A synthetic biology company in the Pre-A round has achieved a remarkable turnaround by selling ergothioneine, with a monthly average GMV exceeding 30 million yuan.
Recently, the news that a 75-year-old pharmaceutical company chairman stripped to the waist, showed off his muscles in photos, and promoted his company's ergothioneine capsules went viral, once driving a 20% surge in the stock price of its subsidiary, Chuanning Biotechnology. Although the ergothioneine concept stocks in the secondary market quickly returned to calm, the high price of 1,499 yuan for 60 capsules and the so-called "mysterious antioxidant power" have drawn more people's attention to this ingredient.
In fact, during the synthetic biology boom in the past few years, ergothioneine was a very typical single product. VC investors and tech experts who focus on product selection often turned up their noses at the mention of "ergothioneine". It's not because the efficacy of this ingredient is poor, but because of the spread of technology and intense competition among manufacturers, the so-called "mushroom soft gold" has seen a rapid price drop:
Initially, when it could only be extracted from mushrooms such as Ganoderma lucidum and Tricholoma matsutake, the raw material price of ergothioneine was as high as 300,000 yuan per kilogram. In the past four or five years, the cost of biosynthetic ergothioneine has dropped significantly. Now, the market price of the raw material has bottomed out to less than 10,000 yuan per kilogram.
Low grain prices hurt farmers.
The consumer market (C - end) has not yet expanded, while the raw material price in the business - to - business market (B - end) has fallen to rock bottom. Therefore, most investors are not optimistic about ergothioneine. Many synthetic biology companies with mass - production capabilities have chosen to wait, planning to enter the market when ergothioneine becomes popular.
However, when the mainstream view generally holds that it is not suitable to invest heavily in ergothioneine for the time being, Jinsan Biology has taken the opposite approach. In 2023, Jinsan Biology decided to go all out to promote ergothioneine, selling both raw materials and consumer products for the C - end. Ding Wei, its founder and chairman, believes that "If you want to be a leader in the industry, you must blaze a new trail and help the industry gain popularity instead of waiting."
Ding Wei, who started his business after retirement, was once the president of the Chinese region of home appliance giant A.O. Smith. After retiring, he also led a team to participate in the Wuhan Marathon. In May, the number of followers of his personal video account, which he had been operating for two months, exceeded 100,000. Visits from old friends like Jiang Nanchun also attracted a wave of attention.
Brand marketing and traffic operation are the strengths of the Jinsan team. After shifting to the development of C - end consumer products, the startup story of this synthetic biology company has become much smoother, and its performance provides strong evidence. In 2024, the GMV of Jinsan Biology's ergothioneine product series reached 120 million yuan, and it turned a profit in the second half of the year. In 2025, the monthly average GMV exceeded 30 million yuan. "This year, the minimum GMV is 300 million yuan, and the goal is to reach 500 million yuan."
Recently, Jinsan Biology completed a Pre - A round of financing of over 100 million yuan, jointly invested by Jafco Asia, Huayi Capital, and funds under Kuanke Capital. Ding Wei's business story, which spans from C - end consumer products to synthetic biology, is different from that of technology - driven entrepreneurs. However, his integrated marketing strategies are quite valuable for reference.
The following is an edited interview between 36Kr and Ding Wei:
Going all in on ergothioneine and conducting IIT human clinical trials to verify efficacy
36Kr: When you founded Jinsan Biology in 2021, the mainstream of synthetic biology startups was to build technology platforms and sell raw materials to businesses (2B). Did you consider taking this path at the beginning? When did you decide to develop C - end products of ergothioneine?
Ding Wei: When we first started the business, we also wanted to engage in multiple fields, such as HMO, NMN, and small - molecule hyaluronic acid. In the first version of our business plan (BP), we planned to launch one project per quarter, four projects a year and 12 projects in three years. Because my co - founder, Dr. Wang Yang, is an expert in synthetic biology and very professional in scientific research, it only took about three months to complete the construction and transformation of strains in the laboratory.
Looking back, we underestimated the challenges of industrial mass - production at that time, and many of our assumptions were overly optimistic. It was not until we really started mass - producing ergothioneine that we realized that to stably carry out a project, make it cost - competitive, with stable quality and sufficient production capacity, requires a great deal of effort. Running 12 projects simultaneously would be extremely challenging.
