Warburg Pincus backs China new materials business

Other investors include Pagoda Investment and Cygnus Equity, which also served as the financial advisor for the round. The proceeds will go towards R&D, production capacity expansion, and global commercialization.

Established in 2017, Ambilight was founded by a team of scientists from the likes of Stanford University, Tsinghua University, and Purdue University. It has developed third-generation EC technology in the form of flexible and solid thin films. These are mainly used in automobile sunroofs and side windows, buildings, mobile phone casings, and artificial reality (AR) glasses.

For example, panoramic canopies are an increasingly common feature in the latest smart cars, but insulation is a challenge. Ambilight can automatically adjust the amount of light entering a car to address the vision-heat balance. The solution has landed in many domestic automobile brands. It serves a similar purpose in glass curtain walls in buildings. 

Last year, Oppo became the first company to mass-produce a mobile phone with EC-enabled back glass. This allows users to customize their phones and set the back glass to change color to notify of incoming calls and messages or other functions.

Ambilight's technology features a roll-to-roll coating technique that facilitates mass production. The company claims that its products offer low haze, minimal power consumption, and high compatibility with curved surfaces and extreme temperatures.

Ambilight raised tens of millions of dollars in Series B funding in March led by Matrix Partners China and CPE. This followed a $20 million Series A in 2020 led by Maison Capital. Resources Investment, Danen Ventures, and Bofu Investment committed angel funding in 2017, according to AVCJ Research.

The company said in the Series C announcement that it has also received strategic funding from BYD and Nio.

“Ambilight is a global leader in specialty materials and it has built high entry barriers through cross-disciplinary material science and proprietary processes," said Greta Gu, who leads industrial technology investments in China at Warburg Pincus.

"Supported by favorable megatrends around carbon neutrality and electric vehicles, Ambilight's EC materials are expected to deliver compelling energy-saving benefits and fulfill a wide range of commercial applications."

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Greater China
• Expansion
• Technology
• China
• Warburg Pincus Asia
• Growth capital