"Zhongke Kelan" Secures Tens of Millions in Angel Round Funding, Offering Third-Generation Degradable Plastics to Consumer Electronics Giants | Exclusive by 36Kr
Text | Zhang Bingbing
Editor | A Zhi
36Kr learned that Beijing Zhongke Kelan New Material Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhongke Kelan") recently announced that it has received tens of millions of yuan in angel - round financing. This round of financing was led by Junke Danmu, followed by Linge Venture Capital, and Yibai Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor. The funds from this round will be used for business aspects such as production line expansion, market promotion, R & D investment, and team building.
Zhongke Kelan was established in February 2024. Its core technology and team were incubated from the National Engineering Research Center for Engineering and Ecological Plastics of the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as "TIPC, CAS"). Dr. Ji Junhui, the founder, is a well - known scientist in the global ecological plastics field. The R & D team he leads has accumulated a series of original scientific research achievements and has rich experience in industrialization.
Zhongke Kelan's core product, the fully natural - domain degradable plastic PDA (Polyesters Bio - Degradable in All Nature Environment), was developed to meet major national needs. It has pioneered a new technical route for achieving complete and controllable degradation of plastics under all natural - domain conditions. It can be widely used in packaging upgrades and replacements in the fields of electronic information, daily chemicals, cosmetics, and medical care, as well as in emerging market fields such as marine ranches, offshore operations, and 3D printing consumables.
Currently, Zhongke Kelan has completed the construction and debugging of its hundred - ton - scale pilot line in Hainan and has the ability to stably deliver products in tonnage. Its degradable plastic products supplied to several domestic industry giants have been successively launched on the market, and several marine fishery products are undergoing verification.
Zhongke Kelan's hundred - ton - scale production line
Solving the problems of full natural - domain and controllable degradation
The harm of traditional plastics is already a consensus. Under the global "plastic restriction order", degradable plastics have become widely used alternative products, giving rise to a market worth hundreds of billions of yuan.
However, degradable plastics do not "disappear unconditionally". Most biodegradable plastics need to be treated in industrial composting equipment with constant temperature and humidity or in soil at a specific landfill depth for more than a hundred days to achieve the degradation effect.
Degradation in water bodies, represented by the ocean, is an even more difficult problem. Compared with soil conditions, the marine environment is characterized by high salt, high pressure, low temperature, and a scarcity of microorganisms. The degradation ability of existing degradable plastics under these conditions is extremely unsatisfactory. Research has shown that polylactic acid (PLA) materials, which are widely used in degradable straws, hardly degrade in the marine environment.
The key to the third - generation degradable material technology developed by Zhongke Kelan is to solve the problems of water - body degradation and controllable degradation, thus achieving "full natural - domain degradation" in various environments such as soil, compost, the ocean, and rivers.
During the R & D process of the third - generation degradable plastics, Zhongke Kelan's founding team found that simply modifying the structure of traditional degradable plastics could not achieve the expected functions, and it was necessary to design a new molecular structure from scratch. Relying on the profound technological accumulation and innovation ability of TIPC, CAS, by adjusting the structure, functional group composition, and molecular structure, Zhongke Kelan's PDA products can meet the degradation requirements in composting environments such as industrial composting and home composting, as well as in various natural environments such as anaerobic environments, soil environments, freshwater environments, and marine environments.
Degradation is the destination of plastics, but not their mission. A qualified degradable plastic product also needs to meet the multi - scenario usage requirements before degradation. Another core feature of Zhongke Kelan's PDA products is that they can achieve a balance between degradation and usage performance. The founding team told 36Kr that its "controllable degradation" technology can achieve precise control of the degradation process from 3 days to 10 years, and can be "customized on demand" according to the different requirements of customers for degradation and usage performance, thus forming a rich range of grades and product matrix. This is the core ability of the team and also the barrier in technology and the market.
The National Engineering Research Center for Engineering and Ecological Plastics of TIPC, CAS is one of the first batch of new - sequence national engineering centers approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, and it is also the only national - level engineering center named after "ecological plastics", providing technical support for the team.
It is reported that Zhongke Kelan has three major technical systems: synthesis and scale - up, modification and application, and testing and evaluation. At the same time, it has a complete R & D logic from molecular structure design, testing to pilot - scale experiments, pilot - scale bases, and industrialization. From molecular structure design to scale - up preparation, and from kilogram - scale to ton - scale production, it can be rapidly promoted within an internal closed - loop system, accelerating the process of transforming new materials from the laboratory to industrialization.