Subsequently, we prioritized the ergothioneine project. However, from 2022 to 2023, the raw material price of ergothioneine had dropped rapidly. Through communication with experts, we realized that selling raw materials would be very difficult. Since the iteration speed of synthetic biology strains is very fast, when the market scale does not grow fast enough, the rapid decline in product prices will lead to a decrease in revenue. So in the second half of 2023, we formulated a strategy of parallel development for 2B and 2C, especially focusing on developing 2C products.
Since most of my core team members are from the C - end home appliance industry and have rich experience in brand marketing and channel construction, the transformation to the C - end has been very smooth. In just over a year, Jinsan Biology's ergothioneine products have begun to gain influence.
36Kr: Why are you so determined to focus on ergothioneine? There are many antioxidant and anti - aging molecules.
Ding Wei: To learn about synthetic biology, I used to lurk in many technology and industry groups and noticed an interesting phenomenon: Many people looked down on ergothioneine in the past two years.
Although the mainstream view holds that this product is not worth investing in, Jinsan still promotes the C - end application of ergothioneine with all its might because we are concerned about its future. In terms of anti - oxidation, ergothioneine has a clear mechanism, good effects, and is highly compatible with the human body. It can cross the blood - brain barrier and blood - eye barrier and has multiple effects.
Professor Barry Halliwell from Singapore, known as the "father of free radicals", published three scientific papers on ergothioneine as early as the 1980s. In recent years, synthetic biology technology has significantly reduced the cost of ergothioneine, attracting the attention of the market and academia again.
To verify the efficacy of ergothioneine in the human body, we started conducting investigator - initiated clinical trials (IIT) on humans in the second half of last year to verify its clear efficacy in improving liver function and alleviating dry eye syndrome/eye fatigue.
36Kr: IIT is usually conducted by pharmaceutical companies. How did you come up with the idea of conducting IIT for a health supplement ingredient? Why is Jinsan the only one doing this in the functional health care field?
Ding Wei: The development of innovative drugs has a strict set of trial regulations, from the investigational new drug (IND) application to clinical phases I, II, and III, which involves high investment and high risks. In the health supplement industries of various countries, there is no requirement to conduct human clinical trials. Precisely because we are cross - industry entrepreneurs, we were not restricted by inertial thinking and found a fast - paced and low - cost way to prove the efficacy of health supplement ingredients in the human body, which is to conduct IIT.
Investigator - initiated clinical trials need to be registered at the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry and follow strict trial design and effect evaluation rules. For dietary supplements, IIT has strong credibility in simple human efficacy verification and providing scientific evidence.
Why is Jinsan the only one conducting IIT for dietary supplements? I think it's because ergothioneine gives us an opportunity to achieve definite positive results. If we conduct clinical efficacy verification on other ingredients such as NMN and PQQ, we may not be able to achieve the same effects.
Business strategies beyond the textbook
36Kr: You are both supplying raw materials to businesses (2B) and entering the C - end consumer product market. Will there be conflicts between these two? Will B - end customers who purchase Jinsan's raw materials have concerns?
Ding Wei: Many investment institutions didn't understand at first why we were doing both 2B and 2C when communicating with me. If we followed the textbook approach to business, our model of selling both raw materials and end - products would definitely not make sense, and customers would surely have concerns. But the real - world business is different.
About 25 - 30 years ago, the main sales channels for home appliances were traditional supermarkets, and home appliance chain stores like Gome and Suning were just emerging. Usually, home appliances were distributed to supermarkets through agents and distribution networks. At that time, Suning wanted to attract brand owners to directly enter and sell products. Many brands were afraid to cooperate with Suning for direct sales because they were worried about offending agents and causing channel conflicts.
But I took the opposite approach. I entrusted all other channels to agents and only had direct sales through Suning. As a result, riding on the wave of Suning opening 300 new stores every year, the early sales volume of A.O. Smith increased rapidly, and the agents were also very happy. Because if it were only up to them, the brand's influence would not have increased so quickly.
