China-based synthetic biology technology developer Tidetron has raised hundreds of millions of yuan (RMB100m = $15.7m) in a series A-plus round featuring Legend Capital, the venture capital firm formed by conglomerate Legend Holdings, 36Kr reported yesterday.
Venture capital firm IDG Capital led the round, which included Unity Ventures and ZhenFund and which took Tidetron’s total funding to over $100m. It reportedly represents the company’s fourth funding round.
Founded in 2021, Tidetron is working on raw materials derived from biologically fermented methods for use in diverse contexts including beauty, food and biopharmaceutical products. The technology involves gene-editing tools developed at Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU)’s Zhongshan School of Medicine.
Zhang Zhiqian, Tidetron’s founder and CEO, came up with the idea while pursuing his PhD studies at SYSU. He told 36Kr: “Having researched this topic for over a couple of years, I got into synthetic biology and realised that new mechanisms could be made possible to regulate biology to some degree, and it made me very excited.” (Translated from Chinese by Global Corporate Venturing)
Tidetron intends to apply its existing synthetic products in new areas that directly influence people’s lives in a bid to scale its business. The company also looks to work with other industries and academia with its technology to “grow” rather than “make” things, added Zhang.