Ankon Technologies Co., Ltd., a U.S. and China-based company developing medical equipment for gastric diagnosis, has raised a $100 million investment round from Softbank China Venture Capital, Dazhong Investment, Youshi Capital and Tongsheng Capital.

China has a high rate of stomach cancer, with 680,000 new cases diagnosed every year accounting for around half of all the new cases globally.

Currently, most patients who are diagnosed with stomach cancer are already in the middle and late stage, and lower than 30 per cent of them are likely to survive for over five years. However, if patients can be diagnosed at an early stage, the survival rates can reach 90 per cent, according to the Beijing Cancer Hospital.

Traditional gastric diagnosis can be difficult for patients and has a higher rate for complications like infection. NaviCam, a capsule endoscopy system developed by Ankon, can complete gastric examinations in 15 minutes with no pain, no infection and is non-invasive. Patients just need to swallow the capsule with water to allow the system to collect medical image data of stomach and digestive systems as it travels through the patients' digestive systems.

NaviCam has obtained certificates from the China Food and Drug Administration, and has been used by nearly 1,000 medical institutions in China, including Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing Military Hospital, and Shanghai Changhai Hospital.