In the first quarter of 2026, China's life science investment and financing market seemed to have gradually revitalized compared to the previous two years, with the number of investment and financing transactions increasing by 29.1% compared to the same period in 2025. And Aileos, which was established just five years ago, is precisely a vivid footnote to this market trend.

At the institutional financing level, Aileos completed a Pre-B round of financing worth over 100 million yuan in early 2026; four months prior to that, it secured an A++ round of financing that also exceeded 100 million yuan. This pharmaceutical filtration solutions company, which was established just five years ago, is inevitably attracting attention and discussion from the capital market and industry circles. What kind of opportunity has allowed such a high level of institutional interest to emerge in an industry that might sound relatively unglamorous, namely "domestic filtration consumables manufacturers"?

In the warming Shanghai, Jia Qijun, the founder of Aeros, shared with Xie Yijun the key behind his leadership in achieving this accomplishment for Aeros: "When deep contemplation fails to solve a problem, it might be better to look up to the sky.".

The name "Arios" is inspired by the brightest star in the Big Dipper constellation, Yuheng. Jia Qijun hopes that, based on the continuously improved underlying "filter membrane" materials and technologies, Arios will ultimately become the brightest star in the field of biopharmaceutical membrane filtration.

On the surface, filtration does not seem to be a huge market with much buzz, at least compared to blockbuster innovative drugs with tens of billions in revenue. However, Jia Qijun does not conceal his ambitions.

"If you compare it to the United States, companies like Danaher and Thermo Fisher, which are upstream giants in the life sciences sector, have grown larger and stronger through mergers and acquisitions, and now have market capitalizations of around $200 billion. This level of market capitalization is comparable to many of the world's top pharmaceutical companies," Jia Qijun analyzed. "If China's future ecosystem develops in this direction, we will also see one or two upstream platform companies in the life sciences sector with a market capitalization of hundreds of billions of dollars."

No one knows how long it will take for that vision to materialize. It might take 10 years, or even 15 years. But to craft a good beginning for a story, on one hand, what's needed is cohesion, how to unite ideals, resources, talents, and technologies; on the other hand, it requires the courage to think and act boldly.

When we look back at film and television works, we often encounter a classic narrative model: from cross-cultural classics such as "One Piece", "The Lord of the Rings", and "The Avengers", there is a similar narrative template of an "ideal community". Partners from diverse backgrounds gather around a noble ideal to embark on an adventure together, and through the trials and growth of individuals and the team, collective values are realized.

For Jia Qijun, this undoubtedly reminds him of how Ailixiao, the company he founded, anchored itself in the filtration industry, weathered the capital winter, and began to race towards the goal of becoming "the pride of domestic products".

TONACEA01、Pursuing the Big Dipper

Jia Qijun recalled that he began to have a relatively clear career dream after graduating from Wuhan University as a postgraduate.

In 2007, Jia Qijun joined a global leading enterprise specializing in pharmaceutical process solutions, embarking on his journey of "overcoming challenges and advancing" in a large company. Jia Qijun, who is engaged in the sales of bioprocess products, mainly focuses on the implementation of business strategies for multinational enterprises. Every time he communicates business opportunities with new products, a seed is planted in Jia Qijun's heart: "Will there be a day when promoting new technologies for domestic brands that I have deeply participated in will be more meaningful and significant than the 'outstanding performance' I see before me?"

These subtle thoughts, although not changing the current situation, enabled him to raise his head and glimpse at the higher scenery in the business world during his subsequent career experiences.

In his more than ten years of experience as a leading figure in the field of filtration solutions, Jia Qijun, as a representative of positive energy, has influenced a group of colleagues and partners through his work and personal conduct on the multinational enterprise platform.

In his view, a promotion in rank will not affect his way of dealing with people, but will only bring more insights and reflections within specific industries: such as the issue of supply chain security in the biotechnology industry, the blockade of domestic bottleneck technologies; or the needs of enterprises in the pharmaceutical industry under the background of medical insurance reform and centralized drug procurement.