Conducting scientific research based on market demand
Currently, mainstream degradable plastics such as PLA, starch - based plastics, and PBAT account for more than 90% of the market share. A relevant report from CRI - China Market Research & Investment Consulting Co., Ltd. shows that in recent years, the production capacities of PLA and PBAT have maintained a positive growth trend. However, the average operating rate of PBAT in 2023 was only maintained at around 13%, and there are still more than one million tons of production capacity under construction or built but not put into production in the future, raising concerns about over - capacity.
Zhongke Kelan did not choose to enter the saturated market but instead allocated its R & D resources to high - performance products. The founding team said that the current market competition may seem like a red ocean mainly because the performance of existing products has certain limitations, the application scenarios are limited, and the large - scale demand of customers for high - performance ecological plastics has not been met.
In a case of a leading customer in the electronic information industry, the customer required that the packaging protective film/bag should pass the "double 85" reliability test and meet the performance requirements of PE or PP protective film/bags under the premise of being degradable, while also meeting the requirements of high transparency and high barrier properties. The test results of several previous degradable plastics were not satisfactory. Finally, Zhongke Kelan's PDA products maintained stable performance in high - temperature and high - humidity environments and were successfully selected. Currently, the relevant products have been launched on the market.
On the other hand, Zhongke Kelan is also opening up new markets with new materials. The PDA products have unique seawater degradation ability. In environments such as disposable tuna fishing equipment for deep - sea fishing and mussel farming nets in marine ranches, they are expected to reshape the original business processes, reduce labor dependence, and improve production efficiency.
It is reported that in 2024, Zhongke Kelan provided nearly a thousand batches of samples to downstream customers. Such market exploration efficiency is not easy for a startup project focused on scientific research transformation. The founding team of Zhongke Kelan introduced that when TIPC, CAS was established in 1999, it organized departments with an application - oriented focus to conduct scientific research achievement transformation for the market. Therefore, the team has a market - oriented gene, which enables a smoother matching of technology with customer needs.
In the chemical industry, cost is also an important factor hindering the popularization of new technologies or products. Zhongke Kelan's solution is to optimize monomers and expand production capacity. On the one hand, it uses AI to discover more cost - effective monomers and improves self - developed catalysts; on the other hand, it invests in building a thousand - ton - scale production capacity to achieve cost reduction through economies of scale.
Facing the definite trend of AI, Zhongke Kelan believes that AI has great potential in property prediction, polymer prediction, structural analysis and design, and catalyst process optimization. Zhongke Kelan is developing a technology platform through a combination of "self - research + cooperation" to empower the entire chain from materials, formulas, processes to products.
Currently, Zhongke Kelan has completed the construction of a hundred - ton - scale batch reactor, further verifying the stability and reliability of the entire equipment process and products, and laying the foundation for the subsequent thousand - ton - scale pilot test and process improvement.
On March 29, Zhongke Kelan signed a cooperation agreement with the People's Government of Wuhai City, Inner Mongolia, to jointly promote the construction of the "Wuhai Pilot Base Project for Fully Natural - Domain Biodegradable Materials (PDA)". By leveraging Wuhai City's advantages in BDO raw materials, degradable industries, and energy elements, a thousand - ton - scale pilot base will be built to further expand the production scale. At the same time, Zhongke Kelan will play a bridging role in the industrial chain, connecting raw materials with downstream modification, product manufacturing, and other links to help extend and supplement the degradable industrial chain in Wuhai City.
Views from investors:
Zhang Ruiqi, the person - in - charge of Junke Danmu: Against the backdrop of the global green economy, we are optimistic about the expansion of application scenarios for new - type degradable plastics. On the one hand, as functional materials with economic value, they can meet the needs of new scenarios such as seawater aquaculture and agricultural mulch films; on the other hand, based on corporate ESG commitments, they can provide low - cost and high - performance material solutions, expanding the application of degradable plastics in scenarios with strict performance requirements such as electronic packaging. The Zhongke Kelan team has a high - level technical position in the field of degradable plastics, and Dr. Ji, the company's chief scientist, is a leading expert in the industry. We are very glad to help Kelan complete its angel - round financing and look forward to the company bringing more competitive products.
Linge Venture Capital: Against the backdrop of the global "plastic restriction order", end - customers have more demand for degradable plastics. Dr. Ji Junhui and the Zhongke Kelan team have many years of R & D experience in degradable plastics. The self - developed PDA products have solved the two major problems of full - domain degradation and controllable degradation and have achieved commercial applications in fields such as consumer electronics and seawater aquaculture. We continue to be optimistic about the team's R & D and industrialization capabilities in engineering and ecological plastics and look forward to and support the team in bringing more products that meet customer needs. Linge Venture Capital will continue to deploy in the field of new materials and serve as a co - entrepreneur for scientists and a long - term companion for entrepreneurs.
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This article is from the WeChat official account "36Kr Future Industries". Author: Zhang Bingbing, A Zhi. Republished by 36Kr with permission.