On October 20, the China Canada Innovation and Entrepreneurship Cooperation Forum, one of the activities of the 2020 Overseas Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week, was successfully held in Beijing. Zheng Haojun, Director of Science and Technology Communication Center of China Association for Science and Technology, Dominic Barton, Ambassador of the Canadian Embassy in China, Song Yijun, Commercial Counsellor of the Canadian Embassy in China, Su Yang, Deputy District Head of Fengtai District, Beijing, Wei Xinya, Deputy Director of Fengtai Park Management Committee of Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park, Xin Tianmin, Deputy General Manager of Hualong International Nuclear Power Technology Co., Ltd., Liu Yingna, founding partner of CCAA China Canada Angel Alliance, and other guests attended, Cooperate with representatives of Canadian entrepreneurs, Chinese enterprises and investment institutions to participate.

As an important part of the 2020 Overseas Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week, the China Canada Innovation and Entrepreneurship Cooperation Forum aims to build a bridge for exchanges and cooperation between the government, embassies, China Canada entrepreneurial enterprises and investment institutions, practically promote China Canada scientific and technological innovation cooperation and entrepreneurial culture exchanges, and promote and implement the smooth implementation of international projects.

The forum included the signing ceremony of the letter of intent for the landing of some Hicool award-winning projects in Fengtai Park, Zhongguancun Science Park, the symposium on China Canada scientific and technological innovation exchange and international innovation and entrepreneurship cooperation, and the online and offline sharing of Canadian entrepreneurial enterprises, presenting a China Canada innovation and entrepreneurship cooperation feast for the audience.

At the forum site, Xin Tianmin, Deputy General Manager of Hualong International Nuclear Power Technology Co., Ltd., made a speech to share. Xintianmin said that Hualong International is working with relevant units of the nuclear power industry chain to promote the deep integration and optimization innovation of Hualong No.1 technology. As a nuclear power technology company facing both domestic and international markets, Hualong International has always maintained an open attitude, strengthened cooperation and exchanges with global partners, and sought cooperation opportunities. Canada has a deep technology and talent base in the nuclear power field, and has good nuclear safety performance. Hualong International is willing to work with relevant Canadian government agencies and enterprises to promote the safe operation and innovative development of nuclear power, jointly build a benign nuclear power ecosystem, and make greater contributions to promoting clean energy development and achieving the goal of carbon neutrality.

Picture: Xin Tianmin, Deputy General Manager of Hualong International Nuclear Power Technology Co., Ltd., delivers a speech at the forum

Liu Yingna, founding partner of CCAA China Canada Angel Alliance, introduced the development of CCAA China Canada Angel Alliance in the past six years. In 2014, Zhongguancun Dahe Capital started investment and innovation cooperation overseas, mainly relying on China Canada Angel Alliance (CCAA) and China Canada Joint Venture Camp (CAMP) to carry out business work in Canada. CCAA China Canada Angel Alliance is committed to building a cross-border ecosystem between China and Canada to help the development of startups with joint investment, entrepreneurial mentor services and domestic and foreign channel resources.

Over the past six years, CCAA has invested in more than 40 enterprises, with an accumulated investment amount of nearly 20 million Canadian dollars, including many projects such as ApplyBoard whose valuation has increased by more than 100 times. In 2015, the China Canada Joint Venture Camp (CAMP) was officially launched. Every year, 10 excellent entrepreneurial teams were selected in Canada, invested and brought to China for a two-week training. Since 2016, the entrepreneurial camp has been successfully held for 4 times, with more than 40 Canadian entrepreneurial teams studying in China and 16 branches or business cooperation in China. Looking forward to the future, CCAA and CAMP will continue to do what has been proved right, continue to invest in some innovative enterprises in Canada, and help those enterprises connect more resources.

Picture: Liu Yingna, founding partner of CCAA China Canada Angel Alliance, introduces the development of CCAA China Canada Angel Alliance

At the forum, Su Yang, Deputy District Head of Fengtai District, Beijing, Dominic Barton, Ambassador of the Canadian Embassy in China, and Zheng Haojun, Director of the Science and Technology Communication Center of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology addressed the forum.

Su Yang, the deputy head of Fengtai District, said in his speech that the annual national “Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week” was coming, and various innovation subjects and innovation service institutions of Fengtai District responded positively, contributing to the wonderful cohesion and imagining the future Beijing branch venue. Fengtai has a profound scientific and technological development background, a sufficient reserve of human resources and a strong entrepreneurial atmosphere. In Fengtai, especially in the Science Park, there are many central enterprises, municipal and central science academies, 110000 professional technicians, more than 1000 well-known experts at home and abroad, and a superior business environment. There are a series of preferential policies to promote the development of high-end industries and scientific and technological innovation, which provide a strong policy guarantee for economic development, innovation and entrepreneurship, talent services, etc. At the same time, according to the new overall planning of Beijing, Fengtai District has also ushered in the best development period in history, with profound advantages for future development, and will also become a new growth pole and hot land for investment in the capital. Su Yang said that from the perspective of Fengtai government and Fengtai Park, the very important direction in the future is to build an innovation park with international influence and innovation. We hope to gather and cultivate a number of international innovative enterprises and attract and cultivate a number of international leading talents. At the same time, we will also provide high-end and personalized services in supporting services such as housing security, children’s education, insurance archiving and cultural life.