At that time, in the filtration track that Jia Qijun was most familiar with, an increasing number of domestic pharmaceutical companies were facing the dilemma of balancing cost and quality in pharmaceutical processes, and began to seek good import substitution solutions. Assembling a startup team to create a solution-focused enterprise that emphasizes "independent innovation," "quality controllability," and "customer first" became a feasible dream for Jia Qijun.

Finally, in 2019, he decided to confront the immense uncertainty in the market and launch his entrepreneurial project first.

Jia Qijun's greatest source of confidence lies in his understanding of the industry, customers, technology, and talent. After about a year of preparation, he embarked on his journey with a team that he trusted, all of whom hailed from top life science enterprises, towards the ideal of becoming the "light of domestic products" in the pharmaceutical filtration industry.

"During the COVID-19 pandemic, two major American consumables companies significantly reduced their shipments to China, and even stopped supplying some key materials," observed Jia Qijun. These shortages "threaten the production safety of all local innovative pharmaceutical companies, including halting research and development." The product competitiveness and supply chain security issues of high-end bioprocess consumables, which the company's founding team aimed to address, have further become a major trend.  

If we want our pharmaceutical companies to stop waiting for supply chain deliveries that are indefinitely delayed by others, we must empower our self-established teams to define what constitutes "high performance", "reliability", and "accessibility" in filter materials and filter products.  

And this brings us to the core of the issue, which is the technological barriers of filter membrane materials.

Jia Qijun pointed out that the high profits and long-term stability of the filtration membrane industry are precisely built on the foundation of "strong professionalism and high barriers". To enter this industry, one must first solve three major challenges: top talent, long-term financial support, and ample opportunities for customer validation.

In addition to the founding team with backgrounds in sales operations and technical services, attracting top scientists was crucial. Therefore, Jia Qijun reached out to Dr. Jijun Ge, who was then serving as the chief scientist for membrane material research and development at the headquarters of a leading pharmaceutical filtration multinational corporation (MNC) in the United States.

Based on Jia Qijun's understanding, in the life sciences industry, only by making breakthroughs in upstream core raw materials can one grasp the core "key to success". Research on basic membrane materials for pharmaceutical filtration falls within the interdisciplinary field of materials science and biomedicine. Only by breaking through this high threshold and risky area with bottlenecks, and forming independent intellectual property rights, can one gain pricing power and discourse power in competition with imported brands.

Therefore, top experts from within the industry were the perfect pieces of the puzzle that the team needed at that time, and they were also rare and precious globally. Dr. Ge is widely recognized as a globally leading membrane material research and development scientist in the industry.

The value recognition among the core team often requires time to be verified. Through continuous communication with scientists, Jia Qijun, leveraging his deep understanding of the industry, resonating with technical talents, and jointly building the company's ideal vision, expressed his absolute trust in his team and technical approach. Eventually, with Boston, USA, as the first stage, Dr. Ge joined Aerosun, bringing his internationally leading experience in membrane material research and development, as well as his advanced knowledge and network in the upstream industry of life sciences in the United States.

With Jia Qijun's work style and demeanor, he quickly gathered a group of top talents who had experience in leading multinational life science enterprises. However, transforming the "talent platform" into a "technology platform" still requires patience and constantly tests the persistence and resilience of him and his team.

TONACEA02、Is initially extremely narrow, only accessible to people

In the early stages of entrepreneurship, Jia Qijun chose to utilize the first three years of the company's establishment to first validate the business model and achieve breakthroughs in large-scale application on the client side.

"By optimizing our customers' production processes and reducing the cost of filtration processes, we have never experienced a single quality issue in large-scale drug production applications to date," Jia Qijun said by way of example.

Filter membranes are indispensable and crucial consumables in the pharmaceutical process, used to remove impurities, bacteria, and viruses from the feed solution. Unlike culture media, fillers, disposable reaction bags, and other products that have achieved a certain degree of localization, the high-end filter membrane market has long been monopolized by international giants.

According to Jia Qijun, this is a market with considerable scale but insufficient competition. In the global high-end pharmaceutical filtration membrane market, the top three brands account for 70% to 80% of the market share. Such a highly concentrated landscape means that once a company achieves technological breakthroughs, it will gain vast market space.

