The on-hand orders exceed a thousand tons, and the first-phase thousand-ton pilot base in Wuhai has been capped. The developer of the third-generation biodegradable plastics, "Zhongke Kelan", has completed a pre-Series A financing of tens of millions of yuan | Exclusive from 36Kr

 Text | Liu Jingqiong 

Editor | A Zhi 

Cover Source  |  Provided by the enterprise 

36Kr learned that Beijing Zhongke Kelan New Material Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhongke Kelan"), a developer of third-generation biodegradable plastics, announced the completion of a multi-million-yuan Angel + round of financing. This round of financing was jointly invested by Jinqiao Fund, a state-owned asset platform at the municipal level in Jiangsu Province, and Anhui Fengyuan Biotechnology, a "unicorn" enterprise in the new materials field in China. The old shareholder, Linge Venture Capital, oversubscribed. The funds raised will be used for product R & D iteration, expansion of production capacity scale, and large-scale commercial implementation.

Zhongke Kelan's 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 the "Engineering Center"). The Engineering Center has been involved in the development of degradable plastics since 1999 and is one of the earliest domestic institutions engaged in the research of the second-generation degradable plastics PBAT/PBS. Its self-developed "one-step melt polycondensation" technology has now become the mainstream production route adopted by domestic and foreign degradable plastics manufacturers.

Zhongke Kelan was registered and established in 2024 and focuses on the R & D and manufacturing of the third-generation biodegradable plastic PDA (Polyesters Bio-Degradable in All Nature Environment). Dr. Ji Junhui, the founder, is a well-known scientist in the global ecological plastics field and the founding director of the Engineering Center, with rich experience in industrialization and commercial implementation.

PDA raw material products self-developed by Zhongke Kelan

Compared with the second-generation degradable plastics, the advantages of the third-generation degradable plastic PDA lie in full natural domain degradation and controllable degradation. Full natural domain degradation means that PDA can achieve complete degradation in all natural domain environments such as compost, soil, fresh water, and the ocean. Controllable degradation means that PDA can meet the controllable degradation cycle speed regulation from 3 days to 10 years. It is reported that Zhongke Kelan is currently the only domestic company that has mastered PDA technology and successfully achieved industrialization.

In May last year, 36Kr reported that Zhongke Kelan completed a multi-million-yuan angel round of financing, led by Junke Danmu and followed by Linge Venture Capital. In the past 8 months, Zhongke Kelan has made new progress in many aspects.

In terms of product layout, Zhongke Kelan has now formed a matrix of PDA raw material products with 4 major categories (PDA - R, PDA - T, PDA - S, PDA - B) and dozens of grades, which can meet the plastic packaging upgrade and replacement needs in the 3C, daily chemical products, cosmetics, and medical fields, as well as the application needs in high - growth market fields such as ecological agriculture, marine ranches, offshore operations, and 3D printing consumables.

In terms of production and manufacturing, Zhongke Kelan's hundred - ton pilot base in Hainan maintains stable product shipments. The first phase of the thousand - ton pilot base in Wuhai has been capped and is expected to start trial production in mid - 2026, with a planned annual production capacity of about 3,000 tons. A second - phase ten - thousand - ton base will also be built later. It is understood that Zhongke Kelan also plans to build a modified production base in Lianyungang this year and use it as the business development center in East China.

Currently, Zhongke Kelan's PDA raw materials are mostly applied in ecological agriculture, 3C packaging, and the marine field.

In the field of ecological agriculture, agricultural mulch films made from Zhongke Kelan's PDA raw materials balance degradation and mechanical properties, greatly improving the efficiency of large - scale mechanized mulching operations and are currently being promoted and applied in many places in Inner Mongolia. In the 3C packaging field, Zhongke Kelan's PDA raw materials have been applied in batches to the product packaging of leading consumer electronics manufacturers, and the supply volume is still growing steadily. In the application scenarios of marine degradation, Zhongke Kelan's PDA has achieved exclusive applications, and related products have been applied to scenarios such as marine aquaculture, marine ecological restoration, and marine ranches.

In terms of commercialization, according to the team, the company currently has orders of over a thousand tons on hand, and it is expected to achieve a leap - forward growth in revenue scale throughout the year.

For Zhongke Kelan, 2026 is a year of transition. "The multiple pilot verifications promoted by the company in 2025 are expected to be converted into large - scale orders in 2026. To meet market demand, it is necessary to break through the production capacity bottleneck. Therefore, ensuring the commissioning, stable production, and reaching the designed capacity of the thousand - ton pilot base in Wuhai is the primary task this year," said the relevant person in charge.

In addition, Zhongke Kelan has established a marketing and overseas business center in Shenzhen and will also accelerate the promotion of product exports this year, especially the application and implementation of PDA degradable plastic solutions for marine scenarios.