Hong Kong (May 13, 2020) – Ecoinno (H.K.) Limited, a Hong Kong-based green material company focused on providing alternatives to single-use plastics, announced the closing of a US$6 million Series A1 funding from the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund and Alibaba Taiwan Entrepreneurs Fund II.
Ecoinno will utilise these funds to begin industrial-scale production of its proprietary Green Composite Material™ (GCM™) and to strengthen its material research and engineering platform to help meet pressing consumer packaging needs, driven by tightening regulatory requirements globally, as well as increasing consumer green awareness.
Ecoinno, co-founded by CEO Mr George Chen Dah Ren and COO Ms Vivian Chang, is a partner company of Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP), and sustains with significant grant funding from the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC).
Ecoinno was also awarded as one of the Top Five Winners, and the only finalist in the Smart City Cleantech category, in the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund / HSBC JUMPSTARTER Global Pitch Competition 2020.
“This new funding puts us solidly on the first step towards realising our vision of creating a sustainable, circular economy by delivering GCM™ products to our environmentally- focused clients,” said George Chen Dah Ren, co-founder and CEO of Ecoinno. “We are thrilled to have both Alibaba Entrepreneurs Funds coming on board in our first institutional round, to help take the company forward. We are also very grateful to our long-standing benefactors, especially HKSTP and ITC”.
Ecoinno has developed a patented Green Composite Material™ (GCM™) and related processes, based 100% purely on NATURAL PLANT FIBRES – the most abundant, renewable, and naturally occurring polymer on earth. By repositioning nature’s plant fibres, GCM™ harnesses the remarkable natural attributes of plant fibres, notably: 1. 100% biodegradable in the natural environment within 75 days; 2. extreme temperature tolerance (allowing freezing and oven reheating); 3. Three times stronger than plastic and bioplastic in tensile strength; 4. Impermeable to oxygen (extremely low transmission rate, on par with even metal); 5. Water- and oil-resistance, and most importantly, 6. Toxic free (passed FDA test).
“We were won over by the vision and passion of George, Vivian and their team, to tackle single-use plastics pollution - one of the most pressing environmental challenges globally today. We believe that the functional and commercial attributes of Ecoinno’s GCM ™ products represent a paradigm shift in the Movement to Rethink Plastics,” said Mr Edward Liu, Partner of WI Harper Group, manager of Alibaba Taiwan Entrepreneurs Fund II. “We are proud and excited to be Ecoinno’s partners at this early stage of development.”
Prof W. John Kao, Head of the Biomedical Technology Cluster of HKSTP, said, “We are delighted that Ecoinno has attracted significant investment support for their groundbreaking GCM™, which is a true innovation to help build a more sustainable world. HKSTP will continue to facilitate our partner companies, like Ecoinno, to translate their R&D results into solutions and products that benefit society.”
With its breakthrough GCM™ technology, Ecoinno aims to provide global consumer and industry an attractive and viable ‘Third Option’ that is a break-out from the traditional choice between petroleum-derived plastic and bio-plastic (consisting of mostly non-naturally occurring polymers) in a significant step towards creating a sustainable, circular economy.
