News from the investment community on December 28,Yinghua ChenruiRecently, it has received tens of millions of yuan in angel round financingLinear capitalLead the pitchAquamarine microorganismsCo-investment, with Mentor Capital acting as the exclusive financial advisor.
Founded in August 2022, the main business is high-performance modification and application innovation of biomaterials, and the R&D team accounts for more than 60% at this stage. The founder, Dr. Zhou Zhen, was the general manager of the Asia-Pacific channel of Saint-Gobain, a Fortune 500 company, responsible for R&D, product and sales, and has rich experience in industry and business. The co-founder team also has a certain accumulation in scientific research and development and business promotion. At the same time, a senior consultant team composed of university scholars and industry experts has been established.
Biomaterials have crossed the bottleneck of mass production of raw materials and are sweeping many end-use application markets, challenging bulk petroleum-based materials. Taking PLA as an example, since 2001, PLA began commercial production, and the current global production capacity has exceeded 900,000 tons.
In recent years, with the breakthrough of biomaterial technology, the continuous decline of production costs, and the popularization of the concept of terminal low-carbon and recyclable consumption, the biomaterials industry has begun to enter a period of development. The entire industry has also shifted from being limited by the supply of raw materials to seeking large-scale commercial applications," he saidZhou Zhen, founder of Yinghua ChenruiAnalyzed.
In this process, as the high-performance modification of biomaterials also plays an important role, through modification technology, the mechanical properties, physicochemical properties, biocompatibility and biodegradability of biomaterials can be improved to meet specific application needs. For example:
By modifying the fluidity, flexibility, and interlayer adhesion of PLA with high performance, PLA can show better operability and performance in desktop 3D printing applications, thus making PLA the main 3D printing material.
Through the strong and toughened modification of PLA+PHA composites, it can be used as a 100% bio-based packaging material, which is widely used in cosmetics and food fieldsThrough the compatibilization modification of the phase interface between PLA and PHA, the modified composite materials have a variety of excellent characteristics of PLA and PHA, and can be used as a new generation of bio-based fibers.
The lead investor of this round is Zeng Yingzhe, partner of Linear CapitalRepresentation"Bio-based materials such as PLA and PHA are difficult to meet the performance requirements as a single component, which greatly limits the downstream application scenarios of new plastics. As a bio-based plastic with the lowest cost and the most capacity planning, PLA has not yet fully opened up the downstream demand due to its performance shortcomings. Through the unique modification methods such as multi-step continuous reaction capacitation accumulated by Yinghua Chenrui, the crystallinity and melt strength of the material can be increased, and the downstream market application can be greatly opened to meet the requirements of fiber, non-woven fabric, coating, high-speed 3D printing and other fields. ”
Based on the team's understanding of the biomaterial industry chain and the reserve of high-performance modification technology, Yinghua Chenrui has laid out a number of pipeline products such as 3D printing additive, bio-based fiber, and biodegradable paper coating. Some 3D printing and injection molding modified products have successfully passed the sample performance test and entered the batch pilot stage with leading customers in the industry.
Zhou Zhen thinks"With the accumulation of research on the performance mechanism of a variety of biomaterials and the development of high-performance modification technologies, and through the cooperation with partners in the upstream and downstream industry chain of biomaterials, Yinghua Chenrui is confident to achieve business implementation in the application scenarios of the above-mentioned multiple product pipelines. ”
Lanjing Microorganisms, the strategic investor of this financing, is also one of the business partners of Yinghua Chenrui. As a leading enterprise in the R&D and production of PHA raw materials, Blue Crystal Microorganisms has raised more than 2 billion yuan, and the first phase of the 5,000-ton PHA production line has been officially completed and put into operation. At present, as a new type of natural material, PHA has just begun to be commercialized globally, and high-performance modification will strongly promote the commercialization of PHA , especially after PHA and PLA blending modification, it can expand more new application fields.
Hu Mingyi, partner of Mingde Capital, said"Biomaterials are now in a critical stage of transformation from macro policy guidance to micro industry landing, and the successful R&D and mass production of upstream raw materials is the first step. The modification of biomaterials, linking R&D, production and commercialization, is a key technical link that needs to be solved urgently. The team has deep technical reserves, business resources and international vision, and looks forward to helping accelerate the development of China's biomaterials industry. ”