OptoSeeker recently completed a Pre-A funding round of more than RMB 50 million, led by Shenzhen Capital Group (SCGC), with participation from the Guangdong Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Fund, Nanshan SEI Investment, and LINGYI CAPITAL.
The proceeds will support core product R&D and engineering, validation in priority applications, and further exploration of AI-driven technology services. OptoSeeker will continue expanding its product portfolio and applications in antibody discovery, cell line development, and cell and gene therapy, while developing new service capabilities centered on single-cell functional data.
Dr. Hainan Xie, Co-founder and CEO of OptoSeeker, commented: “We sincerely thank SCGC, the Guangdong Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Fund, Nanshan SEI Investment, and LINGYI CAPITAL for their trust and support. We are particularly grateful to LINGYI CAPITAL and Nanshan’s investment platforms for their continued participation across multiple funding rounds. Life sciences are entering a new AI-driven phase, in which high-quality cellular functional data will become essential infrastructure. We will continue investing in instrument development and engineering while actively exploring data-driven service models that connect experiments with actionable data.”
The round also reflects sustained investor confidence in OptoSeeker’s long-term development. Since its founding in 2023, the company has completed three financing rounds. LINGYI CAPITAL has invested in all three, supporting OptoSeeker from its earliest stage. Nanshan District has backed the company in two consecutive rounds through Nanshan Venture Capital and Nanshan SEI Investment, demonstrating local industrial capital’s confidence in homegrown deep-tech innovation. Inno Angel Fund also invested in both the first and second rounds, leading the latter.
Follow-on investment is not automatic. At each new stage, investors reassess the team, technology roadmap, and commercial progress before committing capital again. Their continued support represents a tangible vote of confidence in OptoSeeker.
Advancing Multiple Product Lines Built on Core OET Technology
Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Nanshan, Shenzhen, OptoSeeker is among the few companies worldwide—and a leading company in China—to independently master the core cell-manipulation technology of Optoelectronic Tweezers (OET). The company has progressed from proof-of-concept prototypes to production-ready instruments, establishing in-house development and manufacturing capabilities across hardware, software, and consumables. Its multidisciplinary R&D team covers optics, mechanics, electronics, automation, microfluidics, chips, software engineering, biological applications, and bioinformatics.
Building on Optoelectronic Tweezers (OET), Digital Microfluidics (DMF), and Digital Micromirror Device (DMD)-based Structured Light Projection, OptoSeeker has developed several product lines:
OptoBot®: Designed for high-throughput single-cell manipulation and functional screening, the series integrates OET, microfluidics, microscopy imaging, and software control in one system. It supports cell loading, isolation, on-chip incubation, functional assays, candidate ranking, and targeted live-cell recovery. Experiments can be performed in parallel across thousands to tens of thousands of microwells, linking signal detection to cell tracking, recovery, and downstream sequence analysis.
OptoNeuroBot®: A Structured Light Projection system that enables programmable control over illumination position, pattern, timing, and intensity within a microscope field of view, supporting optogenetics, photocuring, and micropatterning applications.
DropletBot®: A Digital Microfluidics platform that uses electrical signals to manipulate discrete droplets on a chip, making droplet transport, mixing, and reactions programmable.
OptoGrow®: An on-stage live-cell incubation system providing temperature, gas, and humidity control for extended microscopic observation.
Multiple OptoSeeker products have been delivered to customers, with installation, commissioning, application validation, and iterative optimization continuing in real laboratory and R&D settings. Stable platform performance, systems integration, lean manufacturing, and responsive application support have earned customer recognition across single-cell manipulation, structured light projection, and digital microfluidics. These deployments further demonstrate the company’s ability to translate core technology into engineered products and customer applications.
Generating Scarce Cellular Functional Data for AI Biology
Alongside instrument development, OptoSeeker is exploring AI-enabled technology services that deliver cellular functional validation—from experimental design through data delivery—to AI-driven biological R&D teams. AI for Science is reshaping life sciences research, yet a major obstacle remains: high-quality longitudinal functional data at single-cell resolution are scarce. Large public datasets exist for protein structure prediction and genomic analysis, but dynamic live-cell data—including time-resolved fluorescence, secretion dynamics, morphological changes, and stimulus responses—remain dispersed across laboratory records, making standardized collection and scalable aggregation difficult.
OptoSeeker’s instrument portfolio, particularly the OptoBot® series, can generate these valuable datasets for AI models. The systems track multidimensional functional phenotypes of individual cells in parallel across thousands of independent microwells. Every cell is traceable from chip loading to recovery, with associated timestamps, spatial coordinates, and cell identifiers. These structured, high-temporal-resolution live-cell datasets can provide foundational material for training the next generation of biological AI models.
