Zhongke Kele Secures Over 300 Million Yuan in Series A Financing

China's apparent consumption of polyolefins exceeds 76 million tons per year, with a market size close to one trillion yuan. However, the country still needs to import over 15 million tons annually, highlighting a serious structural contradiction of overcapacity in low-end production and dependence on imports for high-end products. Polyolefin elastomers (POE) are a typical example of such materials. From 2017 to 2024, China's POE imports surged from 224,400 tons to 1.24 million tons, with a compound annual growth rate of over 25%. The "14th Five-Year Plan" for the development of the raw materials industry, released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments, clearly proposes to vigorously promote the research and development of high-end polyolefin products.

The independently developed ethylene-based polyolefin elastomer (EPOE) by Zhongke Kole Company utilizes a nickel-based catalyst and requires only ethylene monomer for preparation, without the need for α-olefins. EPOE exhibits excellent mechanical properties, as well as resistance to water vapor, aging, corrosion, and heat. It can be applied in fields such as photovoltaic encapsulation, automotive plastics, footwear materials, and cables.

According to reports, the catalyst production base of Zhongke Kele in Anqing is set to commence construction in March 2024, achieve successful intermediate delivery in November, pass expert inspection in December, and succeed in trial production in January 2025. The product performance has been fully verified in downstream polymer production. In April 2024, a 10,000-ton EPOE industrial demonstration unit will begin construction in Heze, Shandong, with successful intermediate delivery in November and successful trial production in January 2025. The unit is currently operating continuously and stably, with the EPOE product validated by downstream customers and beginning to supply to leading domestic customers.

In June 2025, the entire EPOE technology passed the evaluation by authoritative experts, who concluded that "this original technology has reached an internationally leading level." This technological approach utilizes a catalyst system with fully independent intellectual property rights, reduces process energy consumption by 30%, and achieves 100% localization of equipment. It is expected to help domestically independent EPOE technology achieve a disruptive leapfrog over traditional foreign POE products.

Hefei Innovation Investment stated that since the early stages of the Zhongke Kele project, when it was still in its infancy, the Hefei Angel Fund initiated capital support, accompanying the company through its growth. In October 2022, it participated in the company’s first round of financing, and in November 2023, it followed up by facilitating the company’s completion of a multi-hundred-million-yuan Pre-A round of financing. This August, it made an additional investment, with Hefei State-owned Investment also joining this round. Throughout this process, Hefei has continued to double down on hard technology and advanced manufacturing, empowering Zhongke Kele through innovation-driven initiatives and supportive policies. This has enabled the company to achieve technological leadership and expand into global markets, further strengthening Hefei’s pivotal position in nationally strategic emerging industries.