State-Backed and Industry-Leading Investors Propel Refine Biology to Complete CNY-Hundred-Million Series C Financing to Accelerate Its Bio-Synthesis 'Smart Manufacturing' Platform for Natural Ingredients

Beijing Refine Biology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Refine Biology”) announced the completion of its C-round financing, amounting to hundreds of millions of yuan. This round was led by Xingxiang Capital, with participation from Ruipeng Xiangyu Fund, while CEC Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor for this financing round. The funds raised will be primarily used to drive the company’s commercial expansion and the establishment of new production capacity, accelerating R&D innovation, technological iteration, and market expansion across its dual platforms for human and animal health.

Refine, founded in 2007, has always pursued “purer naturals,” “more efficient naturals,” and “earth-friendlier naturals.” Committed to becoming a trusted innovation partner for natural ingredients in the global health industry, Refine strives to promote the sustainable development of natural raw materials, support the “carbon neutrality” strategy, redefine naturals, and empower holistic health. The company provides integrated solutions that are innovative, convenient, and balance taste, functionality, nutrition, appearance, and cost for enterprises in the food, beverage, and nutritional supplement industries.

Refine drives its development through a dual-engine strategy combining plant extraction and synthetic biology technologies, creating unique synergistic technical advantages. The company has established three major product platforms: the Natural Sweeteners Platform, the Natural Functional Ingredients Platform, and the Pharmaceutical Excipients Platform. Its plant extraction technology focuses on enhancing the stability of natural products, developing innovative natural flavors, and researching natural active ingredients. Meanwhile, synthetic biology enables the company to leverage advanced cell factory and fermentation technologies for efficient and controllable production of natural products. These two technological approaches complement each other, not only improving product efficacy and quality stability but also significantly reducing environmental impact, thereby fulfilling its commitment to being earth-friendly.

To solidify its innovation foundation and ensure the stability and efficiency of its global supply chain, Refine has established three production bases in China, located in Yangling (Shaanxi), Chuzhou (Anhui), and Hohhot (Inner Mongolia). This strategic layout fully leverages the resource endowments and industrial advantages of each region. Through coordinated operations among the three bases, Refine has built a full-chain quality control system from raw materials to finished products, along with a flexible and efficient supply network.

Prior to this, Refine had secured multiple rounds of financing, with historical investors including Challenger Capital, Cowin Capital, Xinahe Capital, Toutou Shidao, and JAFCO Asia. This transaction marks Refine’s Series C financing round, underscoring strong investor confidence in the company’s biosynthesis technologies and their market applications: Hunan Xingxiang Capital, a state-owned capital operation platform under the provincial state-owned enterprise Hunan Xingxiang Group, has deeply cultivated investments in the biomanufacturing sector; meanwhile, Changde, Hunan, as a national-level pilot zone for synthetic biomanufacturing, is vigorously developing its synthetic biology industry led by government funds. Ruipeng Xiangyu Fund, managed by Ruipeng Assets, has attracted numerous state-owned capital and industrial investment institutions as partners, including the Xi’an Innovation Investment Fund, the SDIC Chuanghe National Emerging Industry Venture Capital Guidance Fund, and Xiamen Xiangyu Venture Capital.

Refine is committed to a dual-drive strategy combining plant extraction and biosynthesis, proposing and practicing the development concept of "Holistic Health." While establishing its human health platform, Refine has also laid out its animal health platform and made early-stage technical reserves. In the future, it will provide products such as animal nutrition and animal protection to large feed groups and breeding enterprises.

After years of development, Refine has established two major platforms—natural sweeteners and natural plant nutrition—by leveraging its advantages in biosynthesis technology and accumulating expertise in production processes. Among these:

Natural Sweetener Ecosystem Platform

Refine focuses on developing functional sugar alcohols using Yarrowia lipolytica as a chassis, establishing an efficient Yarrowia lipolytica synthesis system. The main products of Refine’s natural sweetener platform include erythritol, allulose, steviol glycosides, and sweetness-enhancing flavorings. By providing customized professional natural sweetener blending solutions, the company offers downstream users sugar-reduction and zero-sugar solutions based on natural ingredients. Refine is one of the few enterprises in the market capable of simultaneously researching and producing both low-intensity and high-intensity sweeteners. Its functional sugar alcohol products lead the market in both performance and cost efficiency. As a latecomer to the functional sugar alcohol market, Refine has seen its share of China’s erythritol market rise to the top four nationwide, with shipment volumes experiencing rapid growth.

