Oral care brand BOP has closed a 160 million yuan ($25 million) Series B funding round led by DCM, while genetic testing and diagnostics startup Genskey has raised 100 million yuan ($15 million) in a Series C+ round.
DCM, Lightspeed back oral care brand BOP
Oral care brand BOP has pocketed 160 million yuan ($25 million) in a Series B round funding led by global investment firm DCM with participation from Lightspeed China Partners, per a company statement on Tuesday.
The funding round also attracted existing investors Bertelsmann Asia Investments (BAI) and Beyond Ventures, a Hong Kong-based investment firm co-launched in 2017 by eGarden, Hony Capital, and serial entrepreneur Marvin Huang. Investment bank Index served as the exclusive financial advisor for the deal.
BAI together with technology-focused Next Capital had poured 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) in BOP’s pre-A round funding last year.
Launched in 2019, BOP positions itself as an innovative oral brand for younger people, especially urban women. Its pipeline products include mouthwashes, tooth whitening strips, and oral sprays, and it plans to expand to toothpastes, water flossers, and electric toothbrushes.
Genskey bags $15m in Series C+ round
Genskey, a Beijing-based startup that specialises in genetic testing and diagnostics, has completed its Series C+ round of financing raising 100 million yuan ($15 million).
The round was joined by Oriza Seed, an early-stage equity investment platform of Oriza Holdings, and Taikang Asset Management’s investment arm Taikang Investment, per a company statement on Tuesday.
The Series C+ round comes after a ‘tens of millions of US dollars’ worth of strategic investment from CITIC Private Equity Funds Management (CPE).
Genskey will invest the proceeds to accelerate the development of infectious diseases-based screening products.
Four-year-old Genskey utilises next-generation sequencing technology for pathogen diagnosis, which ensures a high detection rate. Its flagship product is GenseqPM that can detect any pathogenic micro-organism.
In November last year, Genskey had raised 230 million yuan ($34 million) in a Series C round of financing led by Huagai Capital and joined by Apricot Capital, YuanBio Venture Capital and Legend Capital. Prior to that, Softbank’s China arm SBCVC had also participated in its 100 million yuan ($15 million) Series B round funding in 2019.