The scarcity of players in this field is primarily attributed to the extremely stringent quality requirements for the production process of molecules transitioning from clinical phase III to commercialization. "This is a field where pharmaceutical company executives can sleep soundly," Jia Qijun said, referring to the industrial standard requirement for "product filtration performance measured in millions of times, with batch-to-batch variation tending towards zero.".
In addition to product quality, the advanced manufacturing attributes within the industry mean that it is also an industry with extremely high capital barriers and is extremely expensive. For this reason, Aeros has taken a detour.

"As a company born after COVID, the challenges we face are immense," explained Jia Qijun. In the context of supply chain shortages, it takes time to produce high-quality products, and given the changes in industry cycles, it is particularly important to identify our positioning accurately.

In order to gain a firm foothold as soon as possible, this life science enterprise initially attempted to "launch multiple arrows at once" by simultaneously promoting multiple product lines. A year later, the team realized that "the current resources and understanding are simply not enough to support multiple pipelines." This lesson has been etched in his memory for many years, and in interviews, his insight remains that focus is key.

In 2022, Aileos made a crucial strategic adjustment: to focus all resources on a single product and establish its quality positioning in the industry through this product. Given the "capital winter" in the pharmaceutical industry that had begun around that time, it seemed to outsiders that Jia Qijun was taking a rather desperate gamble.

Amidst skepticism, Jia Qijun always believed in the market principles he was well-versed in, and in his team's ability to follow the logic of "product is king" and break through the heavy encirclement.

Therefore, around 2023, the company faced a series of important capital expenditure decisions, such as extending upstream in the industrial chain and setting up a filter membrane production line in Lingang, Shanghai; and establishing a membrane material research and development center in Boston, USA, to recruit top talent teams in this global hub of the life sciences industry. Jia Qijun did not press the pause button, but kept going out to raise money, seek investment, and find ways to "turn on the green light" for each of these crossroads leading to his ideals.

Jia Qijun insisted, "We must make differentiated and competitive products, rather than engaging in a price war." In a high-barriers industry like filtration, a low-price strategy is unsustainable. Only products that truly address customer pain points can win the market.

TONACEA03、Breaks through obstacles and moves forward, suddenly seeing the light

Finally, in 2023, Aerosun, led by Jia Qijun, achieved domestic substitution for the first 10,000-ton antibody drug production project. The company successfully established a membrane material research and development center in Boston, USA, and a talent team led by the former chief scientist of a leading foreign company in the filtration membrane industry has been gradually in place. In October 2023, the company also completed its A+ round of financing, led by AstraZeneca CICC Healthcare Fund, with a total amount of nearly 100 million yuan.

Since the establishment of the Aeolus Global Membrane Material R&D Center, the focus has been on virus-removing membranes, which are known as the "highest peak in the filtration consumables R&D industry". Jia Qijun emphasized that virus-removing membranes are the most critical and technically challenging filtration step in the biopharmaceutical process, directly affecting the safety of drugs.

In the field of antibodies, the leading MCN enterprises in the filtration sector, with the largest manufacturer alone accounting for nearly two-thirds of the Chinese virus membrane market, have formed a near-monopoly position. Even if the second to fifth-ranked multinational life science giants were combined, there would still be a significant gap compared to the top player. This, on one hand, indicates the direction that the company needs to focus on in order to represent the strongest technological player in China. On the other hand, it also represents the vast potential market behind it.

In addition to virus removal membranes, the expansion of high-end filtration material pipelines such as sterilization membranes and deep filtration plates has been steadily advancing since 2023.

Jia Qijun analyzed that biopharmaceutical filtration membranes are not ordinary industrial products, but rather a crucial component directly related to drug safety and efficacy. Pharmaceutical companies are extremely cautious when selecting suppliers, as any issues can result in not only millions of dollars in losses but also harm to patients' health and damage to the company's reputation.

Jia Qijun shared several cases of Aerosun's cooperation with domestic top pharmaceutical companies, all of which involved helping major pharmaceutical companies reduce costs and increase efficiency, truly solving customer problems, and creating value for customers. He explained that due to price and supply issues, many top pharmaceutical companies wanted to replace filter membranes with domestic brands, but they were afraid that too many products would exhibit quality fluctuations during testing when applied in the production of commercial drugs, hindering drug release.