Picture: Su Yang, Deputy District Head of Fengtai District, delivers a speech for the forum

Dominic Barton, Ambassador of the Canadian Embassy in China, said in his speech that the innovation cooperation between China and Canada has been going very smoothly. Innovation is an unchanging pattern, which will give us a lot of impetus. I think China and Canada have a joint force in this regard. China and Canada have many natural bases for cooperation. Canada has a developed economy, high-quality universities and top research institutions. China has a huge market and rapidly developing technology. The two sides can complement each other’s advantages in the cooperation of scientific and technological innovation to find the best fit point. We look forward to continuously supporting relevant institutions in the future and hope that the two countries can cultivate more unicorn enterprises.

Picture: Dominic Barton, Ambassador of the Canadian Embassy in China, addressed the forum

Zheng Haojun, director of the Science and Technology Communication Center of China Association for Science and Technology, said that the Overseas Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week is an important part of the National Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week. Since it was first held in 2017, more than 100 events have been held in more than 50 cities in 29 countries on five continents in three years, which has been warmly responded by local entrepreneurs and the industry. In order to further give play to the leading and supporting role of scientific and technological innovation in the construction of the “the Belt and Road”, the 2020 Overseas Activity Week will continue to carry out online oriented and offline “Internet plus” innovation and entrepreneurship activities, discuss local innovation and entrepreneurship policies, and connect innovation and entrepreneurship development achievements, in combination with the overall situation of international epidemic prevention and control, and around the scientific and technological innovation cooperation needs of countries along the line. As an important platform for gathering global innovation and entrepreneurship talents, the Overseas Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week hopes to take this China Canada Innovation and Entrepreneurship Cooperation Forum as an opportunity to further promote win-win cooperation in science and technology innovation between China and Canada. It is expected that through deeper, broader and stronger exchanges and mutual learning, greater creativity can be unleashed and more impressive innovation achievements can emerge.

Picture: Zheng Haojun, Director of Science and Technology Communication Center of China Association for Science and Technology, delivers a speech

At the same time, the forum held an intention signing ceremony for the landing of some Hicool award-winning projects in Fengtai Park, Zhongguancun Science Park. In September this year, the Hicool Global Entrepreneur Competition Award Ceremony was held in Beijing, and 100 global entrepreneur awards recommended by 82 countries and regions around the world were announced. It is worth mentioning that CCAA China Canada Angel Alliance, as the organizer of Hicool Global Entrepreneur Competition – Canada Division, organized 116 entrepreneurial projects to participate, and 6 projects won the final awards. With the promotion of Fengtai District Government, Fengtai Park Management Committee of Zhongguancun Science Park, CCAA, etc., a total of 3 projects are intended to be located in Fengtai Park of Zhongguancun Science Park.

Picture: Signing ceremony of Wenxin Technology’s intention to land in Fengtai Park, Zhongguancun Science Park

Thematic forums and online and offline exhibitions of Canadian enterprises were held at the same time. Song Yijun, Commercial Counsellor of the Canadian Embassy in China, Wei Xinya, Deputy Director of Fengtai Park Management Committee of Zhongguancun Science Park, Fang Yu, founding partner of Bencao Capital, Zhao Chen, China’s managing partner of Plug and Play, and other guests participated in the in-depth discussion on China Canada innovation, development and internationalization. Canadian startups such as Fibos, Marine Thinking, Neptune NanoTechnologies, ARI, etc. made enterprise sharing at the forum, focusing on the innovative achievements of Canadian enterprises in the fields of optical fiber sensors, nano biomaterials, artificial intelligence robots, etc.

On September 16, ApplyBoard, an online platform dedicated to “providing the best education for students around the world”, an angel round investment enterprise of China Canada Angel Alliance (CCAA) managed by Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, announced that it had completed an additional financing of 70 million Canadian dollars. Based on the 100 million Canadian dollars invested by Drive Capital in May this year, the total amount of the C-round financing of ApplyBoard reached 170 million Canadian dollars (US $129 million).

This round of financing will be pursued by Education Testing Services (ETS), Index Ventures, Blue Cloud Ventures, Harmonic Growth Partners and other investors. This round of financing will mainly be used for technology research and innovation, expanding the scope of business map provided to schools and students, cooperating with universities in new destination countries, and providing quality Services to more students and Partners worldwide.

This round of chasing investment and financing also means that ApplyBoard has opened a new chapter of strategic cooperation with ETS. Founded in 1947, ETS is the world’s largest non-profit educational testing and evaluation organization, with management including TOEFL ® English Proficiency Test and GRE ® A series of international standardized examinations, including the postgraduate entrance examination. ETS’s equity investment in ApplyBoard is carried out by ETS Strategic Capital, a new department of ETS that focuses on business development and mission realization through strategic equity investment, partnership development and mergers and acquisitions.

Ralph Taylor Smith, managing director of ETS Strategic Capital, said: “The equity investment in ApplyBoard shows ETS’ strategy of adopting cutting-edge innovative technologies and building strategic partnerships, which will help expand the global coverage of education – including the countries of origin and learning destinations of students. Through cooperation, we look forward to using ETS’s professional testing and experience in education testing and evaluation to help ApplyBoards further expand their business and jointly provide the best for international students and educational institutions ‘s services. “

ETS and ApplyBoard will work together in the future to provide international students with point-to-point services ranging from standardized test training and examinations, including TOEFL and GRE, to the verification of test evaluation results of more than 1000 cooperative schools of ApplyBoard.

