On November 21, 2022, Suzhou Weiweisi Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Weiweisi) completed a Pre-B round of financing of hundreds of millions of yuan. This round of financing was led by SDIC Chuanghe, followed by Dingxin Capital and Anji Liangshan. Yicai Capital served as Weiweisi’s exclusive financial advisor in this transaction.

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Weiweisi was founded in 2019 and is committed to building China’s first “active Class III device + data service” cardiac rhythm management platform to combat sudden cardiac death. In just over two years, the company’s independently developed semi-automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) have successively obtained CE and NMPA registration certificates, and wearable automatic external defibrillators (WCDs) are about to enter the human clinical stage.

In China, about 545,000 people die from sudden cardiac death each year, and defibrillators are the “life-saving artifact” to combat sudden cardiac death. AED is the most familiar and common defibrillator product, which is mostly deployed in public places and emergency places. Public data shows that developed countries such as the United States and Japan have respectively equipped 700 units/100,000 people and 793 units/100,000 people, while China’s current average level is less than 0.2 units/100,000 people. In June 2019, the State Council’s “Opinions on Implementing the Healthy China Action” clearly pointed out that AEDs should be equipped in crowded public places. The China Red Cross Society and the Emergency Medicine Branch of the Chinese Medical Association have also formed an expert consensus to recommend that provinces and cities complete the AED coverage of public places according to the configuration principle of 100-200 units/100,000 people. It is expected that the annual market space for AEDs in my country will reach 5 billion yuan.

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Semi-automatic external defibrillator (AED)
Vives’ second-generation AED product breaks the core technology barrier and successfully reduces the product weight to less than 700g. The front size of the product is about the size of a smartphone, successfully creating a mobile AED scene. It can be worn by trained traffic police, firefighters, outdoor first aid personnel, etc., which greatly reduces the precious first aid time consumed in the process of judgment, search and back and forth retrieval, thereby greatly improving the efficiency of AED use and coverage. Thanks to the optimization of product weight and volume, VIS integrated the second-generation AED with a customized light drone and launched the drone AED. Due to the unique lightweight structural design, the drone can adapt to the requirements of urban flight permits and is exempt from flight approval in suitable airspace. The drone AED intelligent dispatching system is interconnected with the emergency center. For mobile coverage of outdoor scenes such as cities, mountains, woodlands, and scenic spots, the emergency center can dispatch online to achieve rapid rescue.

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VIS’s second-generation AED product

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Drone AED (AirAED)
Through the integrated and coordinated layout of its fixed-position AED, mobile AED, and drone AED, VIS pioneered the “air-ground integrated” AED three-dimensional rescue solution, which will significantly improve the efficiency of first aid and the coverage of AED in my country.
Another core product of the company, the wearable automatic external defibrillator (WCD), mainly provides continuous protection for patients at high risk of short-term sudden cardiac death during the wearing period, and automatically defibrillates when the patient suffers cardiac arrest due to ventricular arrhythmia. Weiweisi’s WCD product has entered the green channel for innovative medical device review in January 2021, and will begin clinical enrollment preparations in 2022. By then, it will become the first in China and the third in the world to obtain WCD certification. In August 2022, Weiweisi was successfully selected as the unit for the innovation task of artificial intelligence medical devices with its “wearable automatic external defibrillator (WCD) and sudden death risk artificial intelligence assessment system”, becoming the main body of innovation task research.

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Wearable Automatic External Defibrillator (WCD)
Since its establishment, VIS has been committed to deeply combining active device research and development with data services. Based on its core product, wearable automatic external defibrillator, through the long-term big data characteristics of wearable products, combined with my country’s rapidly developing 5G data transmission advantages, it has focused on developing the application of artificial intelligence technology in sudden death risk assessment, building a ventricular arrhythmia data service management platform, and launching the world’s first sudden cardiac death risk assessment system, transforming passive sudden cardiac death defibrillation treatment into active health management with prevention as the main focus, to protect the life and health of patients.

VIS has joined hands with multiple strategic partners such as Blue Sail Medical and Fosun Medical to accelerate the national layout of AED products. At the beginning of 2022, VIS and its partner Blue Sail Medical successfully provided AED emergency rescue guarantee for the Chaoyang District Urban Volunteer Service Station of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

This round of financing will help VIS WCD product clinical trials advance, and the company’s heavy reserve products in the R&D pipeline will officially enter the prototype stage; the company’s AED products will also simultaneously expand production capacity, accelerate multi-category R&D and overseas sales layout.