Photosynthesis is the source of energy for all life and an important mechanism of the carbon cycle in ecosystems. As a "warm fund", Lightspeed Photosynthesis is also generating "photosynthesis" with entrepreneurs and the society, connecting innovation and promoting the sustainable development of society.
Venture Capital will continue to publish Lightspeed Photosynthesis's investment column "Photosynthesis", and this is the fifth issue of the column to share the story behind Lightspeed Photosynthesis's investment.
The story may be caused by a strange phone call, a home call, or attention to an academic paper...... The intersection of lightspeed photosynthesis and entrepreneurs begins. There is no staggered bargaining on the wine table, and there is no extravagant promise, only long-term companionship, sharing pain, sharing success, and practicing the value of long-termism.
"Thinking, focusing, exploring, and innovating" is the investment belief of Lightspeed Photosynthesis. With the ultimate pursuit of the industry, with the responsibility given by the times, we are actively looking for the next possible opportunity. We look forward to the "Global Partner of China Innovation" working together with more pathfinders of industry innovation to move towards the light and work together.
In the 1,500-square-meter standard clean workshop of Lanrui Optoelectronics (Zhenjiang) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Lanrui Optoelectronics"), the "fully armed" staff is doing the final equipment debugging for the afternoon test, and the upper and lower floors of the workshop are the coating production line of EC (Electrochromics) film.
According to Zhou Yan, CEO of Lanrui Optoelectronics, such a single roll-to-roll automatic production line can complete 500 square meters of finished products every 3 hours, with an annual output of 1 million square meters.
At the beginning of this year, Lanrui Optoelectronics won the designated position of a certain OEM, and now it has reached the final test stage, and the delivery of tens of thousands of units has been included in the plan.
Lanrui Optoelectronics is mainly engaged in the R&D and production of organic flexible intelligent electrochromic films, which realize the intelligent adjustment of glass color and transmittance by combining organic electrochromic films with traditional glass.
This black substrate EC film, the dark state can block 99.5% of the visible light, as well as more than 99% of the infrared and ultraviolet rays, while retaining 20% of the light transmission in the bright state, and the temperature difference between the inside and outside of the car can be 5 degrees, the most intuitive feeling is that sitting in the car can look directly at the sun, when the sun is sufficient, it can not only ensure the vision of the car, but also effectively manage light and heat.
Lightspeed Photosynthesis will complete the B round of leading investment in Lanrui Optoelectronics in 2023.
Zhu Jia, partner of Lightspeed Photonics, said, "Electrochromism is a fast-growing track with huge potential space, and it is gradually becoming the standard configuration of mid-to-high-end new energy vehicles, with a single vehicle value of more than 1,000 yuan. Our team has extensive experience in materials and device design, and is a global leader in EC technology routes. In addition, CEO Zhou Yan is a gold medal in the International Olympiad + Peking University bachelor's, master's and doctor's degree + Stanford postdoctoral fellow, he is very determined to start a business, and he moved his whole family back to China from the United States in order to start a business. The company has also exceeded our expectations, and we plan to make additional investments after the last round of lead investment. ”
At present, electrochromism has become a technical route applied to panoramic canopy glass by skylight glass manufacturers and OEMs, and is becoming one of the trends of lightweight and intelligent new energy vehicles.
According to Allied Market Research, the market size of the global electrochromic glass industry will reach 30 billion yuan in 2027, with an expected compound annual growth rate of 17.2%.
1. Cut into the market demand and explore the path of electrochromism
Since university, Zhou Yan has been deeply involved in the field of organic materials, and he has been researching many projects in the laboratory, and he has begun to think about how to translate technology into actual production.
"In the field of organic functional materials, it is difficult to see a product technology that can be translated into practical applications, so I want to find application solutions in organic semiconductors." Zhou Yan recalled, "At that time, we looked for several directions for organic semiconductors, but none of them were practical. OLED is already a formed industry, and it can't be turned without tens of billions; Organic solar cells have big problems in terms of efficiency and material life, and there is still a certain distance from the market......"
Coincidentally, Zhou Yan's department moved to a new building with an all-glass exterior wall, although the appearance was beautiful, but the interior was hot and sunny, Zhou Yan and his companions began to think about whether there was a technology that could realize the one-click color change of the scene in the movie, so that the whole building changed from full light to full dark.
Zhou Yan thought of the electrochromic of organic semiconductors. "This technical barrier is high, the cost is controllable, and the requirements for the material side are lower than that of solar cells. The most important thing is that the market for this technology is clear, and the technical materials have a good entry point, which is the specialty I am good at. ”
Normally, glass is transparent, and the inside of the glass is illuminated by the penetration of visible light. However, in order to avoid the damage to the human body such as strong sunlight and ultraviolet rays, the effect of solar radiation is reduced by coating the glass by certain technical means.
Electrochromic technology is loaded on the coating layer to make the material undergo redox reaction under the action of electric current, so as to achieve a change in transparency, solve the problems of sun protection and heat insulation while ensuring the maximum permeability, and finally let the glass achieve the effect of freely adjusting the brightness.
