Lengchen Technology Closes Tens of Millions of Yuan in Pre-A Funding, Focusing on Water-Jet Guided Laser Equipment R&D and Industrialization

Laser Laser has learned that Shanghai Lengchen Technology Co., Ltd. ("Lengchen Technology") recently announced on its official WeChat account that it has completed a Pre-A funding round worth tens of millions of yuan. The round was jointly invested by Nanjing Venture Capital Group, Lvcheng, and other institutions.

Previously, Kai Feng Ventures made a sole investment of tens of millions of yuan in 2023, helping Lengchen Technology complete its angel round. The funds raised were mainly used for R&D and industrialization of water-guided laser equipment. The proceeds from this round will be directed mainly to three areas: R&D of next-generation water-guided laser equipment, capacity expansion and volume delivery, and market development and application deployment.

Water-guided laser is a "cold processing" technology that couples a laser with a micro water jet. A pulsed laser is coupled through a focusing lens into a water chamber and, after passing through a nozzle, forms a stable water jet only tens of micrometers in diameter, as fine as a hair. Because water and air have different refractive indices, the laser undergoes total internal reflection repeatedly at the inner wall of the water beam, propagating to the workpiece surface much like light in an optical fiber to perform ablation.

During processing, the water beam serves three functions: an "optical fiber" for the laser, a "coolant" for the processing zone, and a "flusher" for molten slag. The water flow continuously carries away heat between pulses, producing a very small heat-affected zone and cut edges free of recast and oxide layers. The water beam propagates in parallel, yielding kerfs with almost no taper, free from the depth-of-focus limits of conventional lasers and capable of high aspect ratios. Ablation products are flushed away simultaneously, making edges of hard and brittle materials less prone to chipping.

Water-guided laser is naturally suited to difficult-to-machine materials such as silicon carbide, diamond, ceramics, high-temperature alloys, and fiber-reinforced composites, and is used in applications including semiconductor wafer cutting, drilling of hot-section aero-engine components, and processing of medical implants.

Founded in 2023, Lengchen Technology focuses on the R&D, production, and sales of water-guided laser equipment. Its two co-founders graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China and Tsinghua University, respectively, and both have served as executives at publicly listed companies. They have more than a decade of experience in core hardware and CNC systems for laser and waterjet equipment, and R&D staff account for 90% of the company.

The company's solutions now cover sectors including semiconductors, aerospace, medical, industrial manufacturing, and research and higher education. It collaborates with AECC, works with companies such as Worldia and Liufang Semiconductor, carries out technical cooperation with HG Laser and other laser companies, and jointly advances industry-academia-research partnerships with institutions including the Tianjin Institute of Advanced Equipment of Tsinghua University, the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.