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A New Generation of Bio-Based Plastics for China’s Manufacturing Sector

China’s plastics and polymer manufacturing base—spanning toys, consumer goods, packaging, textiles and industrial components—faces a well-documented structural challenge: conventional fossil-based plastics create fossil-resource dependence, long-term environmental persistence, and end-of-life waste management issues. At the same time, many emerging bio-based and biodegradable material systems still struggle with trade-offs among performance, processability, cost and large-scale commercialization. Against this backdrop, Shanghai SiPeng Technology Co., Ltd., operating under the brand SYNLIFE, has positioned itself as a bio-based materials technology company built on synthetic biology and materials engineering, developing high-performance bio-based materials, finished applications and cross-industry material solutions for manufacturers across China and international markets.

 

Corporate Profile and Strategic Positioning

Founded in May 2022 and headquartered in Shanghai, SYNLIFE is recognized as a Shanghai “Specialized and Innovative” Enterprise and is classified as a high-growth technology company. Its founding and technical teams accumulated long-term research experience in synthetic biology, biological manufacturing and bio-based materials prior to the company’s establishment, with research backgrounds connected to synthetic biology research associated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The company’s long-term strategic goal is advancing lower-carbon and carbon-negative biomanufacturing technologies, addressing the pain points of plastic and polymer manufacturers who must balance environmental responsibility with commercial performance requirements—including those serving toy, consumer goods and other plastic-intensive industries.

Differentiated Value Proposition

SYNLIFE’s core differentiation lies in combining capabilities across biological manufacturing, material development, formulation optimization, process scale-up, manufacturing and application development within a single organization. This integrated model allows the company to move from strain and fermentation development through to finished material grades without depending entirely on external partners at each stage.

Application-Oriented Development Model

Rather than focusing narrowly on material synthesis, SYNLIFE develops materials around actual processing conditions and end-use requirements. This means formulations are designed with real manufacturing equipment—injection molding, extrusion, film processing, thermoforming and spinning—in mind from the outset. For plastics manufacturers, including those producing toys, consumer goods and other molded or extruded products, this reduces the risk of adopting bio-based materials that perform well in laboratory settings but fail during commercial-scale processing. The company’s stated value proposition is to deliver high-performance, bio-based and lower-carbon material solutions that help bridge the gap between laboratory innovation and commercial-scale applications.

Technical and Manufacturing Capabilities

SYNLIFE’s technical capability system spans synthetic biology (strain development, metabolic pathway optimization, fermentation process development), materials engineering (polymer formulation, modification, compounding and processing optimization), and application engineering built around injection molding, extrusion, film processing, thermoforming and spinning. AI and data-driven methods support formulation design, process optimization, material-property prediction and experimental iteration, while accumulated patents and proprietary technical know-how across synthetic biology and materials development underpin the company’s intellectual property position.

Operationally, the company maintains a team of more than 50 employees—including researchers and engineers across synthetic biology, material development, product development and commercialization—supported by a Shanghai R&D Center exceeding 2,000 square meters. Manufacturing and supply-chain capabilities are located in Jiangsu province, including Nantong, providing established industrialization and commercialization support for selected high-performance bio-based materials, films and downstream applications.

Product Portfolio Serving Plastics, Consumer Goods and Beyond

YOGTIC® Bio-Based Resin Series

At the core of SYNLIFE’s plastics-relevant offering is the YOGTIC® bio-based resin series. The YOGTIC-05 Series is a high-transparency bio-based polyester material offering good toughness and high bio-based content depending on grade, suitable for applications requiring transparent plastic components. The YOGTIC-15 Series delivers improved thermal resistance compared with conventional PLA grades along with balanced toughness and rigidity, suitable for selected injection-molded and rigid applications. The YOGTIC-08/18 Thermoforming Series includes distinct grades for different thermoforming needs: YOGTIC-08A is a transparent thermoforming-grade bio-based material with good thermoformability, sheet flatness, clarity and stiffness, while YOGTIC-18A is a solid-color thermoforming-grade bio-based material with good elongation and surface gloss for trays, liners and other thermoformed applications.

