The Premier Hunter of Medical IPOs
Last year, the medical IPO market rebounded, with over 37 domestic medical companies completing their IPOs. Tencent’s investment can be seen behind many of these medical IPOs.
In the past three months, Tencent Investment participated in the IPOs of three medical companies, namely Insilico Medicine, an AI drug – development company; Lighthouse Medical Group, a mid – to high – end medical service provider; and MicroPort EndoMaster, a surgical robot company. These investments hit multiple hot sectors and brought considerable book profits.
2026 is expected to be a bumper year for Tencent’s medical IPOs. Among the medical companies that have submitted listing applications and are waiting for their IPOs, Tencent has also invested in several, including Xcovery Biopharmaceuticals, Xynovio Pharmaceuticals, Corvium Bio, Libang Pharmaceutical, Bomei Medical, and WeDoctor. Tencent is expected to become the most successful medical IPO hunter in 2026.
Entering through Pre – IPO and cornerstone investment to seize the dividends of the recovery of innovative drugs
As early as a decade ago, Tencent began to invest in the medical field. In the early years, Tencent focused on the Internet medical track. In recent years, the focus of Tencent’s investment in medical companies has shifted to innovative drugs.
Tencent Investment, which focuses on innovative drugs, has entered the harvest period of medical IPOs. According to statistics from Arterial News, 8 medical companies invested by Tencent have submitted listing applications, among which 5 are in the innovative drug sector. These companies are mostly from Tencent’s investments in the past two years, and the investment rounds are relatively late. This strategy of entering at a low – valuation cost after the track rebounds allows Tencent to complete the closed – loop from layout to exit in a relatively short period.
Tencent also seized the window period when a number of medical funds’ investment terms expired and there was a strong demand for reduction and exit. It invested in companies by acquiring the equity of old shareholders, such as the investment in Bomei Medical.
Distribution of Tencent’s medical investment in companies waiting for listing
The window period of innovative drug IPOs resonates with Tencent’s investment rhythm. Tencent dared to make investments in the late – stage of innovative drugs and luckily bet on the recovery trend of innovative drug IPOs. In 2024, when the pharmaceutical investment was still in the adjustment period, Tencent began to actively layout in the innovative drug field. By 2025, after the industry clearly recovered, Tencent continued to increase its investment in innovative drugs.
In the field of innovative drugs, Tencent usually adopts the strategy of “making large – scale late – stage investments“. Most of its investments are concentrated in the last round of financing before a company’s IPO. Typical cases include Zeling Biotech, Libang Pharmaceutical, Xynovio Pharmaceuticals, and Xcovery Biopharmaceuticals. Entering after the invested companies have shown a clear business prospect and a mature technology platform provides higher certainty.
From the perspective of subsequent development, Tencent’s vision has been verified: many invested companies continue to release development momentum and have reached multiple BD deals intensively, showing strong growth potential. For example, Xynovio Pharmaceuticals has successively reached BD deals with well – known domestic and foreign pharmaceutical companies such as Astellas Pharma, Everest Medicines, and China Biologic Products. The cumulative transaction amount (including upfront payments, milestone payments, etc.) has exceeded $2 billion.
Corvium Bio reached a global strategic cooperation worth over $1.7 billion with Astellas Pharma in 2023 for the joint development of candidate drugs under the BiME® platform.
Xcovery Biopharmaceuticals reached a cooperation agreement with Pfizer. Pfizer obtained the exclusive commercialization rights of Xcovery’s GLP – 1 – biased weight – loss drug XW003 in China, and Xcovery Biopharmaceuticals is entitled to receive a total payment of up to $495 million from Pfizer.
Cornerstone investment is also the main way for Tencent to participate in medical IPOs. In the second half of 2025, the enthusiasm for cornerstone investment in the Hong Kong stock market was high. Tencent’s cornerstone investments have brought substantial returns. In the medical field, Tencent Investment participated in the cornerstone subscriptions of the IPOs of LAVA Therapeutics, MicroPort EndoMaster, Insilico Medicine, and Lighthouse Medical Group. Cornerstone investments in medical IPOs have also brought considerable book profits to Tencent Investment.