Martin Basiri, co-founder and CEO of ApplyBoard, said, “In ApplyBoard, we believe that education is a right, not a privilege. Adhering to the common belief that education has the power to change the world, ApplyBoard and ETS will use this exciting strategic partnership to improve the application experience for future international students, break down barriers, and make more students have the opportunity to obtain the best education.”

On September 1, CB Insights released the third Top 250 list of financial technology. As one of the most influential FinTech lists in the world, the FinTech Top 250 is committed to finding 250 most promising FinTech startups and the next unicorn in this field worldwide. Credit Sesame, a North American personal credit information service company invested by the China Canada Angel Alliance (CCAA for short) managed by Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, was selected successfully.

Picture: Top 250 FinTech Companies and Classification Map in 2020 (data source: CB Insights)

Nearly 16000 financial technology related enterprises participated in the list registration and nomination. Based on the data and information provided by the company, business model, potential energy in the past year and CB Insights Mosaic scoring system, 250 promising financial technology start-ups in the world in 2020 were selected from the 16000 enterprises. These companies come from 25 countries and regions around the world.

It is understood that in the last FinTech 250 list released in 2018, 37 companies became unicorns, and 23 companies were listed or acquired, including Ant Financial, Lakala and other well-known enterprises. Since 2019, Fintech 250 has completed 247 rounds of financing in 2018, including 83 rounds of financing exceeding US $100 million, with total financing amount exceeding US $22.9 billion.

Credit Sesame is committed to providing credit reporting services and helping consumers improve their financial situation. Since its inception, Credit Sesame has used its profound credit expertise and understanding of the relationship between credit data and cash to provide a unique solution for millions of North Americans, helping them effectively use their credit scores and cash to achieve financial stability and create better opportunities for themselves and their families.

Credit Sesame has become a leading personal credit information service company, bringing fruitful results to consumers. About 50% of the members saw their credit scores improved by more than 10 points in the first six months, while 20% of the members saw their credit scores improved significantly by more than 50 points in the first six months. Earlier this year, Credit Sesame launched Sesame Cash, the first digital bank account that can help consumers increase cash and credit at the same time, and provide customers with more rewards than any other digital bank account in the market. The company is one of the fastest growing new digital banks. In the first month, it attracted more than 200000 customers and provided cash rewards to thousands of customers by improving their credit scores.

“We started personal finance from the perspective of personal credit management, which is a huge demand, because it is an integral part of personal financial situation. With the launch of our digital banking service Sesame Cash, we are expanding our AI and optimization functions from the aspects of credit data and cash management,” said Adrian Nazari, CEO and founder of Credit Sesame. “We already have a huge and growing membership base. Now we have a more comprehensive personal finance platform with large-scale potential. We are honored to have made progress here recognized by CB Insights.”

Anand Sanwal, CEO of CB Insights, said: “We are honored to re select the world’s 250 best private financial technology companies. This year’s Fintech 250 comes from 25 countries, covering 19 categories, and has re conceived all the contents from retail banking, cryptocurrency to insurance and asset management.”. Sanwar said, “The previous Fintech 250 has received more than 22 billion dollars of investor financing after entering the list, and more than 20 projects have completed their withdrawal. We hope to continue to achieve similar success in changing people’s and enterprises’ spending, saving, borrowing, payment methods and improving investment returns this year.”

Source: Betakit Canadian Startup News&Tech Innovation

Recently, ACTO, a Canadian technology company focusing on life sciences, an early investment enterprise of China Canada Angel Alliance (CCAA for short) managed by Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, recently announced that it had completed a round A financing of 11.5 million US dollars (15 million Canadian dollars).

This round of financing is led by Resolve Growth Partners, a Baltimore based growth equity fund, which focuses on investing in companies with a recurring income scale of $3 million to $10 million, with an investment quota of $5 million to $30 million. As part of the transaction, Chris Rhodes, the co-founder and managing director of Resolve, has joined the board of directors of ACTO. This round also included the investment of the existing investor Panache Ventures and the strategic capital of the new investor Salesforce Ventures, which had previously invested in Vidyard, Stripe, Dropbox and DocuSign.

CEO Parth Khanna said that this round of financing will help ACTO to promote the vision of building the world’s best all life science education and life science participation ecosystem. ACTO will work closely with agencies and technical partners, on the one hand, continue to enhance ACTO’s on-site and HCP oriented capabilities, on the other hand, it will accelerate the creation of the largest business learning and development product portfolio of life science, and expand the field of patient education.

ACTO was founded in 2014, named after “Act Today”, to provide life science sales personnel with training, analysis and data tracking. The ultimate goal of ACTO is to change the current promotion and marketing methods of drugs and equipment in the medical industry.

