Kingwills Advanced Materials. Co., Ltd.("Kingwills™) has recently completed A round financing of over RMB100 million. This round is lead-invested by Hillhouse Ventures, co-investors are Oriental Yuhong the listed company and leader of waterproof building materials, Fund under CICC Capital, CITIC Environmental Industry Fund and Asia Green Fund (AGF). The A round of financing will be mainly used for the large-scale production line construction for Hypak™ flashspun fabric.
It balances waterproof and breathable properties as well as high strength and lightweight. With the unique structure, it allows gas molecules to pass through but prevents water molecules and small particles like bacteria and viruses. Therefore, it has the characteristics of waterproof, dust-proof and good air permeability, as well as its high cleanliness, toughness and tear resistance, the material can be well used in construction, medical packaging materials for medical packaging, medical suit material for personal protection, industry packaging, printing segments, etc. It is widely applied to hundreds of downstream applications of nonwoven fabrics and specialty paper.
The advent of Hypak™ has broken the global monopoly of foreign enterprises on flash-spun technology since the 1950s and will also greatly improve the long-term shortage of flash-spun metamaterials in the market.
Shanghai Kingwills™, the parent company, was established in early 2014. It has experienced a long period of research and development, from test to the pilot-scale production line, then to the large-scale production line of Hypak™, which lasted for nearly 8 years. Kingwills™ owns an elite scientific research team composed of scientists who studied overseas, which creates favorable conditions for the research and development of the new product and also provides solid technical support for the continuous optimization of existing products and quality improvement. In 2017, under the leadership of Mr. Chen Boyi, founder and CEO of「Kingwills™」, the research and development team of Kingwills™ made a breakthrough in the basic research and development of flash spinning metamaterials, breaking the technology monopoly abroad, and laid out a pilot-scale production line in 2019. The Hypak™, lightweight waterproof material of Kingwills™ can fill in the market vacancy and replace the mid-to-high-end materials in the sub-sectors benchmarking with the in-kind monopoly products abroad. At the same time, it has an extensive application, which increases the imagination for the successful research and development of this new material. Mr. Chen Boyi said that Hypak™ already has a similar appearance and microstructure to the in-kind monopoly products abroad, and its performance index is also very close. Hypak™ has a very extensive range of applications and will replace more competitors’ products with competitive prices.
At present, the pilot production line of Kingwills™ is well in operation, and the construction of the commercial-scale production line is in rapid progress and annual output will reach 40,000 tons after the completion of the first phase of construction. At the same time, the products of Kingwills™ have been approved and used by Oriental Yuhong, which is a leading listed company in the waterproof building materials industry for vapour barrier material. Oriental Yuhong is not only a strategic customer of Kingwills™ but also one of the important investors in this round of financing. It will work together with Kingwills™ to promote the development of green and energy-saving construction in China and the international market. Zhang Ying, Director and Vice President of Oriental Yuhong, said that the comprehensive performance index of Hypak™ produced by Kingwills™ almost reached the highest standard in the world, but the price is more competitive. With the continuous release of subsequent production capacity, its cost performance will far exceed that of foreign products. At the same time, the team headed by CEO Mr. Chen Boyi has strong abilities, complementary advantages and ambitions. Oriental Yuhong is willing to fully support the rapid development of Kingwills™ in terms of capital, market, technical cooperation, etc.
"Flash spinning metamaterials have excellent physical properties and have broad application prospects in medical treatment, protection, construction, packaging or many other fields," said the project leader of Hillhouse Ventures who is also the lead investor of this round financing. “However, due to its difficult technological process, it has been relying on imports for a long time with high prices. Kingwills™ is a team with superior technical strength, academic and industrial background, and solid experience in R & D, operation and sales & marketing specializing in flash spinning metamaterials. We are very confident that Kingwills™ will further lead the development and localization of flash-spinning metamaterials which would continue to create high-quality and lower-cost solutions for all industries. "
Mr. Kai Wu, Executive General Manager of CICC Capital, said: "The global flash-spinning technology has been monopolized by foreign enterprises since the 1950s. It has a very high technological threshold and almost no other company can successfully produce it. This enterprise has long monopolized the supply in the Chinese market and the prices of relevant industrial chains. If it can be localized, it will be able to solve a major problem and change the global market pattern. Flash-spinning metamaterials have a wide range of applications and have a huge market space in the fields of global building energy conservation, medical packaging, protective garments, packaging and printing with recycled packaging materials wholesale. With localization fast on track, the domestic market is expected to grow rapidly. The team of Kingwills™ is excellent and has been in the field for many years resulting in the success of commercialization. We are very optimistic about the future success ofKingwills™".
Huang Kuan, Executive Director, of the Investment Department of AGF, also said, "Because of its special performance and extremely difficult process, flash spinning metamaterials have always been the top materials in the fields of medical packaging, breathable waterproof building materials, protective garments, printing and other fields in the world for the past 50 years, and have produced significant sustainable green effects through building energy conservation, lightweight packaging, and recycling. Kingwills™ brings together the best research and development and commercialization team with long-term industry experience of this material to overcome technical difficulties, realize domestic substitution, and optimize the global market structure. It is the breaker of China's flashing process and the products. It is confident that with the release of production capacity, Kingwills™ will quickly meet the huge demand in the domestic and foreign markets, and at the same time, it is expected that the further development and application promotion of this material will contribute to supporting the goal realization of ‘Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality’".