I think promoting ergothioneine now is similar to the logic of entering Suning back then. Ergothioneine is still a niche product, and large downstream customers are also waiting to see how popular this ingredient will become. If I actively promote ergothioneine myself and heat up the entire market, downstream customers will also welcome it.
In the niche category of ergothioneine, Jinsan Biology positions itself as an industry leader, so it needs to actively promote the product. Otherwise, if everyone just has the idea of reaping short - term benefits, this market will be difficult to develop.
36Kr: Maybe many companies don't just want to reap short - term benefits. They think it's very difficult for a startup to popularize an ingredient on its own, and the investment would be too large.
Ding Wei: The size of the investment is relative. When the market is narrow and small at the beginning, the investment won't be too much. We have been operating with our own funds until we completed our first social financing in the past two months. We haven't carried out large - scale promotional campaigns with heavy spending.
36Kr: Jinsan has now developed products such as ergothioneine skin care essence, oral capsules, and eye - wash solution. Can you share some experiences in product definition and promotion?
Ding Wei: The development of many products is sometimes unexpected but reasonable. Many ideas come from the feedback of employees within the company and users in the private domain user group. For example, an employee found that taking ergothioneine could improve liver function indicators. Then we conducted an IIT trial, and this efficacy that solves consumers' pain points became the core selling point of the product. In the future, we will continue to focus on the rigid demand for ergothioneine to improve health indicators, such as liver protection.
36Kr: Where are your products mainly sold? What is the proportion of GMV contributed by each channel?
Ding Wei: Our sales are mainly online, divided into three main segments: Firstly, stores on JD.com, Tmall, and Douyin, which rely on search - based sales; secondly, live - streaming sales by influencers in the public domain, such as those on Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Taobao; thirdly, private - domain live - streaming sales on platforms like Kuaituantuan, Shenjielong, and Youzan. The sales revenue proportions of these three segments are approximately 20%, 40%, and 40% respectively. In the future, private - domain platforms have greater potential in terms of sales revenue and profit.
36Kr: What are the current team sizes and expense expenditures for R & D and marketing in the Jinsan team?
Ding Wei: We currently have about 100 employees, with R & D and marketing personnel each accounting for about half, and the expenses also have a similar proportion. In terms of R & D, in addition to thoroughly researching ergothioneine and continuously conducting IIT verification, we also need to reserve a second growth curve.
36Kr: After years of experience in the business world, what startup experiences can you share?
Ding Wei: In entrepreneurship, people come first, and then things follow. First, build a team, and second, have strong financing capabilities. With the right people and sufficient funds, the probability of success will be much higher.
For me personally, on the one hand, I have trained a large number of talents in the past 20 years, which gives me an advantage in finding suitable people. On the other hand, I have many business friends. Relying on the trust among us, I can at least ensure that the cash flow won't dry up. Now that we have achieved the transition from 0 to 1, and social investment has entered during the stage from 1 to 10, it will help us expand our business.
36Kr: Is there anything else you want to add about Jinsan Biology?
Ding Wei: If you have any questions about Jinsan Biology and ergothioneine, you can ask DeepSeek. I communicate with DeepSeek every day and find its answers to many questions very reliable.
Investors' views
Kuanke Capital, the latest investor in this round, said that the efforts and achievements of the Jinsan Biology team in the R & D, industrialization, and popularization of ergothioneine are very impressive. The biggest bottleneck in the commercialization of the synthetic biology field is the entire complete path from the R & D of active ingredients to reaching consumers, which is often the lacking ability of traditional academic founders. The Ding Wei team has applied their successful experience in operating consumer products over the past few decades to Jinsan. They not only research and produce high - quality ergothioneine but also enable consumers to recognize the anti - aging efficacy of ergothioneine and bring various consumer products with ergothioneine as the core ingredient to the market. They look forward to Jinsan becoming a synthetic biology consumer brand that Chinese people can be proud of in the near future.
Kuanke Capital has been continuously focusing on consumer products in the anti - aging and skin - care fields. It invested in the domestic skin - care brand "Guyu" as early as 10 years ago. It hopes to continuously support startup companies through capital to help them grow and achieve transformation from technology and products to brand innovation.