ACTO has developed a mobile platform based on artificial intelligence to provide education, participation and support for sales professionals in the life science field. Its APP provides mobile micro learning, digital briefcase, remote guidance, virtual training and on-site activities. According to the company, global pharmaceutical and medical device companies can access insights in real time to improve clinical value, thereby increasing sales, increasing brand influence and reducing compliance risks. It is understood that ACTO has covered more than 50 life science companies worldwide (including AstraZeneca, Teleflex and Philips Responics) as customers. ACTO’s focus on the US market increased the company’s revenue by 30 times. At present, tens of thousands of sales representatives in more than 90 countries/regions use the APP every day.

ACTO will continue to develop its technology with round A financing of $11.5 million. Through new products, sales representatives, doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers (HCPs) will be able to access clinical information about drugs and devices using conversational AI.

CEO Khanna said: “It takes an average of 2 billion dollars and 14 years to bring drugs from the laboratory to the bedside, but when these products enter the market, senior managers have no objective data returned from the scene to show whether their sales strategies are effective. Now, drug and equipment manufacturers need to rethink how to promote their brand strategy, outreach strategy and patient education more than ever before, so as to keep moving forward in a more virtual environment Momentum, round A financing will help us to promote the establishment of the world’s best life science education and life science participation ecosystem. We will work closely with our agencies and technical partners to continue to enhance ACTO’s on-site and HCP oriented capabilities. We will also accelerate the creation of the largest life science business learning and development product portfolio, and expand the field of patient education. “

Chris Rhodes, co-founder and managing director of this round of leading investor Resolve, said, “We are very happy to have the opportunity to cooperate with ACTO. The founding team of the company reflects the thirst for knowledge, humility and obsession with customers that we like to see among entrepreneurs. At the same time, the customer feedback of ACTO is the strongest recommendation we have heard over the years. Obviously, they are building a market leading platform for the life science industry.” Up to now, the total financing amount of ACTO has reached 14.1 million US dollars. Previously, investors included the well-known Canadian investment institution MaRS IAF, the China Canada Angel Alliance CCAA, Extreme Venture Partners and Panache VC.

Recently, Motion Gestures, a Canadian gesture recognition software company invested by China Canada Angel Alliance (CCAA for short) managed by Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, signed a market cooperation agreement with STJ (Sense Things Japan), a Japanese enterprise, and Hancom MDS, a Korean enterprise, to join hands with Japanese and Korean enterprises to enter the non-contact service market.

Motion Gestures is a start-up company established in Waterloo, Canada, in 2016. The company provides a gesture recognition solution based on artificial intelligence (AI), which can build a gesture interface in a few minutes without additional programming or massive input of training data. This solution analyzes the shape and motion by dividing the hand joints and joints into 21 points, which is the principle of recognizing the user’s hand shape. Based on advanced AI technology, it greatly reduces the time and cost of gesture development.

Motion Gestures software can be used for near infrared (NIR) and depth (3D) cameras as well as regular (color) RGB cameras. Even ordinary cameras can recognize complex gestures such as tapping and swiping without using depth sensors. It can support various hardware (HW), such as programmable semiconductor (FPGA), microprocessor (MPU) and microcontroller (MCU), so it can be used in various industrial fields.

Motion gestures assign each hand a bone structure based on 21 joints through camera images, which is different from the traditional solution that regards hand images as BLOBs *. The position coordinates of all 21 joints were measured in real time. This method has four advantages:

(1) Precise and accurate hand tracking;

(2) Support various gesture recognition, and the recognition accuracy is close to 100%;

(3) Reduce the development cycle and cost of gesture recognition to 1/10;

(4) Whether it is physical or virtual reality, it can identify the position of the hand in the predetermined space;

In June this year, Motion Gestures signed a cooperation agreement with Hancom MDS, a Korean enterprise. Based on the cooperation agreement, Hancom MDS will enter the Korean non-contact service market by applying gesture recognition solutions to various industries such as cars, robots, smart homes, digital signage, household appliances, wearables and games.

Lee Chang yeol, CEO of Hancom MDS Innovation Business Department, said: “In the epidemic era, the trend of non face-to-face interaction will accelerate development in various industries.”

<Motion gesture gesture recognition solution. Provided by Hancom MDS>

On August 17, just two months later, Motion Gestures made progress in the Japanese market and signed a market cooperation agreement with the Japanese enterprise STJ (Sense Things Japan). STJ was founded in 2015, headquartered in Tokyo, mainly engaged in security related businesses, such as surveillance cameras; After sales business, such as dorareko, OBDII, etc. The parties aim to develop hand tracking and gesture recognition technology applications in the Japanese market using various types of cameras.

Motion Gestures believes that the company’s gesture tracking and recognition products are suitable for the next generation user interface of many products, such as cars, robots, elevators, self-service terminals, digital signage, AR/VR, games, smart homes, appliances and medical devices. As a “non-contact” user interface, it can be used as a preventive measure to prevent COVID-19 contact infection, which is currently a social problem.

Over 300 times of financing from more than 600 investors raised more than 7.4 billion dollars: in the latest CB Insights AI100 list in 2020, the world’s top 100 AI start-ups have made achievements. As one of the most authoritative lists in the global AI field, CB Insights has selected the 100 most promising AI start-ups in the world in 2020. It is also the fourth consecutive AI100 list released by CB Insights. A total of 8 Canadian enterprises have been selected, including 2 Canadian enterprises in the medical and health field. Cyclica, a Canadian biotechnology company invested by China Canada Angel Alliance (CCAA for short) managed by Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, became one of the two successful Canadian medical and health enterprises.