Tencent Investment’s participation in medical IPO cornerstone investments has two major characteristics: one is the relatively low valuation; the other is the preference for leading assets with strong certainty.
Take MicroPort EndoMaster and Insilico Medicine as examples. The pre – IPO valuations of the two companies reached approximately 15 billion yuan and 9.5 billion yuan respectively. Although the absolute values are not low, they are more attractive among similar companies. The pre – listing valuation of MicroPort Robotics, a similar company to MicroPort EndoMaster, was about 25 billion yuan, and that of Jingtai Technology, a similar company to Insilico Medicine, was about 14 billion yuan. Reasonable pricing is the key to attracting Tencent to participate in cornerstone investments.
Tencent Investment doesn’t just look for “bargains”. The targets selected by Tencent Investment are all top – 3 companies in the industry. It tends to invest in leading companies with a clear growth path. These targets generally perform well after listing, bringing considerable book returns to Tencent.
Tencent’s investment preferences
The medical field is being upgraded from Tencent’s second – tier investment to a core configuration. In addition to investing in medical companies through Pre – IPO and cornerstone investments, Tencent Investment also strengthens its layout in the medical and health field through early – and mid – stage investments. Tencent Investment has become more frequent in investing in the medical field. In 2025, Tencent Investment made 10 investments in the medical and health field, and 7 in 2024. In the past two years, Tencent’s investment frequency in the medical field has exceeded that in the AI and gaming fields.
Medical companies invested by Tencent from 2025 to January 2026
Which medical and health tracks does Tencent Investment favor?
In the field of innovative drugs, Tencent Investment has a wide – ranging layout. In 2025, Tencent invested in Hongxin Biotech, Fanli Biotech, T – Therapeutics, and Minwei Biotech, covering the In vivo CAR – T, autoimmune potential target TL1A, TCE immunotherapy, and weight – loss metabolism tracks.
Among them, in the weight – loss metabolism track, Tencent successively invested in two companies, Xcovery Biopharmaceuticals and Minwei Biotech.
The 10% – 25% weight – loss effect of GLP – 1 drugs has quickly created a market worth nearly a hundred billion dollars, becoming the focus of the pharmaceutical industry. Among many targets, the weight – loss drug companies invested by Tencent rank among the first echelon in China in terms of competitiveness: they are ahead in product progress, have excellent clinical data, and have also obtained BD endorsements from MNCs.
The two GLP – 1 drugs invested by Tencent also have significant differences, focusing on different targets. Among them, Xcovery Biopharmaceuticals’ Ecnoglutide is the world’s first GLP – 1 – biased receptor agonist, which mainly works through the cAMP pathway rather than the common β – arrestin pathway. Ecnoglutide (XW003®) has been approved for marketing in China, and its clinical data shows significantly better efficacy than Semaglutide. Pfizer China bought the commercialization rights of this product in China for $495 million.
Minwei Biotech has taken the lead in occupying the technological high – ground of triple – target drugs. Its GLP – 1/GIP/FGF21 receptor triple agonist MWN105 has reached an overseas licensing cooperation with a subsidiary of Novo Nordisk, and the product has entered Phase II clinical trials in China.
The immunotherapy field is also a track favored by Tencent. Immunotherapy is a treatment method that activates or enhances the function of the human immune system to identify and eliminate abnormal cells (such as cancer cells). After years of development, immunotherapy has formed a pattern of multi – technology path collaboration. Among them, CAR – T and TCE (T – cell engager) are the two most concerned core tracks, and there are also emerging directions such as TCR – T, TIL, and cancer vaccines.
Tencent has laid out three tracks in the field of immunotherapy: In vivo CAR – T, TCE, and TCR – T, comprehensively covering immunotherapy.
In the hot In vivo CAR – T track, Tencent invested in Hongxin Biotech, the leader in the industry. In vivo CAR – T is expected to break through the limitations of traditional CAR – T therapy, such as long treatment cycles and high costs, and bring new breakthroughs in the treatment of various diseases such as tumors and autoimmune diseases. In 2025, this track witnessed a boom in BD deals. Hongxin Biotech is ahead in this track. Its In vivo CAR – T using the mRNA – LNP approach has officially entered the clinical research stage, and it has obtained the first clinical verification in humans, becoming a milestone breakthrough in the industry.