OptoSeeker has also formed strategic partnerships with MGI Tech and BioMap. In July 2025, OptoSeeker partnered with BioMap to connect single-cell functional data generated by the OptoBot® series with BioMap’s large-scale foundation models for life sciences, exploring an AI for Science workflow spanning data generation, model prediction, and experimental validation. In August 2025, OptoSeeker established a strategic partnership with MGI Tech to develop a domestically integrated antibody discovery platform linking screening, sequencing, and data analysis. Together, these collaborations connect single-cell functional screening, sequencing, and AI analysis, creating a foundation for OptoSeeker’s “instruments + data + AI” service model.
Investor Perspectives
Muyang He, Investment Director at SCGC, commented: “OET offers distinctive advantages for single-cell manipulation. OptoSeeker is one of the few teams in China to have fully mastered this core technology and brought it to market. The company has made progress across multiple product lines, with strong engineering capabilities and a differentiated data advantage arising from the integration of AI and instrumentation. We are optimistic about the team’s long-term potential in advanced life sciences instruments.”
Xiao Yang, Assistant General Manager of the Guangdong Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Fund, stated: “Biopharmaceutical R&D increasingly depends on quantifiable, reproducible experimental tools and high-quality data. Focusing on single-cell functional research, OptoSeeker has progressively built capabilities spanning core manipulation technology, instruments, software, and data analytics, providing a foundation for translating enabling technologies into research tools and industrial applications. We are following the team’s continued validation in drug discovery and cellular research. With the support of the Guangdong Provincial Advanced Equipment Industry Science and Technology Innovation Application Center—and an operating model based on public-interest objectives, market-oriented operations, and funds as a connecting mechanism—we look forward to further advances in Guangdong’s biomanufacturing and biopharmaceutical capabilities and the province’s high-quality economic development.”
A representative of Nanshan SEI Investment commented: “Developing advanced life sciences instruments requires long R&D cycles, multidisciplinary engineering, product iteration, and application validation. Based in Nanshan, OptoSeeker has continued developing products based on OET and microfluidics while establishing a clear direction for combining instrumentation with AI. We look forward to the company further drawing on Nanshan’s research, talent, and industrial resources to translate more R&D achievements into practical life sciences tools.”
Lianfa Zheng, Founding Partner at LINGYI CAPITAL, commented: “We have been with OptoSeeker since its earliest days and have now invested in three consecutive rounds. At every stage, we have seen meaningful progress in products, technology, and the market. Beyond building a strong technological moat in instrumentation, OptoSeeker’s platform can generate high-value data for AI biology—an exceptionally scarce capability globally. We will continue supporting OptoSeeker as it grows from zero toward the future.”
About Shenzhen Capital Group (SCGC)
Established in 1999, Shenzhen Capital Group Co., Ltd. (SCGC) is a diversified investment group founded with funding from the Shenzhen Municipal Government and participation from private-sector capital, with venture capital at its core. It focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises, innovative high-tech companies, and emerging industries. Investment areas include intelligent manufacturing, information technology, biotechnology and healthcare, advanced materials, new energy, and energy efficiency and environmental protection. Through direct investment, private equity funds, government guidance funds, and funds of funds, SCGC supports companies at different development stages.
About the Guangdong Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Fund
Launched in 2021 by CDB Capital, a wholly owned subsidiary of China Development Bank, Guangdong Hengjian Investment Holding, and Guangzhou Development District, the Guangdong Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Fund is described as China’s first state-capital-initiated fund dedicated to traditional Chinese medicine. Its planned total size is RMB 30 billion. The fund primarily supports traditional Chinese medicine manufacturing and services while extending into biopharmaceuticals and broader healthcare, including technology R&D, commercialization, and industrial development.
About Nanshan SEI Investment
Nanshan SEI Investment is a wholly state-owned enterprise established by the Nanshan District Government and serves as the district’s strategic direct-investment platform. Operational since 2022, it focuses on strategic emerging and future industries, including next-generation information technology, advanced equipment manufacturing, biopharmaceuticals, and the digital economy. It supports regional technology companies through equity investment, fund investment, and financing guarantees.
About LINGYI CAPITAL
Founded in 2022, LINGYI CAPITAL is an early-stage investment firm focused on technological innovation, health, and consumer sectors. Established by experienced investors and limited partners with industry backgrounds, its portfolio spans advanced manufacturing, intelligent hardware, and healthcare. The firm emphasizes long-term support for founding teams and collaboration across industry resources.