Figure | CB Insights Releases the 2020 AI 100 Global Entrepreneurship List (Image Source: CB Insights)

According to CB Insights, this AI100 list is selected by the research team from nearly 5000 start-ups (non listed companies that have been established for less than 10 years). Specific evaluation criteria include patent layout, investment and financing overview, Mosaic algorithm independently developed by CB Insights, market potential, media attention, partnership, competition pattern, team strength and technological novelty, and public technical achievements in the last year.

It is understood that the AI 100 finalists come from 13 countries, and they are jointly promoting the boundaries of AI research and business applications, covering 15 industries and cross industry applications. The 100 selected enterprises are at different stages of development, and have raised more than 7.4 billion US dollars from more than 600 investors in more than 300 times of financing.

As one of the two Canadian medical and health enterprises successfully selected, Cyclica is committed to using biophysics and artificial intelligence (AI) to help the pharmaceutical industry carry out faster, safer and lower cost drug research and development. It is the first biological company to use a structure based AI platform to conduct multiple pharmacological research.

The company has gathered a world top team with profound industry experience, and strengthened cooperation with world leading enterprises through innovative cooperation mode. Up to now, Cyclica has established cooperation with well-known research institutions and pharmaceutical enterprises in North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, South America and other places, and has been publicized to the public, including WuXi AppTec, Yuhan Pharmaceutical of South Korea, Eurofarma of Brazil, Bayer, Merck of Germany, etc., and has been highly recognized by its partners.

As a typical representative of overseas projects related to the Chinese market invested by CCAA, with the promotion of Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, Cyclica carried out international cooperation with the Institute of Materia Medica of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences at the beginning of this year to jointly promote the drug screening process of COVID-19 and become a typical example of international collaborative epidemic resistance. At the same time, the enterprise completed the round B financing of 23 million Canadian dollars in June this year, which confirmed the strength of Cyclica.

The successful inclusion in the annual AI100 global list of CB Insights is another witness to the strength of Cyclica. In the future, the company will carry out drug discovery more quickly and effectively through its advantages and innovative business model in the field of artificial intelligence and protein biophysics.

Founded in 2013, Cyclica is the first biological company to use the structure based AI platform to conduct diversified pharmacological research, and is also a typical high-tech company under China Canada cross-border ecological cooperation. The company has gathered a world top team with profound industry experience, a first-class platform and an innovative cooperation model, and is committed to using biophysics and artificial intelligence (AI) to help the pharmaceutical industry carry out faster, safer and lower cost drug research and development.

Its core platforms include Ligand Design and Ligand Express, which are screened by proteome for in-depth learning technology MatchMaker ™ And POEM for predicting molecular properties ™ Technical support. Cyclica’s platform has designed new compounds, and prioritized new compounds through multi pharmacological properties and analytical properties.

The picture shows the drug screening and design workflow of Cyclica Ligand Design and Ligand Express. Ligand Design and Ligand Express can be designed together to design the latest lead like molecules, so as to minimize unnecessary miss target effects, and comprehensively understand the molecular activity through integrated system biology and structural drug genomics. Cyclica’s differentiation platform provides new opportunities for drug discovery, including multi target drug design, lead compound optimization, ADMET attribute prediction, target deconvolution and drug reuse for various indications.

Cyclica believes that avant-garde drug discovery methods at the scientific and commercial levels can effectively reduce the failure rate of drug discovery and shorten the clinical time. Therefore, this round of financing will support Cyclica to continue to develop its proteome centered drug discovery platform, and further extend its cooperation with pharmaceutical manufacturers, as well as enter into adjacent fields, such as agricultural chemistry. In addition, this financing will support Cyclica’s academic cooperation project, the Cyclica Academic Partnerships Program (CAPP), and help cyclica and first-class academic research institutions to jointly establish a joint venture, thus promoting the development of cyclica’s business strategy in the diverse therapeutic field.

Based on more than 30 drug R&D projects, Cyclica will continue to stimulate innovation through venture capital and cooperation with early and emerging biotechnology companies. Cyclica’s recent partners include EntheogeniX Biosciences, NineteenGale Therapeutics, Rosetta Therapeutics, Rare Diseases Medicine Accelerator, a joint venture with Mannin Research, as well as two hidden joint ventures and more than 50 projects targeting multiple treatment fields.

The picture is: Cyclica was selected into the 2017 Zhongguancun U30 International Youth Innovation Award

In 2015, Cyclica won the angel round investment of China Canada Angel Alliance (CCAA for short) managed by Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, and was selected into Zhongguancun Dahe Capital CAMP China Canada Joint Venture Camp for international virtual incubation; In May 2017, Cyclica performed well in the Zhongguancun U30 overseas special session, won the 2017 Zhongguancun U30 International Youth Innovation Award, and became a typical high-tech enterprise under China Canada cross-border ecological cooperation.

