Cost Cut by 50%, World's First 1,000-Ton-Scale Enzymatic Recycling Continuous Production Line Nears Launch as Source Tian Biotechnology Closes 100 Million Yuan Series A | Dalton Venture Family

Background

Recently, Dalton Venture portfolio company Yuantian Biotech (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yuantian Biotech") announced the completion of a Series A funding round worth hundreds of millions of RMB. This round was led by Guotai Haitong, Jinqiao Fund, and other investors, with follow-on investments from existing shareholders including Beiyang Haitang Fund. The proceeds will primarily fund technology iteration for its 100,000-ton production line, early-stage construction, and market expansion.

Yuantian Biotech specializes in enzymatic recycling technology and commercialization of waste PET plastics, with PA6 (polyamide 6) multi-plastic recycling operating as a separate pipeline. On the PET front, the company's 6,500-ton production line broke ground in early 2026, with products expected to roll off the line in Q4. At full capacity, this line could produce the equivalent of 30 million T-shirts or 200 million mineral water bottles. Meanwhile, a 100,000-ton line is also in the planning stages.

Yuantian Biotech recycled fabric samples

From operating the world's first 300-ton/year rPTA production line in 2024 to the planned 100,000-ton scale, Yuantian Biotech's capacity leap reflects continuous process iteration — ongoing technical improvements during production that steadily optimize operational convenience, boost efficiency, and drive down costs. Founder Shengping You revealed that compared to the 300-ton line, the 6,500-ton line can reduce product costs by roughly 50%, achieving parity with chemical recycling at the 30,000-ton scale; once the 100,000-ton line comes online, costs could drop another 30% from that baseline.

On the commercialization front, Yuantian Biotech both sells rPTA monomers directly to global chemical companies and supplies designated enzymatically recycled yarns and other materials to top-tier global fashion and consumer brands. Beyond its strongholds in textiles and personal care, the company is expanding into automotive, electronics, and other categories — for example, co-developing enzymatically recycled materials for airbags and seatbelts with international automakers like Toyota.

As a trading company within the Toyota Motor ecosystem, Toyota Tsusho (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. is not only a shareholder and industrial partner of Yuantian Biotech but is also helping the company expand into the Japanese market. It has already connected Yuantian with multiple core players in Japan's polyester supply chain and facilitated product sampling.

Yuantian Biotech recycled PET

Because enzymatic PET recycling operates under relatively mild reaction conditions, cotton, spandex, and other fibers in waste polyester-blend textiles retain their original properties after PET enzymatic depolymerization, making them suitable for secondary use. Yuantian Biotech is also partnering with home textile and fabric companies to recycle recovered waste cotton and spandex for comprehensive reprocessing.

"Built on our engineering capabilities, continuous technology iteration, and scaled-up production capacity, we can rapidly match and capture China's enormous recycled polyester market demand," said You. Compared to foreign competitors in biological recycling, Yuantian Biotech is the first company globally to possess complete process package design capabilities with actual production lines built and operational, and with China's massive polyester industry and downstream supply chain behind it, the company holds combined technological and market advantages.

In his view, Yuantian Biotech's ambitions extend far beyond being a PET recycling company. It aims to build an internationally leading enzymatic plastic recycling R&D platform. "From PET and PA6 to future categories like PP and PE, through continuous breakthroughs in key technologies for enzymatic plastic recycling, we will create complete closed-loop solutions from waste material recovery to recycled products, ultimately establishing Yuantian Biotech's brand influence in the global recycled materials space."

Investors in this round stated: PET is one of the world's largest plastic categories, with annual production approaching 100 million tons and a market size in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Current supply remains dominated by petroleum-based virgin PET, and the recycled PET industry has been constrained by technological limitations. Biological methods offer broad feedstock flexibility, mild reaction conditions, and molecular-level degradation capability. Having now reached a cost inflection point, this approach has the potential to become the ultimate solution.

Yuantian Biotech's founding team hails from Tianjin University's PET enzymatic recycling group, with over seven years of focused work designing and engineering PET enzyme mutants, combining both R&D and industrial experience. The company has completed 300-ton pilot production with superior product performance, rapidly securing numerous industry benchmark customers and gaining market validation. Its cost curve has a clear downward trajectory. The company is currently building a thousand-ton production line; upon commissioning, costs are expected to match physical and chemical recycling methods. As capacity continues to scale, it will gradually replace chemical recycling, physical recycling, and virgin PET in mass consumer applications. Taken together, Yuantian Biotech has the potential to grow into a biomanufacturing company with comprehensive capabilities and significant market value.

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ID: daltonventure

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