In the hot summer of 2015, Zhou Yan and his partners started their own business.
Three months later, the company successfully received the seed round of investment, and soon had initial results, and was recognized by Viracon, one of the largest high-end architectural glass manufacturers in the United States, and really began to explore the practical application of the film.
2. Slow work and meticulous work, and pass the vehicle specification level test
However, things are far from that simple.
Zhou Yan clearly remembered that the feedback from the customer at that time gave him a new lesson: the glass industry belongs to the traditional industry, cost performance is the first priority, followed by functionality, to achieve the function of energy-saving sunshade and not just "fun", and the discoloration must be black, and other variations of color will not have any substantive application.
"The most important point mentioned by the customer at that time was that as long as the product was combined with glass, it was a piece of glass, and it had to meet the requirements of glass, and haze, color, stability, uniformity of coating and balance of different angles were all hard indicators." Zhou Yan said.
"For a piece of glass, the functionality cannot be problematic for 10 years, it cannot fail for 20 years, the appearance cannot be affected, and it cannot be replaced for 50 years." After the customer listed a bunch of requirements, Zhou Yan found out that this was a job with extremely high barriers.
In this way, the thin film material has undergone three iterations. The first batch became redness after a long period of heating and aging, and failed. The second batch turned yellow and failed after long-term light aging. It was not until the third batch of materials that a stable black color was ensured.
At present, the three key materials involved in the electrochromic film of Lanrui Optoelectronics are completely independently developed, among which the black polymer material based on near-infrared absorption is the only long-life black material system in the industry that exceeds the requirements of industry standards.
Zhou Yan explained, "It is not difficult to find materials that can be coated with black, but it needs low mass production cost and good performance, so a batch of materials is eliminated, plus there needs to be normal discoloration, which can meet the test standards of vehicle specification level, and it is also necessary for a long time with high temperature, power, and anti-aging, and there are almost no people who can achieve this performance after screening." ”
Black, on the other hand, covers a wide range of the spectrum, and the combination of different structures becomes very unstable, so it is difficult to ensure a stable black output on a continuous basis.
In addition, coating is also a significant threshold. Zhou Yan explained, "At first, I thought that the black coating had no scientific and technological content, but after finding several domestic foundries, I couldn't paint the effect we wanted. Black requires the light transmittance to be pressed below 0.5% after coating, and the darker the color, the higher the recognition of the naked eye, which is easy to cause color difference texture defects. ”
In addition, to ensure the stability of the batch, the understanding and control of the equipment, and the establishment of a black depth system, all of which depend on the exploration of time.
Zhou Yan remembers that in the early days of entrepreneurship in 2015, a bunch of companies doing dimming and color-changing technology popped up, but now there are fewer and fewer peers around him.
It's like constantly fighting monsters and upgrading, Zhou Yan and his team have passed one level after another.
A professor at Peking University who has dealt with Zhou Yan mentioned that Zhou Yan has a deep understanding of the optical, electrical and magnetic materials industry, and has his own unique insights and strategic thinking. Do things with tenacity, very initiative, and if you decide what is right, you will stick to it.
Third, to upgrade the glass industry, the imagination space is huge
At present, Lanrui Optoelectronics has reached relevant cooperation with major global automotive glass companies and domestic high-end OEMs and other heavyweight customers.
"In fact, since 2021, we have been in contact with these customers one after another, and we have made many iterative revisions based on their test results. We believe that customers' pursuit of new technologies will eventually return to the core elements of functionality, longevity and cost performance. Zhou Yan said, "Our idea is to be close to the market's demands for materials, meet the needs of customers and the supply chain, and speak with the quality of products." ”
In Zhou Yan's view, this year will be a starting point for the industry, with the investment in large models in the field of new energy, the market demand in the next two years will also increase. "Large models have higher requirements for experience and functionality, which will be a good penetration window." He judged.
Zhu Jia sees that electrochromism, as an underlying technology, has enough room for imagination in other fields other than automobiles, such as architectural glass curtain walls and AR glasses.
"Intelligently adjusted electrochromic glass as a building glass curtain wall, can selectively realize the reflection and transmission of sunlight, under the global trend of promoting energy conservation and emission reduction, the demand for electrochromic glass in the building field is bound to surge, the key is cost and reliability, I believe that the products of Lanrui Optoelectronics will appear in more industry applications in the near future after tempering by the automotive industry." Zhu Jia said.
Zhou Yan remembers that as early as 2012, Corning (Corning, a global leader in specialty glass and ceramic materials) mentioned smart glass in a Hollywood promotional video. Large-area dimming is an important link, so that each piece of glass can be dimmed, integrated solar cells, functional display, and experience comfortable intelligence. He is looking forward to the market in this direction.
"I hope that through such an electrochromic or intelligent dimming film technology, we can grow together with the glass industry, complete another technological upgrade and innovation of the glass industry after float glass and Low-E glass, and finally land on thousands of households when the glass is darkened and transparency." Zhou Yan firmly believes that this day has come.