Functional and Biodegradable Materials

Beyond the core resin platform, SYNLIFE’s materials portfolio includes Revertic for biodegradable material applications and Neotic for non-biodegradable functional material applications, together with application-specific compounds developed for different performance and end-use requirements.

Films, Textiles and Finished Applications

SYNLIFE’s portfolio further includes ZeRoll® compostable cling film and related packaging film solutions, NeoRoll® functional films, and PLA-based fibers, yarns and fabrics under the Yogric® brand, as well as Palmric® PTT-based textile materials. On the finished-application side, the company has already commercialized bio-based fountain pens and gel/signature pens, bio-based textile products, bio-based cosmetic packaging, and biodegradable agricultural applications such as horticultural pots and trays. The company explicitly covers “Other plastic and polymer applications” and 3D Printing among its stated industry coverage, and its finished-application portfolio also includes a bio-based magnetic construction toy application co-developed with MNTL. Toy applications remain subject to product-specific material validation and applicable market safety and compliance requirements.

Market Validation Through Real-World Cases

SYNLIFE’s approach has been validated through documented commercial cases. Selected conventional plastic components of the Hero bio-based fountain pen were replaced with SYNLIFE bio-based materials, resulting in a commercialized bio-based fountain pen application that has participated in regional cultural-product and souvenir selection activities. High-transparency YOGTIC® resin was applied to selected transparent components of the Platinum GK-50 Eco Pen, which was showcased at the China International Industry Fair, demonstrating the feasibility of applying high-transparency bio-based materials to writing-instrument applications. In the textile domain, PLA-based fiber and textile technology was developed into a Shanghai Jiao Tong University memorial T-shirt, introduced through university-related retail and cultural-product channels.

Ecosystem Collaboration and Industry Recognition

SYNLIFE established a strategic partnership with Angel Yeast in November 2022 and formalized a joint venture with Angel Yeast in December 2023 to advance industrialization and commercialization of bio-manufactured products. In April 2025, the company established cooperation with the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, to develop bulk bio-based monomer products using methanol as feedstock and advance one-carbon biomanufacturing. The company’s broader commercial ecosystem includes cooperation with material manufacturers, converters, OEM/ODM manufacturers, brand owners and international distribution partners.

Recognition of this work includes a CIIF Bio-Manufacturing Special Award in 2025, selection as one of 16 winners of Tencent’s CarbonX Program 2.0 in 2026 for SYNLIFE’s carbon-negative biomanufacturing technology direction (from approximately 660 applications across 54 countries and regions and 50 finalists), and selection of the “Wildflowers in the Fields” bio-based writing-instrument series for the 2025 Shanghai Souvenir Award. Members of the founding scientific team have also received a First Prize from the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation and a First Prize of the Ministry of Education Natural Science Award.

Business Model and Commercialization Pathway

SYNLIFE’s service models span raw material supply, material customization, joint product development, application development, finished-product OEM/ODM, process and technical support, and pilot and scale-up support—covering the full pathway from material and formulation development through processing optimization, product design, testing support, scale-up and commercialization. Pricing is determined by material type and formulation, bio-based content, performance requirements, certification and compliance needs, processing difficulty, order volume, customization requirements, and supply-chain conditions, with the company’s commercial value proposition centered on application performance, product differentiation, sustainability and processing compatibility rather than assumed regulatory savings, which vary by country and product category.

Having completed a Pre-A financing round of nearly RMB 100 million in October 2024 and a Pre-A+ round of tens of millions of RMB in May 2025, SYNLIFE offers plastics and consumer-goods manufacturers—including toy manufacturers—a technically grounded pathway toward bio-based material adoption, supported by material development and application experience and subject to product-specific performance, safety, and market-compliance validation.

https://www.synlifeglobal.com/
SYNLIFE

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