Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek has led the 1-billion-yuan ($137.2 million) Series A+ financing round of advanced battery materials maker Yangzhou Nanopore Innovative Materials Technology.
The foundation behind the Oppenheimer family, which represents the global interest behind the South African billionaire businessman Nicky Oppenheimer and his son Jonathan Oppenheimer’s family, has joined the round alongside Singapore’s multinational Tsao Pao Chee Group and Hong Kong’s venture capital firm Beyond Ventures.
Existing investors Glory Ventures, CICC Capital, Chobe Capital, and Shanghai Hemu, have re-upped in the funding round, according to a company release on February 5.
Set up in January 2022, Nanopore has since established wholly-owned subsidiaries across the US, Japan, and South Korea, with Europe expansion in the pipeline.
The Yangzhou-headquartered firm is engaged in the development and production of metalized plastic current collectors (MPCCs), which has emerged as a promising material that would help improve the energy density and safety of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), according to research conducted by a group of researchers at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan.
However, the research also cited poor mechanical strength, weak interfacial adhesion force, and surface metal corrosion, among the challenges that hinder the application of MPCCs.
Besides its focus on MPCCs, the firm also engages in the R&D of Atomic layer deposition (ALD), a coating technology to deposit uniform, ultrathin films at the atomic level with controllable thickness and composition that helps to improve LIB’s functionality.
CHINA DEAL MONITOR
DealStreetAsia has also compiled a table listing all prominent venture capital transactions in Greater China from February 3 – 9, 2025.