Initially, some well-known pharmaceutical companies, which were relatively open to introducing new suppliers, gave Aerosun an opportunity to participate in an entry test and parallel comparison. The superior performance of Aerosun's products was also demonstrated in practice. "Under the strong competitive pressure from leading domestic brands and benchmark products from multinational life science companies abroad, we still won more than 60% of the projects we participated in. This is mainly because, through objective tests of various scales, we solved problems such as difficult turbidity control and impurity issues for our customers.".

When selecting suppliers, leading pharmaceutical companies evaluate product performance from various dimensions, as well as the stability and consistency of the product after scaling up. The results show that in practical projects, the Aeros product saves customers 30% to 40% of filter material usage through higher loading capacity and superior performance.

"Firstly, we have saved nearly half of the cost of consumables, and secondly, we have also saved time and resources for installation and flushing." Jia Qijun calculated from the perspective of the client.

"Next, we need to ensure continuous and stable supply in the future, with stable and reliable product quality," Jia Qijun explained. In this regard, Aerosun's advanced quality system provides support. It is precisely because Aerosun understands the industry and customers that it pursues the same quality control as pharmaceutical companies in adhering to the GMP concept, ensuring that each batch of products is safe, effective, and of controllable quality. ”
As a traffic entry for transforming pharmaceutical companies, Aeros has conducted over 500 technical exchanges and tests for product commercialization every year in recent years, and this number reached more than 1,300 in 2025. The entire team conducts more than 3 exchanges and tests on average every day, which is an exaggerated figure in any solution-oriented enterprise.

On the other hand, there are new customers who are ultimately converted under the funnel effect: by the end of 2025, Aileus' filter products have replaced imported brands in the production processes of over 60 clinical phase III to commercialized drug molecules.

In times of capital prudence, such tangible commercial progress is more convincing than any story.  

Jia Qijun revealed that the company's recent two rounds of financing totaled nearly 300 million yuan. Including the pre-A round financing in the first few years of its establishment, and the market-oriented A+ round financing, the company has received a total of about 500 million yuan in external capital injection since 2021. With the support and services of the capital market, as an industrialist, he was able to find top talents and gradually cultivate what he envisioned as the first filtration-focused unicorn enterprise in China, within the fertile testing ground provided by China's biopharmaceutical industry amid the demand for domestic substitution.

TONACEA04、Aims to be replaced and go global

Local companies like Aeolus, which focus on technological innovation and supply chain stability, are naturally welcomed by investors. Investors see not only a promising track, but also a company that has proven its execution ability.
This is also a key factor that attracted Ian Carmichael, a former global executive of MNC platform, to join: "Good ideas are easy to come by, but execution is the key."

This British individual has been immersed in the life science industry for many years, boasting an impressive resume that includes experience as a business management and market development leader in multiple regions across Asia-Pacific and Europe for multinational giants. He/She once served as the General Manager of Merck's Biological Process Department in China and also held the position of Global Vice President at Cytiva, responsible for globalization strategies and major client business.

Dr. Ian has lived and worked in China for four years, and he is deeply impressed by China's efficiency, pragmatic approach, and flexibility. In his view, when the quality system is perfected, Chinese manufacturing, including filter membranes, can not only reach the international equivalent level but often surpass it. When talking about his mission at Aerosun, Ian Carmichael introduced on LinkedIn, "Through impeccable quality, reliable supply chain, and customer-centric service upgrades, we aim to establish lasting trust relationships in international markets beyond China."
Currently, in addition to its two major GMP production bases in Shanghai and Hangzhou, Aerosun also has a filtration membrane material research and development center in Boston, USA. With the arrival of Dr. Ian, Aerosun is also preparing to establish a global sales and operation center in France, using it as a springboard to penetrate the European and American pharmaceutical markets. In its long-term strategy, it aims to compete with century-old giants MNC.

Looking back at the expansion of Aileos in overseas markets in recent years, it actually exceeded Jia Qijun's expectations.

