AI Accelerates Enzyme Modification, 10,000-Ton Regenerated PET Production Line Goes Live, "Plastic New Technology" Completes Tens of Millions Yuan Pre-A Round Financing | Exclusive Report by 36Kr
Text | Zhang Bingbing
Editor | A Zhi
36Kr learned that Beijing Suxin Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Suxin Technology") announced the consecutive completion of tens of millions of yuan in Pre-A and Pre-A+ rounds of financing. The Pre-A round was led by Jinding Capital - Hailide Industry Fund, with continued investment from existing shareholder Inno Angel Fund. The Pre-A+ round was exclusively invested by Zhuopu Investment. The company's products have been recognized by Hailide, a leading enterprise in the polyester industrial yarn industry, and the funds will be mainly used for the implementation of large-scale production lines. Currently, "Suxin Technology" has launched a new round of financing.
Founded in June 2024, "Suxin Technology" is a platform for the biological recycling and conversion of waste polymer materials, focusing on the biological enzymatic recycling of PET polyester. Professor Dong Weiliang, the CTO, is a professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Bioengineering at Nanjing Tech University. He has presided over 15 national key R & D projects and published more than 90 papers in authoritative journals. Dr. Xiang Kewei, the CEO, is a serial successful entrepreneur. He graduated from the State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials at Sichuan University for his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. He has served as an executive in several listed companies and has more than ten years of management experience, as well as experience in the R & D, production, and sales of multiple products from scratch.
After years of exploration of natural enzyme resources, the founding team of "Suxin Technology" has built a large - scale plastic - degrading enzyme library, which can recycle various polymer materials such as PET, PU, nylon, and PLA. They have also self - developed an AI algorithm to accelerate the exploration, evolution, modification of enzymes, and the evolution of fermentation chassis. Currently, they have completed the pilot line with a capacity of thousands of tons, achieving large - scale mass production. By the end of 2025, the production line with a capacity of ten thousand tons will be put into operation.
I. A Composite Team of Industry, Academia, and Investment: Expanding the Plastic - Degrading Enzyme Library with AI + Enzyme Engineering
The latest data from the United Nations shows that the global plastic consumption is expected to exceed 500 million tons in 2024, of which 399 million tons will become waste. Non - degradable plastic waste causes resource waste and ecological pollution, and may even accumulate in the food chain and harm human health. The theme of the World Earth Day in 2024 was "Planet vs. Plastics", aiming to call for an end to the harm of plastics.
The "14th Five - Year Plan for Plastic Pollution Control Action" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment clearly states that "improve the relevant standards for recycled plastics, accelerate the promotion and application of advanced and applicable technologies and equipment for the recycling and utilization of waste plastics, and encourage the same - level and high - value - added utilization of plastic waste".
From a macro - trend perspective, the development of recyclable plastics has become a clear direction. From the perspective of social responsibility, establishing a recycled plastic enterprise is of positive significance. From an investment perspective, entrepreneurship still requires comprehensive consideration of multiple factors.
Qi Yunda, the CFO of "Suxin Technology", has an investor background. Before participating in the establishment of "Suxin Technology", he mainly focused on the AI and synthetic biology tracks. From an investment perspective, he introduced three major considerations for establishing "Suxin Technology":
Firstly, it is the scale of the pipeline. Most start - up companies in the synthetic biology field focus on refined product pipelines, and the scale of a single pipeline usually does not exceed 10,000 tons, with a relatively low market ceiling. To become a "world - changing" company, one needs to focus on bulk pipelines. The founding team systematically sorted out the chemical pipelines from C1 to C10, conducted research and analysis from multiple dimensions such as market scale, economic efficiency, upstream and downstream maturity, supply - chain stability, technical path, and technical maturity. Finally, they locked in the recycled PET track: it is not only the best link in current comprehensive conditions but also meets the scale requirements of bulk commodities.
Secondly, it is the convergent demand. Recycled PET has received significant attention abroad. For example, companies such as Carbios and Samsara have completed financing of hundreds of millions of dollars. As the world's largest plastic producer, China's start - up companies in this field still have huge development potential. Judging from the rhythm of social development, the relevant domestic demand is expected to explode in a few years.
Finally, it is the team configuration. Most start - up teams in the synthetic biology track are mainly composed of scientists. However, for technology to move from the laboratory to the market, it not only requires R & D capabilities but also depends on industrialization experience. "Suxin Technology" has assembled a composite team combining industry, academia, and investment. As an authoritative scientist in the industry, CTO Dong Weiliang provides professional technical support. CEO Xiang Kewei has management experience in listed companies and a successful entrepreneurial background in polymer materials, ensuring industrial implementation and commercialization capabilities. CFO Qi Yunda has investment experience in world - class investment banks and Inno Angel Fund, ensuring the efficiency of capital operation and capital connection.
Biological r - TPA of "Suxin Technology"
The core of everything lies in the breakthrough of enzymes. In the biological enzymatic plastic recycling, enzymes are the core catalysts, but they have always faced problems such as insufficient efficiency, stability, and high - temperature resistance, making it difficult to achieve industrialization. In recent years, the technological transformation in the synthetic biology field has accelerated. Under the trend of AI for Science, "Suxin Technology" uses AI computing to explore enzymes based on functions and gene sequences, accelerate enzyme evolution tens of thousands of times, and assist in modifying chassis strains for efficient expression.
"The basis for the high - efficiency and excellent performance of the AI algorithm is to have enough high - quality data to support it. Without data, a good model cannot be trained," Qi Yunda said. The problem with plastic - degrading enzymes is that humans have only discovered them for more than a decade, and intensive research has only been carried out in the past decade. Research teams generally lack sufficient data to train AI models.
