Investment led by Hillhouse Affiliate GL Ventures, Leading Blood Purification Enterprise SWS Raised Hundreds of Millions in Strategic Financing

Hillhouse Capital investment helps the leading blood purification company list on the Science and Technology Innovation Board.

Source: VBDATA.CN
Link: https://www.vbdata.cn/48680

[Chongqing, China, Nov 2020] SWS Hemodialysis Care Co., Ltd. announced the completion of its strategic financing, raising hundreds of millions of yuan. This round of financing was led by Hillhouse affiliate GL Ventures, followed by Xiangjiang Ind. Investment and Xiangjiang Liyuan Jianling and other investors.

SWS Hemodialysis Care Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “SWS”) was founded in 2001. As a “full-industry-chain” company, SWS provides blood purification equipment and disposables, intelligent management system and chain dialysis center services. Focused on blood purification for more than 20 years, SWS has become a domestic market leader who participated in drafting national and industry standards.

As a leading enterprise in the hemodialysis industry, SWS has drafted and formulated 3 national standards and 5 industry standards in the field of blood purification in China. As a national innovative enterprise and a national technological innovation demonstration enterprise, SWS has independently developed continuous blood purification equipment (CRRT), hemodialysis machine, hemoperfusion machine, as well as disposables including dialyzer, dialysate filter, dialysis tubing, hemoperfusion cartridge, dialysis powder/liquid, relying on its original core technologies. SWS products are widely used in the treatment of acute and chronic renal failure, uremia, poisoning, multiple system failure and other critical illnesses. SWS products have been listed into the "Excellent Domestic Medical Equipment" catalog. Its product quality is stable and reliable. The company has obtained the IS013485:2016 quality management system certification, and its product series bear CE marking. 

The SWS-5000 series CRRT independently developed by the company played an important role in saving critically ill Covid patients, which was praised by the epidemic prevention work group of the State Council.

SWS blood purification products are among the demonstration projects for the application of domestic innovative medical devices and the national foreign aid supplies which are widely used in China's foreign aid hospital projects, such as the Kifa Health Center in Mauritania and the General Hospital of Niger, contributing to the "Belt and Road" strategy.

The company's products have been sold to thousands of medical institutions in China, including the PLA General Hospital, affiliated hospitals of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Zhujiang Hospital Affiliated to Southern Medical University, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, many other well-known large-scale Level A secondary hospitals, and exported to more than 60 countries and regions, including Italy, Greece, Spain, Malaysia, India, and South Africa. Among the installed machines in the market, there are tens of thousands from SWS, which has served over 100,000 kidney disease patients globally.

As the domestic medical machinery industry chain becomes increasingly complete, substitution of imported products with domestic devices will be the most important investment strategy in the field of medical devices in the coming decade. As a top investment institution, Hillhouse has long being invested in the medical field. The reason for its heavy position in medical devices is that there is a large space for independent import substitution, while SWS as a leading enterprise in blood purification, is one of the best targets that fits into independent alternative medical devices.

The head of biomedicine and medical devices investment at GL Ventures said: "The number of hemodialysis care patients in China have been increasing in recent years. Hemodialysis equipment is of great significance to mitigate patients' symptoms and sustain life, and can also alleviate the burden of national medical insurances. SWS has been committed to driving growth through technological innovation and enhancing core competitiveness via technology and service upgrade. It has ended the monopoly of foreign suppliers, and built the reputation and popularity of domestic brands in the blood purification industry. We will support the company’s R&D and innovation to promote the development of domestic medical devices and benefit more patients.”

About Hillhouse
Hillhouse Capital is an investment firm focused on long-term, structured value investment, founded by Mr. ZHANG Lei. It has grown into one of the largest and best-performing investment funds in Asia. Hillhouse helped many companies such as Tencent and JD.com to successfully go public, and its invested companies are listed in the world's five major stock exchanges.