In recent years, with the continuous warnings from the World Health Organization (WHO) and national nutrition agencies regarding sugar intake, the concept of healthy eating has evolved from a niche awareness into a global consumer trend. The high prevalence of metabolic syndromes such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases has made "sugar reduction"”No longer merely a dietary choice, it has become a core issue in public health management. Consumers’ attitudes toward sugar are shifting from “unrestricted intake”Pivoting to “Precision Control””, even "proactively avoid”This shift has directly driven structural adjustments in the traditional sugar market and spurred robust demand for alternative sweetening solutions. Against this backdrop, the sweetener industry—positioned as a provider of safer sweetening options—has emerged as a key growth sector, seizing a prime opportunity for rapid expansion.

In addition to erythritol, Refine’s natural sweetener platform is also continuously advancing the commercialization of its one-step fermentation technology for allulose, a next-generation natural sweetener. As a next-generation natural sweetener with blockbuster potential, allulose has attracted widespread consumer attention due to its characteristics of not raising blood glucose, not stimulating insulin secretion, and helping combat obesity. Allulose was fully approved as a food additive in China in the second half of 2025. Refine’s one-step fermentation technology for allulose can significantly reduce production costs, thereby promoting its industrial application.

Natural Functional Ingredients Platform

Since its establishment in 2007, Refine has focused on the plant nutrition business, providing natural plant raw materials that meet food and health supplement standards to the market through methods such as plant extraction. Related products include: the medicine-food homology series, grain series, flower series, fruit series, sweet herb series, fruit and vegetable series, and specific variety series.

Refine has established a joint platform with the College of Life Sciences at Zhejiang University to conduct research on reducing hazardous components in its products, such as solvent residues, pesticide residues, and heavy metal residues. Through continuous optimization of production processes and quality control, Refine delivers products characterized by high stability, superior safety, and premium quality.

Refine boasts multiple core extract product categories with global competitiveness, such as Rhodiola rosea extract and Ashwagandha extract. Meanwhile, Refine continues to deepen its plant extraction technologies and expand the applications of plant extracts, extending from the health supplement sector into the food, beverage, and catering industries.

Refine’s core strength lies in its ability to translate biotechnological innovations into market-ready solutions that directly address critical pain points. On its human health platform, leveraging precise insights into consumer trends, Refine provides end-to-end solutions—from raw materials to customized formulations—enabling clients to rapidly capture share in the health consumer market. This capability has been validated by the market, with Refine successfully partnering with over 50 leading domestic and international enterprises. By supplying core ingredients and key technical solutions for their innovative products, Refine has co-launched best-selling products that lead the market.

Refine has always firmly believed that the ability to develop specialized formulations around core ingredients constitutes the company’s fundamental competitive barrier for survival. Regarding these core ingredients, it is not enough for the enterprise to merely “understand production”; it must also “understand customers” and “understand applications.” On one hand, this formulation development capability enables downstream users to better utilize core ingredients, continuously expanding the boundaries of their applications. On the other hand, providing R&D and formulation support centered on core ingredients allows raw material manufacturers to forge tighter bonds with application-oriented enterprises, thereby generating profits through co-creation rather than engaging in relentless, cutthroat competition within the red ocean of raw material production. Refine aims to leverage its capabilities in ingredient and formulation development to create novel food formulations for global enterprises across various sectors, including leading established brands and emerging innovative brands.

In the future, Refine will continue to solidify its technological foundation, prioritizing technological advancement and product breakthroughs to empower the global food industry and deliver healthier, more nutritious, and greener compounded flavor solutions to consumers.

Wang Xiaoyun, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Refine, stated:“We extend our gratitude to both new and existing shareholders for their trust and support in Refine. This round of financing marks a significant milestone in the company’s development. With the joint support of new and existing shareholders, Refine will continue to strengthen the core technology R&D of its two major platforms, particularly in the construction and optimization of biosynthetic pathways and the development of natural products. Meanwhile, we will continuously expand our business team and enhance production capacity. Looking ahead, we will remain deeply committed to natural science and technology, leveraging the ‘dual-wheel drive of technology’”’With 'Production Capacity Triangle Support'’a robust framework, driving the industry toward green, low-carbon, and sustainable development, harnessing the power of nature to benefit more people’s lives, contributing wisdom and solutions to global health initiatives, and creating long-term value for customers and society.”