kaiser Permanente and pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly.
Investment and financial services group Fidelity led the round and was joined by venture capital firms Qiming Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital China, healthcare investment firm Vivo Capital and asset manager E Fund Management.
Founded in 2016, dMed provides CRO services for companies in the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors. It helps biotech companies in China access the US market, but also companies in the West attempting to navigate China’s regulatory framework.
The company has operations in cities across China but also in the United States and Europe. It collected close to $50m in a Vivo Capital-led series B round in October 2019 that included Lilly Asia Ventures, Qiming Venture Partners and Legend Capital, the VC firm spun off by conglomerate Legend Holdings.
Lilly Asia Ventures and existing investor Qiming had already co-led dMed’s $8m series A round in 2016, investing alongside biopharmaceutical company Zai Laboratory and Tairui Investment.
Lingshi Tan, dMed’s chairman and CEO, said: “A key goal in the current round is to expand our investor base to include long-term public market-focused institutions and strategic partners in order to prepare for a future IPO.
“Fidelity, which led the series C, is an excellent example of the expansion to the strong foundation we are building to continue the company’s rapid organic growth and support our acquisition strategy.”