Wang Tong, founding partner of Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, said that when it first invested in Cyclica, the company had only a few customers. Today, Cyclica has established cooperation with well-known research institutions and pharmaceutical enterprises in North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, South America and other places. The companies that have been publicized include WuXi AppTec, South Korea Yuhan Pharmaceutical, Brazil Eurofarma, Bayer, Germany Merck, etc., and are highly recognized by the partners, It confirms the strength of Cyclica. At the same time, as a typical representative of overseas projects related to the Chinese market invested by CCAA, and driven by Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, Cyclica carried out international cooperation with the Institute of Materia Medica of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences at the beginning of this year to jointly promote the drug screening process of COVID-19, becoming a typical example of international collaborative anti epidemic.

Dr. Srinivas Rao, CEO of EntheogeniX Biosciences and CSO of ATAI Life Sciences, said: “The computing platform of Cyclica has saved many months for our project, and has successfully designed completely novel and synthetic lead compounds. In the cooperation with Cyclica, their team is flexible, efficient and enthusiastic, which has always been the key driving force for our rapid development.”

Molly Bonakdarpour, a partner of Drive Capital, said, “What attracted us to join Cyclica is their creativity and unique business model. They have created a diversified portfolio of assets in various fields of indications through cooperation models, and continue to cooperate with multinational companies. Cyclica is helping the world to build a number of first-class biotechnology companies, but also improving their probability of success.”

Co founder of Cyclica Naheed Kurji, President and CEO, said: “The core of the spirit of Cyclica is to help patients by using a comprehensive and personalized approach to promote better drug discovery and development. We cooperate with innovative biotechnology companies to achieve this grand vision. We provide support to our partners through the platform of Cyclica and the team of applied scientists, and help them expand their scale through derivative companies and joint ventures. Through joint efforts, we are creating Build biotechnology R&D pipeline.

Today, the China Canada Angel Alliance (“CCAA” for short), an angel round investment enterprise managed by Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, an online platform called ApplyBoard, which is committed to “providing the best education for students around the world”, announced the completion of round C financing of 100 million Canadian dollars (72 million US dollars), becoming the first unicorn project invested by CCAA in North America with a valuation growth of more than 100 times. Since its establishment in 2015, ApplyBoard has grown into a unicorn with a valuation of 2 billion Canadian dollars (1.4 billion US dollars). It took only five years for ApplyBoard to become the first fastest growing technology company in Canada by Deloitte in 2019.

This round of financing is led by Drive Capital, and Fidelity invests in ULC, Canada Commercial Development Bank and existing investors including Anthos Capital, Artiman Ventures, Garage Capital, Plug and Play Technology Center and Candou Ventures.

The App Board plans to use the current round of financing of $100 million in scientific and technological innovation, cooperation with universities in new destination countries, and better services for more students and partners worldwide.

The application board, founded in 2015 by co founders Martin, Matty and Massi, is an artificial intelligence platform to help international students apply for international education, providing one-stop application services for international students who apply to study abroad. In the past few years, the company has maintained continuous growth. In 2019, the application board was selected by Deloitte (Deloitte) as the fastest growing technology company in Canada.

ApplyBoard has brought unprecedented innovation to international education: its online platform provides comprehensive, one-stop solutions for students, schools and partners, greatly simplifying the application process. Its artificial intelligence algorithm will help applicants to match the best universities and projects for studying abroad in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom according to key conditions such as students’ educational background, learning plans and financial status. By joining the platform, the school benefits from improving its brand influence globally, and enriches the diversity of the campus by recruiting students from all over the world who meet the admission requirements online.

Martin Basiri, co-founder and CEO of ApplyBoard, said: “Education has the power to change life, but for many students, the application process for studying abroad is still very difficult. ApplyBoard was founded to ensure that every student has the opportunity to receive education.”

The picture shows that in 2015, Martin, co-founder of ApplyBoard, participated in CAMP Sino Canada Joint Venture CAMP

In 2015, ApplyBoard was selected into the Sino Canada Joint Venture Camp of Zhongguancun Dahe Capital CAMP, and won the angel round investment of the Sino Canada Angel Alliance (CCAA) managed by Zhongguancun Dahe Capital.

Wang Tong, founding partner of Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, said: When investing in ApplyBoard in 2015, the company had only four users. Today, ApplyBoard has established cooperative relationships with more than 1200 educational institutions, helping more than 100000 students complete their educational journey. At the same time, as a typical representative of overseas projects related to the Chinese market invested by CCAA, ApplyBoard, with the help of Zhongguancun Dahe Capital in the Chinese market, has successfully entered Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an and other cities, becoming a driver of profound changes in the study abroad industry.

Nick Solaro, partner of Drive Capital, the leading investor in this round, said: “We are very happy to work with Martin and his team, because we believe that ApplyBoard is making the world a better place, because they have fundamentally changed the way global students get education.”

It only took five years for ApplyBoard to grow into a unicorn with a valuation of 2 billion Canadian dollars ($1.4 billion) from its establishment in 2015. In 2016, ApplyBoard had only 16 employees. Up to now, ApplyBoard has more than 400 employees in 20 countries, covering Kitchener, Beijing, Nepal, Vietnam, the Philippines and India. With more than 4000 partners around the world, it has cooperated with more than 1200 cooperative schools, including but not limited to universities, colleges, public education bureaus (K-12) and language schools in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Recently, on the latest issue of CARDIOLOGY 2.0, an authoritative international journal of cardiac imaging, the editors listened to the opinions of leaders in the field of cardiac imaging around the world and selected 25 companies with the most core leadership in the discipline. Among them, the Novasight Hybrid System intracardiac ultrasound imaging two in one equipment produced by Conavi, a Canadian medical device company, which is an investment enterprise of Zhongguancun Dahe Capital CCAA, has been recognized by relevant experts with its core patents, internationally leading finalized products and significant clinical application value, and has been shortlisted together with international well-known enterprises such as General Electronics, Siemens, Philips, etc, It won the honorary title of “Top 25 Image Technology Leaders in 2020” in the authoritative journal CARDIOLOGY 2.0.