In the TCE route, Tencent Investment participated in the cornerstone investment of LAVA Therapeutics, the “first TCE stock”. TCE therapy uses the body’s own T cells to recognize and kill cancer cells. The design principle is to simultaneously bind to the tumor – associated antigen (TAA) on tumor cells and the receptor on T cells, thereby targeting the tumor tissue and activating T cells to induce targeted cytotoxicity. TCE is “using antibodies as a bridge to let existing T cells in the body attack tumors” without modifying T cells. BD transactions in this field are active. LBL – 034, the core product of LAVA Therapeutics invested by Tencent, is the second – leading GPRC5D – targeted TCE in global clinical progress. Its clinical data is comparable to that of CAR – T therapy, and it has more advantages in safety. It has been selected for an oral presentation at the 2025 ASH meeting.
In the TCR – T route, Tencent and Sanofi jointly invested in an overseas company, T – Therapeutics. TCR – T is a genetically engineered T cell. By modifying the TCR (T – cell receptor) on the surface of T cells, it can recognize antigens inside tumor cells. TCR – T is like installing a navigation system on T cells to help them find hidden tumor antigens, which requires genetic modification of T cells. In this direction, Tencent participated in the Series A financing of the overseas company T – Therapeutics. T – Therapeutics’ TCR platform OpTiMus® can generate an almost infinite number of highly specific, fully human TCRs, enabling it to target intracellular targets that have been verified but were previously difficult to develop into drugs.
Tencent Investment adopts a “wide – net – casting” strategy in the high – risk and multi – track innovative drug field. However, it usually makes investments after concept verification is completed and MNCs are actively involved in BD, avoiding the uncertainty risks in the early R & D stage.
In the medical device field, Tencent invested in Kunwei Technology, Bomei Medical, and Kexinmingde in 2025, covering the ultrasound imaging, interventional balloon, and endoscope tracks respectively. In the device field, Tencent prefers tracks with mature commercialization. The global market scale of tracks such as interventional balloons and endoscopes exceeds tens of billions of dollars, with sufficient commercial verification and the market is in the expansion stage. At the same time, the targets invested by Tencent generally have global commercialization capabilities, and the overseas revenue accounts for a relatively high proportion. For example, the export volume of Bomei Medical’s vascular interventional balloons accounts for more than 50% of domestic brands, and overseas revenue contributes more than half of its total revenue.
Tencent Investment in medical device targets not only focuses on innovative assets but also on manufacturing capabilities. The core capabilities of the above – mentioned companies invested by Tencent are not only the innovative Class III medical device certificates but also large – scale supply and manufacturing capabilities, which are usually difficult to replicate quickly in a short period.
Investing in people is also a key consideration in medical investment. From this perspective, the founding teams of many companies invested by Tencent are a combination of top – notch investors and scientists. For example, Corvium Bio was founded by Ji Xiaohui, a former partner of Lilly Asia Ventures, and Lu Hongtao, a well – known immunologist who has been deeply involved in tumor immunology at top – notch institutions in the United States. Qiang Jing, the founder of Xynovio Pharmaceuticals, is a senior investor who has participated in the IPOs of large – scale pharmaceutical companies such as Sinopharm, China Resources, and Fosun.
The combination of top – notch investors and scientists provides double insurance for innovative drug IPOs, ensuring the technological leadership of innovative drug companies. The participation of investors also reduces obstacles in the listing process of innovative pharmaceutical companies, brings smoother financing and listing channels, helps to quickly establish a management system, and accelerates the development of enterprises.
Tencent has been involved in medical investment for more than a decade. Its long – term and continuous investment in the medical industry allows Tencent to dare to seize assets with strong certainty during the industry’s trough period and lock in leading companies in popular tracks. The continuous evolution and cycle – crossing ability of the medical industry also bring returns to this continuous investment.
This article is from the WeChat official account “Arterial News” (ID: vcbeat), author: Yang Xue, published by 36Kr with authorization.
