Kargen Completes Pre-A Round of Financing!
Recently, Guangdong Advanced Carbon Materials Co., Ltd(hereinafter referred to as "Kargen") announced the completion of its Pre-A round of financing. The investors in this round include Sina Capital and Guozhong Green Fund. Up to now,Kargen has cumulatively raised RMB 100 million in funding.
Founded at the end of 2022, Kargen is dedicated to the innovative research and development of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOF) and self-emulsifying polymer microspheres used in the coating of lithium-ion battery separators. It is one of the few new-generation material innovation enterprises globally that have achieved large-scale production of MOF through non-solvent methods. The company has completed the layout of multiple intellectual property rights in core technology areas and invested tens of millions to build a research and development platform. This round of financing will accelerate the industrial application of the company's MOF series products and the construction of a thousand-ton production line.
The self-emulsifying polymer microspheres can form a good bond between the separator and the positive and negative electrodes, making them the best alternative to traditional coating material PVDF-HFP. Compared to PVDF-HFP, this product is fluorine-free, has low swelling, stronger adhesion, and lower costs, complying with the fluorine limitation regulations in the European Union and North America. The self-emulsifying polymer microsphere products have been verified by separator and battery manufacturers for a long time and have been mass-produced for use in vehicles.
Self-emulsifying Microsphere Powder
Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOF) are a new class of porous materials with large specific surface areas, high porosity, uniform pore sizes that can be adjusted, enabling selective adsorption and separation of gases and small molecules. The company has developed over 40 MOF products, which can be applied in various fields such as carbon dioxide capture, dehumidification and drying, heat dissipation and refrigeration, gas separation, VOC adsorption, and lithium-ion battery separator coating. In 2023, BASF Germany took the lead in achieving global commercial-scale production of hundreds of tons of MOF. As the first domestic enterprise with the capability of producing MOF on a ten-ton scale, Kargen has served many leading enterprises in various niche segments both domestically and internationally.
MOF Material Powder
In the future, Kargen will continue to leverage the technical advantages of its talented team to provide high-performance, cost-controllable, and environmentally friendly new material solutions, contributing its unique strength to the global carbon neutrality efforts.
Investor Profiles
Sina Capital
Founded in 2022, Sina Capital is headquartered in Zhuhai with offices in Shenzhen and Shanghai. Its fund investors include shareholders of leading smart manufacturing and semiconductor listed companies, as well as well-known local state-owned assets. The team members come from top domestic RMB and USD fund firms, possessing precise judgment in emerging technology industries and profound experience in the capital market. Sina Capital is committed to investing in outstanding high-growth technology enterprises, covering early to mid-growth stages. It actively provides its portfolio companies with rich resource integration, market expansion, technology, and talent support, relying on industrial resources and supply chain coordination to help them grow rapidly.
Guozhong Green Fund
Established on December 21, 2015, Guozhong Green Fund is a fund management platform specializing in venture capital investments, founded by Dr. Shi Anping, who led part of the core team from the former Shenzhen Capital Group. It has accumulated a fund management scale of nearly RMB 16 billion, comprising three entity funds within the National SME Development Fund and one direct investment subsidiary fund within the National Green Development Fund. To date, Guozhong Green Fund has invested in over 210 enterprises with a total investment amount exceeding RMB 8 billion, forming a relatively complete layout across multiple industrial chains, including new energy vehicles, intelligent driving, semiconductors and electronic components, biomedicine, new display technologies, robots, and carbon fiber composites.