Conavi Medical is an advanced medical device company focusing on the research and development of minimally invasive surgical imaging technology. The company has two star products: Novasight Hybrid System dual-mode imaging system and Foresight ICE System intracardiac echocardiography system. These two imaging products have the advantages of low cost and high image quality, which can greatly improve the success rate of surgery, reduce the probability of surgical complications and the mortality of some interventional operations, so as to protect the safety of minimally invasive surgery.

The editorial office of CARDIOLOGY 2.0 magazine is located on the Fifth Avenue of New York. Its editorial members include James Thomas, doctoral supervisor of Northwestern Medical University, and other world-renowned cardiovascular leaders. John Matthews, editor in chief of the magazine, said when introducing the selection: “Cardiovascular (invasive and non-invasive) The development of imaging equipment is very fast. In this selection, we selected the most successful and revolutionary 25 intracardiac imaging companies. These ‘leaders’ will really influence the subject of intracardiac imaging in the future. They will use artificial intelligence, learning algorithms, 3D image rendering and other methods to change the visualization of doctors’ real-time operations. “

When Dr. Gergana Koleva, an international authority on cardiac imaging, introduced Novasight, Comments like this: “As open coronary artery surgery is becoming more and more rare, the competition for innovative technologies is becoming increasingly fierce, and these new technologies require excellent visualization capabilities in minimally invasive surgery. The Novasight Hybrid System intracardiac ultrasound imaging two in one device produced by Conavi Company combines OCT and IVUS, two conventional imaging methods, into one device with superior capabilities, which is expected to completely change the future of angioplasty.”

It is worth mentioning that Novasight was included in the “green channel” of the special approval procedure by the Medical Device Technical Evaluation Center (CMDE) of the State Drug Administration in 2019 because of its innovation. In the past February, the product has officially passed the medical device registration approval and listing in Japan after obtaining the listing license from the FDA of the United States and HealthCanada of Canada.

In the opinion of insiders, with the continuous improvement of medical technology, high-end medical devices are expected to help precision medicine and become the next outlet. Novasight accelerated its listing in mature pharmaceutical markets such as Europe, America and Japan, which is expected to boost its commercialization in the Greater China market.

Note: This article was first published by Conavi’s partner Yuanda Medical. In 2017, Yuanda Pharmaceutical signed a strategic agreement with Conavi Canada and obtained the exclusive agency rights of its “Foresight ICE” and “Novasight Hybrid” products in Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and other regions. Yuanda Medical said in the article that Conavi’s series of products not only improved the international product line of Yuanda’s high-end medical equipment sector, but also will become a new profit growth point of the company.

At present, the epidemic of novel coronavirus is sweeping all over the world, and more than 90 countries and regions are suffering from COVID-19. This rapid and large-scale spread makes more countries realize the urgency of international cooperation and response, and the situation of global war “epidemic” is taking shape. Recently, the Canadian AI medical company Cyclica and the Institute of Medicine of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences officially signed a strategic agreement on the cooperative research of antiviral drugs. The two sides have reached strategic cooperation intentions in COVID-19 drug screening, multi target drug design and other aspects. Through international cooperation, they will find drugs for 2019 novel coronavirus and promote the drug screening process of COVID-19.

The Institute of Pharmacy of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences is one of the key national drug research institutions in China. It has a complete drug research and development system and innovation strength, develops new drugs for the major needs of the clinical front-line, and has created many firsts in the field of drug research in China. In more than 60 years since its establishment in 1958, the Institute has developed and marketed more than 100 new drugs, obtained 130 new drug certificates, and won more than 230 awards for scientific and technological achievements as the first completed unit. It is a pioneer and pioneer of new drug research and development in China.

Cyclica is a biotechnology company headquartered in Toronto, Canada, and a typical high-tech enterprise under China Canada cross-border ecological cooperation. The company has gathered a world-class team with profound industry experience, and is committed to using biophysics and artificial intelligence (AI) to help the pharmaceutical industry carry out faster, safer and lower cost drug research and development. Cyclica has developed a series of comprehensive drug discovery platforms for pharmaceutical scientists – Ligand Express and Ligand Design, to change the current pharmaceutical industry plagued by high failure rates and high costs.

The picture shows the drug screening and design workflow of Cyclica Ligand Design and Ligand Express. Ligand Design and Ligand Express can be designed together to design the latest lead like molecules, so as to minimize unnecessary miss target effects, and comprehensively understand the molecular activity through integrated system biology and structural drug genomics. Cyclica’s differentiation platform provides new opportunities for drug discovery, including multi target drug design, lead compound optimization, ADMET attribute prediction, target deconvolution and drug reuse for various indications.

