Focusing on the research and development and manufacturing of supercritical physical foaming materials, "Shincell New Material" completed nearly 200 million yuan in round B financing | 36 Carbon First Release

36 Carbon learned that Suzhou Shincell New Material Co., Ltd recently completed nearly 200 million yuan in round B financing. This round of financing was led by Yuanhe Zhongyuan, followed by Yida Capital, old shareholders Sugao Xinrongxiang, Dongwu Venture Capital, Chuangyuan Venture Capital, Minsheng International, Zhidao Capital, Qitai Capital, etc.
Shincell New Material was established in 2019 and is a national high-tech enterprise focusing on the research and development and manufacturing of environmentally friendly clean foaming technology and high-performance lightweight materials.

The company has created a supercritical polymer microporous foaming technology platform, with two core technologies: supercritical sheet foaming and special-shaped structure foaming (small foaming and big foaming). The multi-type lightweight and high-strength materials and soft and elastic materials produced can meet the high-performance and lightweight material needs in many fields such as new energy batteries, automobiles, aerospace, and footwear.

So far, the company has the ability to produce 10,000 tons of high-performance microporous foam materials annually, and its products have served well-known customers such as Huawei, BYD, Xiaomi Automobile, Adidas, Li Ning, Anta, and KEEP.

‌‌Foaming materials are materials with a large number of microporous structures formed by introducing gases through physical or chemical methods during the manufacturing process. These microporous structures give foaming materials many unique properties, such as light weight, heat insulation, sound insulation, shock absorption, pressure resistance, wave transmission, etc., so they have a wide range of application needs in the fields of sporting goods, military, aerospace, etc.

According to statistics from market organization Ratejie Consulting, the global foaming material market size will exceed US$100 billion in 2023. As a major chemical country, China has gradually become the world's largest foaming material market with the increase in production capacity, technological breakthroughs and the growth of downstream demand.

Supercritical physical microporous foaming technology is a new technology direction that has attracted much attention in the field of foaming materials in recent years. This technology uses CO2/N2 as a foaming agent to form a supercritical fluid state under high temperature and high pressure conditions, quickly diffuse into the polymer matrix, and then complete the foaming by rapid pressure release or rapid temperature increase. It is a pure physical foaming technology.

Compared with the mainstream chemical foaming technology route, supercritical physical microporous foaming technology does not use chemical foaming agents, cross-linking agents and other additives. It is green and environmentally friendly throughout the process, the material system is safe and pure, and it can achieve excellent performance that traditional foaming cannot match.

Shincell New Material has profound technical accumulation in the field of polymer clean and environmentally friendly foaming technology.

Chairman and General Manager Dr. Jiang Xiulei has more than 20 years of experience in the research and development of clean foaming technology. The team uses advanced test characterization tools and experimental methods to continuously carry out mechanistic research on the foaming process. Through the construction of theoretical models, the mechanism of the effect of materials, processes, and structures on product performance is clarified to guide process optimization and product development.

Members of the company's R&D team won the first prize of Shanghai Science and Technology Progress in 2020 and participated in the research of "Lightweight Technology of Polymer Materials" in the National Key R&D Program.

"Shincell was the first in the world to propose the process idea of ​​supercritical carbon dioxide compression foaming and built the world's first mass production equipment. We are the world's first manufacturer to realize non-cross-linked foaming sheets of thermoplastic materials such as TPU, TPEE, PEBA, and PA, and the second manufacturer in the world to realize mass production of PVDF polyvinylidene fluoride foam sheets." Dr. Jiang Xiulei told 36 Carbon.

The unique supercritical physical microporous foaming technology gives the foaming material a new and excellent performance, allowing Shincell New Material to successfully enter the downstream markets such as high-performance running shoes, consumer electronics, medical, and aerospace.

In the high-performance running shoe market, Shincell New Material has subverted the traditional sole technology with its lightweight microporous foaming technology of high-performance elastomers, allowing the midsole material of sports shoes to be greatly reduced in weight, and successfully entered the supply chain of many customers such as Adidas, Puma, Li Ning, and Anta.

Jiang Xiulei said that since 2023, the champion running shoes of major marathon events in the world have basically adopted Shincell midsole materials. In the company's product line, running shoe midsole foaming materials have achieved a single breakthrough and are leading a new round of innovation in the running shoe midsole industry.

In addition to consumer products represented by shoe materials, Shincell New Material also has three major divisions: industrial products division and special materials division.

In the field of industrial products, Shincell New Material uses MPP microporous foaming materials to produce new energy battery bottom guard plates, which have successfully entered BYD's supply chain. The company has now become BYD's key T1 supplier in this field.

In addition, Shincell New Material has also achieved the export of valuable Chinese original technology. The company's core equipment and key processes are all independently developed and have completely independent intellectual property rights. As of now, the company has 20 invention patents, including 1 PCT international patent.

In May this year, the company formed a global alliance with Zotefoams, a well-known European foaming material company, and agreed that Zotefoams would pay Shincell RMB 80 million in technology licensing fees within 5 years and would act as an agent for the sales of some of Shincell's products in specific overseas regions, which has attracted widespread attention in the materials industry.

It is reported that Zotefoams is a listed company on the London Stock Exchange and a well-known polymer foaming material manufacturer. Its customers include not only aerospace companies such as Boeing, Airbus, and Raytheon, but also world-renowned brands such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Unilever, and Nike.

With this new round of financing, Shincell New Material will mainly use it to further expand production capacity and open up new markets such as aerospace and military industry. Jiang Xiulei said that Shincell's vision is to become a global leading high-performance lightweight material company. The next step will be to continue to deepen research and development innovation and use excellent supercritical physical microporous foaming technology to help the application upgrade of multiple downstream industries.