"Suxin Technology" can make the AI algorithm truly effective due to the combination of data accumulation, algorithms, and dynamic simulation. Since 2016, the founding team has been extensively exploring natural strains, especially continuously sampling in some extreme environments. They have isolated high - performance natural enzymes and collected data into the enzyme library. After forming a data advantage, they further use algorithms to accelerate R & D. At the same time, they use the AI algorithm to screen enzyme - modification schemes and verify them through high - throughput wet experiments. In the enzymatic catalysis process, they superimpose the dynamic simulation algorithms of molecular mechanics and quantum mechanics to simulate how the enzyme combines with the substrate under different pH values, forces, and temperatures, and infer the core amino acid sites that need to be modified.
Currently, "Suxin Technology" has built a plastic - degrading enzyme library containing hundreds of enzymes that can degrade polymer materials such as PET, PU, PC, PA, and even PLA. They have achieved a breakthrough in acid resistance in PET - degrading enzymes and developed the world's first enzyme that can directly degrade thermosetting polyurethane materials.
"In multiple pipelines, we have now achieved overtaking of foreign technologies and globally original breakthroughs through our own technology accumulation and rapid iteration of new technologies. This is the inevitability of technological leadership brought about by technological advancement," Qi Yunda summarized.
II. From the Pilot Line with a Capacity of Thousands of Tons to the Construction of a Production Line with a Capacity of Ten Thousand Tons: Reducing Costs through Large - Scale Production
Enzymes are the core basic elements for the biological recycling of PET. However, developing enzymes with high degradation efficiency does not mean that industrial mass production can be carried out. In the laboratory environment, which is mild and stable, enzymes can maintain high - efficiency catalytic reactions. However, in industrial production, the industrial process control cannot reach the precision of the laboratory, and enzymes may lose their effectiveness. How to improve the performance of enzymes to achieve sufficient industrial - production stability is the prerequisite for mass production.
"For example, in terms of acid resistance, we have achieved a breakthrough in the acid resistance of PET globally, which is very important for mass production," Qi Yunda introduced. During the enzymatic hydrolysis of PET, as the enzymatic hydrolysis reaction occurs, the pH value of the environment will become lower and lower. Weakly alkaline enzymes will lose their effectiveness when the pH value decreases, and continuous acid adjustment is required to maintain the reaction system, which significantly increases the process - control difficulty and production cost.
"Suxin Technology" has improved the enzymes to be able to withstand acidic environments, reducing the process - control difficulty. At the same time, based on the experience of mass - production scale - up, they have improved the chassis and increased the enzyme expression level to 4 - 5 g/L, overall reducing the production cost of enzymes. The mass production of tens of millions of tons of bulk commodities is an overall test of technology, process, engineering, and supply chain. Qi Yunda summarized that the technological breakthrough of enzymes, combined with the team's know - how and breakthroughs in engineering and supply - chain control, have enabled "Suxin Technology" to achieve large - scale mass production first.
Biological r - PET of "Suxin Technology"
In terms of production - line capacity, Carbios, a leading company abroad, has completed a demonstration plant. The industry expects its production scale to be around thousands of tons, and it is building a PET biological recycling plant with a capacity of ten thousand tons in France.
In the first half of 2025, "Suxin Technology" completed the pilot line with an annual output of thousands of tons, reaching the international level in terms of pilot - scale production. Currently, they are building a production line with an annual output of ten thousand tons, which is expected to be put into operation by the end of 2025. Qi Yunda introduced: "In terms of process stability, supply - chain stability, and equipment selection, we have followed the equipment selection and process flow for ten - thousand - ton mass production during the pilot - line stage with a capacity of thousands of tons. Therefore, we hope to expose and solve all the potential problems as early as possible during the pilot - line stage with a capacity of thousands of tons."
In terms of cost, it is reported that in the stage of mass production with a capacity of ten thousand tons, the degradation cost of the biological method of "Suxin Technology" can be comparable to that of the chemical method. In the future, with the improvement of enzyme expression level and stability and the emergence of economies of scale brought about by the continuous expansion of mass - production scale, it is expected that the price cost of biologically recycled PET can be reduced to be close to that of petrochemical - based virgin PET within three years. After calculation, Qi Yunda believes that the ultimate cost of this technological path can be further reduced: "Our goal is to make the cost of recycled PET lower than that of petrochemical - based virgin PET before 2030."
Comparison between r - PET polyester industrial yarn and virgin polyester industrial yarn of "Suxin Technology"
The cost price corresponds to the future business model: who the customers are and how to make money. "Suxin Technology" plans that in the next three years, its main customers will be leading brand companies. Through the differentiated path of biological degradation, it will earn the environmental - protection premium from ESG policies and brands. After 3 - 5 years, with the reduction of costs, it will replace petrochemical - based virgin products with better performance and price, truly "reducing costs and increasing efficiency" and "saving energy and protecting the environment", and subverting the plastic - production industry based on petroleum.
In terms of market expansion, "Suxin Technology" has sent samples of hundreds of kilograms to many internationally well - known fashion brands and customers of vehicle - grade products such as Hailide. It is expected that supply orders will be signed by the end of the year, and the company will achieve an output of hundreds of tons and sales of tens of millions of yuan in 2025. With the commissioning of the production line with a capacity of ten thousand tons at the end of this year, the expected revenue in 2026 will exceed 100 million yuan.
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This article is from the WeChat official account "36Kr Future Industries". The authors are Zhang Bingbing and A Zhi. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.