At present, Cyclica has cooperated with well-known research institutions and pharmaceutical enterprises in North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, South America and other regions. The publicly publicized partners include WuXi AppTec, Yuhan Pharmaceutical of South Korea, Eurofarma of Brazil, Bayer, Merck of Germany, etc., and have been highly recognized by the partners.

At present, there is no drug or vaccine officially approved by all countries for the treatment of novel coronavirus. Although the new drug therapy developed through innovative methods may have potential therapeutic effects on novel coronavirus, the development of new drugs will occupy a lot of resources and require years of preclinical and clinical testing. Therefore, “new use of old drugs” may be a more effective strategy at present to adapt to the urgency of urgent treatment of novel coronavirus pneumonia. The most typical example is remdeivir of Gilead Science, a nucleoside analog originally used to treat Ebola. For another example, Haizheng Pharmaceutical in China has been approved to test an influenza drug called favilavir to treat coronavirus. Artificial intelligence (AI) methods for drug reuse can further accelerate the recommendation of potential therapeutic solutions.

Cyclica used its proprietary in-depth learning engine MatchMaker to screen at least 6700 drugs and candidate drugs approved by FDA, which have at least Phase I clinical data. In addition to the protein structure data, MatchMaker has also been trained in millions of known human drug target interactions (DTI), resulting in a first-class database called PolypharmDB. This database is a unique collection for evaluating clinical molecules and their multi pharmacological characteristics. It can be quickly searched to identify potential candidate drugs to interact with selected protein targets.

Different from the traditional one-to-one calculation and modeling of drugs and targets, MatchMaker can quickly scan and sort all protein targets with structural descriptions, focusing on drugs, and match and screen a drug with all proteins in the proteome in a short time. In addition, MatchMaker is universal, and can screen any protein included in MatchMaker database, not limited to those common targets with a large number of training data. This uniqueness is of great significance for conquering new targets and targets rarely studied.

Cyclica used the flexibility of MatchMaker and PolypharmDB databases, based on the existing coronavirus structure and recent genome research, to model two 2019 COVID-19 proteins (3C protease – 3Cprot, S glycoprotein – spike glycoprotein) that have definite therapeutic relevance. By searching the expanded PolypharmDB database, it screened out the molecules that interact with the designated virus target. Using this method, Cyclica has obtained about 10 potential effective drugs that have been marketed or in clinical trials.

It is worth mentioning that the protein model targeted by Cyclica drug screening can be flexibly changed according to the discovery and establishment of key viral protein structure. That is, if the scientific community has new target suggestions, Cyclica can quickly screen new targets again.

In order to further screen the candidate list drugs for anti novel coronavirus biological activity in vivo and in vitro, Cylica CEO Naheed Kurji contacted the Chinese investment institution Zhongguancun Dahe Capital at the first time, hoping to receive relevant research institutions from China as soon as possible. Therefore, this strategic cooperation with the Institute of Medicine of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences was carried out.

According to the cooperation agreement, the Institute of Medicine of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences will screen the molecules proposed by Cyclica for antiviral activity in vitro and in vivo, and then determine promising candidate drugs for subsequent research and development. In addition, the two sides will work together to design multi-target antiviral compounds to reduce drug resistance.

This international cooperation is a further extension of the existing good relationship between Cyclica and China. The relationship between Cyclica and China originates from the CCAA China Canada Angel Alliance. CCAA China Canada Angel Alliance is an angel investment institution registered in Ontario, Canada. It was established in 2014 by Zhongguancun Dahe Capital and some angel investors of Zhongguancun Angel Hundred Association. It is committed to building a cross-border ecosystem between China and Canada, and promoting international exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and Canadian entrepreneurs through joint investment, entrepreneurial mentor services and various overseas channel resource docking. In 2015, Cyclica won the equity investment of CCAA and was selected into CAMP Sino Canada Joint Venture Camp for international virtual incubation; In May 2017, Cyclica performed well in the Zhongguancun U30 Overseas Special Competition, won the 2017 Zhongguancun U30 International Youth Innovation Award, and became a typical high-tech enterprise under China Canada cross-border ecological cooperation.

Naheed Kurji, CEO of Cyclica, said: “We have been paying close attention to the development of novel coronavirus in China and around the world. At the same time, we hope our AI platform can make contributions to this, in order to find a way conducive to rapid response to overcome the further outbreak of this virus. This cooperation with the leading scientists of the Institute of Medicine of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences is an opportunity we cannot miss.”  

In the face of the coming novel coronavirus pneumonia, the global war “epidemic” situation is taking shape. It is becoming a global consensus to fight against COVID-19 and prevent a global pandemic by fully strengthening international cooperation in information communication, vaccine research and development, drug development and other fields.

As one of the countries affected by COVID-19, China actively carries out international cooperation and exchanges in response to COVID-19 with a responsible attitude and the principle of openness. Including timely release of data to the international community, open up the experience and practice in clinical medicine, actively promote the discussion with virologists and senior experts in various countries, and actively carry out international cooperation with global pharmaceutical manufacturers in terms of detection reagents, therapeutic drugs, vaccine research and development, etc. The signing of the Strategic Agreement on Cooperation in Antiviral Drug Research between Cyclica and the Institute of Medicine of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences is a typical example of international collaborative anti epidemic.