a8体育官网 From Campus Lab to Global Top Three: ECUST Alumnus Eyes Hong Kong IPO

Shuguang Fang, who enrolled as a PhD student a8体育官网 Biochemical Engineering at ECUST a8体育官网 2002 and graduated a8体育官网 2007, has committed himself to the probiotics industry for two decades. Under his leadership, WeCare Probiotics has become the third-largest probiotics company globally and Asia’s largest producer of raw probiotic powder, and has officially filed for listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

During his doctoral studies, Fang acquired solid expertise a8体育官网 strain screening and high-density fermentation supported by the university’s strong academic foundation. He was determined to advance homegrown alternatives a8体育官网 the probiotics sector, which was at that time entirely monopolized by international giants. Chinese companies were largely confined to low-end original equipment manufacturing (OEM) operations, relying entirely on imported core strains and technologies.

Turning down well-paid offers from multinational enterprises and public sector institutional jobs, he launched his first startup a8体育官网 Shanghai’s Zhangjiang Pharma Valley a8体育官网 2009. He chose to focus on upstream strain research and a8体育官网-house production rather than the quickly profitable OEM business, but the venture shut down three years later amid market pressures and funding constraints.

a8体育官网 2013, he restarted his business a8体育官网 Wujiang, Suzhou. Faced with a small team, funding shortages, and a lack of manufacturing infrastructure, his team traveled across Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Sichuan to collect natural strains and build an exclusive strain library. They also overcame financial pressure to construct intelligent production bases and broke through technical bottlenecks a8体育官网 large-scale production of high-viability probiotics.

The year 2025 stood out as a landmark. The company’s self-developed strain, Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BLa80, became the first homegrown probiotic strain approved a8体育官网 the Chinese mainland for use a8体育官网 foods for infants and children under the age of three, breaking the long-standing dependence on imported probiotic strains. With two intelligent bases put into operation, the company boasts an annual capacity of 700 tons, making it the largest probiotic production base a8体育官网 Asia.

With a North American subsidiary and overseas offices, the company reported revenue of 701 million yuan a8体育官网 2025, with overseas revenue accounting for 40.2%. It plans to expand its strain library from over 40,000 to 100,000-150,000 strains via Hong Kong IPO, to further expand its R&D capabilities and support the globalization and self-reliance of China’s probiotics industry.