"As a startup, you can't expect others to trust you immediately, so our first step is to lay a solid foundation domestically." However, Jia Qijun found that in the second year after the filter product was launched, the overseas sales proportion of Aeros had already exceeded 10%. From 10% in 2024 to 20% in 2025, the international business growth of Aeros showed promising potential, especially among upstream supply chain enterprises in the biopharmaceutical industry.
The underlying reasons, apart from the product quality and the stability of system delivery, largely lie in the path taken by Aeolus to expand overseas: that is, the commercialization capability in overseas markets. On the one hand, it involves partners who can deeply understand the local market; on the other hand, it involves empowering overseas markets, as well as how to motivate the teams that open up international markets.

Strategically, Jia Qijun has single-handedly established a talent and technology platform that truly possesses an international perspective; however, tactically, he prefers to take a more conservative approach. Jia Qijun stated that he always maintains a sense of awe towards his circle of competence. Unlike the domestic market, once quality issues arise with overseas customers, the team cannot immediately rush to the scene. This necessitates that Aileos must ensure comprehensive and thorough preparation in terms of products, technology, and talent.

After meeting the needs of domestic leading innovative pharmaceutical companies and achieving over 90% market penetration of filtration products used by these companies, Aerosun's next plan is to tap into the pipelines of leading pharmaceutical companies in mainstream overseas markets, thereby gaining a broader market presence and continuously validating and iterating its own products.

In the European market, it is not easy for a Chinese upstream supplier to gain the trust of local pharmaceutical companies. However, with the gathering and integration of industry veterans from around the world, it is expected to significantly shorten the period of expanding into new territories.

TONACEA05、All in membrane filtration

Standing at the milestone of its fifth anniversary, Aeros's goal has been set towards a more distant future.
At the grassroots level of innovative research and development, after more than three years of research and development, Aerosun's sterilization filter membrane has achieved self-control. The new generation of products has already progressed to the stages of product finalization, market access, and commercialization. In the entire field of membrane material research and development, the virus removal membrane, which poses the highest challenge and has the most severe "bottleneck" issue, has also completed the feasibility verification of large-scale production in the membrane material stage. In Jia Qijun's view, this membrane material, which is moving towards product development and finalization, will become a "Rocket" product in Aerosun's reserve product pipeline.

At present, Aerosun's self-developed virus-removal membrane has completed pilot tests with over ten domestic customers, and the test results show that "its performance in terms of flux rate and retention efficiency surpasses the current top level in the industry." Jia Qijun hopes that Aerosun will have at least two to three products that rank first or second in the industry, especially in the areas of bacteria-removal and virus-removal membranes.

Jia Qijun stated that membrane technology is a platform-based technology that can be applied to multiple high-end manufacturing fields such as biopharmaceuticals, food and beverages, aerospace, and aviation. However, in the past five years, Aerosun has not been so impatient, but rather focused on making virus removal filter materials and filters the most competitive single products in the world. On the basis of achieving this primary goal, we will fully leverage the scalability of the technology platform to open up more imagination space for Aerosun.

Compared to a one-time victory, Jia Qijun prefers to believe in long-termism that can consistently achieve good results. After all, in the biopharmaceutical field, which is known for its long cycle, the premise of surviving well is to stay in the game and survive through the cycles.

The development trajectory of Aelius mirrors the growth of many upstream enterprises in the local life sciences industry. From relying on imports to domestic substitution, and then to going global, this path is full of challenges, but at the same time, it breeds opportunities worth hundreds of billions of market value.

When we shift our focus away from the business world and discuss global fan favorites like "One Piece," "The Lord of the Rings," and "The Avengers," the core of these stories often lies in the ultimate metaphor they hint at towards the end: The great goal, most importantly, is not the end, but rather the person you become along the way.

Jia Qijun's journey of pursuing his dreams with this "Yuhengxing" company also corresponds to a contemporary epic of Chinese entrepreneurs, echoing an old saying: "As the heavens move with vigor, a true man strives constantly to strengthen himself; as the earth's nature is receptive, a true man upholds virtue to bear the weight of all things." No matter how impressive an entrepreneur is, they all have moments when they feel "rejected by the world." However, choosing to hold firm to their beliefs and scale new heights with the team they have gathered behind them is the common destination of successful individuals.