36Kr Exclusive | Manganese Iron Lithium Phosphate Cathode Material Manufacturer Secures Hundreds of Millions in Funding to Expand Power Battery Production Capacity

Ask AI · Why is the global patent strategy the key moat for Hengchuang Nano?

Author | Qiao Yujie

Editor | Yuan Silai

HardKe News learned that, recently, Jiangsu Hengchuang Nano Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Hengchuang Nano”) officially announced the completion of the delivery of hundreds of millions of RMB in its Series B financing. This round of financing was invested by the Yinchuan Yucheng Phoenix Sci-Tech Innovation Fund, and Dacheng Capital served as the financial advisor for this round. The funds will mainly be used for the company’s capacity layout in Yinchuan, Ningxia, including plans to build production lines for 130k tons per year of lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP) cathode materials (Phase I: 30k tons). At the same time, the company’s base in Yancheng will further expand production.

Founded in 2022, Hengchuang Nano focuses on R&D, production, and sales of core new-energy battery materials—lithium manganese iron phosphate cathode materials. Its products have currently covered multiple application scenarios, including new-energy vehicles, two-wheel electric vehicles, and energy storage systems.

As one of the technology routes that has drawn significant attention in recent years, lithium manganese iron phosphate is seen as one of the important upgrade directions for lithium iron phosphate. In terms of material properties, lithium manganese iron phosphate introduces manganese elements into the lithium iron phosphate system, enabling the voltage platform to rise from about 3.4V to about 3.8V, driving an increase in energy density of approximately 5% to 20%. On the cost side, it is also significantly lower than ternary material systems that rely on metals such as nickel and cobalt. Compared with the lithium iron phosphate system, lithium manganese iron phosphate can achieve a better cost per kilowatt-hour.

（Image source/official website）

Dr. Yao Weiguang, chairman of Hengchuang Nano, told HardKe that with the increase in manganese content, the material is prone to manganese dissolution during cycling. To address this core issue, the company has made systematic innovations in both material structures and preparation processes. Among them, the “solid-liquid two-phase method” is one of its key technologies. This method enables manganese and iron to achieve atom-level uniform distribution within the same crystal phase, thereby improving the structural stability of the material. Meanwhile, the company has continued to optimize its carbon coating technology and multi-element doping, making the crystal structure more complete and further suppressing manganese dissolution.

Based on the above technology route, Hengchuang Nano has already achieved more than 2,000 cycles in high-temperature cycling performance, with high-temperature storage time exceeding one and a half years; some indicators are even even better than those of ternary material systems.

In addition, building a patent portfolio is Hengchuang Nano’s most core competitive moat. The company builds the complete patent system covering material components, structural design, and application methods by acquiring Dow Chemical’s core patents in the lithium manganese iron phosphate field and combining them with ongoing independent R&D. Currently, the company has nearly 100 granted invention patents, including 78 invention patents. Its patent network covers 32 major countries and regions worldwide, making it the only company in the world that has achieved the globalization of its patent layout in the lithium manganese iron phosphate field.

From the perspective of the specific patent structure, Hengchuang Nano’s layout is not limited to a single dimension; instead, it forms a composite barrier of multiple patent families. According to Dr. Yao Weiguang, in terms of composition patents, Hengchuang Nano covers formulation ranges in China where manganese content exceeds 70%, and within the international scope, covers ranges where manganese content exceeds 50%.

On this basis, the company also has patent coverage related to carbon-oxygen bond structure, as well as patent protection covering mixed-doping systems with ternary materials—meaning it also has patent coverage in mixed-doping scenarios where the proportion of lithium manganese iron phosphate ranges from 5% to 95%. This implies that the company not only establishes protection on the “formulation itself” of the material, but also forms an extension constraint on how it is applied, giving it greater say during technological evolution.

In terms of commercialization progress, Hengchuang Nano’s current customers are mainly concentrated in the top-tier consumer electronics and two-wheel vehicle sectors, and it has achieved large-scale shipments. From 2024 to 2025, the company’s sales of lithium manganese iron phosphate materials have continuously ranked first nationwide, with a market share of about 40% to 50%.

In the power battery sector, the company plans to start supplying relevant enterprises at the end of 2026, covering multiple application directions such as heavy-duty trucks, passenger vehicles, and PHEVs. At present, its products have entered the customer B-sample and C-sample verification stages.

Yancheng headquarters (Image source/enterprise)

The Yinchuan base, which is the key focus of this round of financing, will become an important production base for the company to serve the power battery market. Compared with the capacity structure of the Yancheng base, which is mainly based on single-line scale of 5,000 to 10k tons, the Yinchuan project will further expand the single-line scale and upgrade process design to meet power battery demand. At the same time, the Ningxia region has clear advantages in energy costs such as electricity price and gas price, which will help reduce overall production costs and enhance competitiveness at scale.