Recently, In-Road, a platform provider of digital solutions for the chemical industry, announced the completion of round B financing nearly RMB 100 million, which was jointly led by Cowin Capital and Longwater Investment. The original shareholder MatrixPartners China continues to inject funds, and Phoenixtree Capital continues to act as the exclusive financial consultant. Dr. Zhou Zhijie, the founder of In-Road, said that this round of financing would be mainly used for product structure upgrade, team development and market development.
Established in 2015, with close integration of chemical industry and IT, In-Road is a provider of digital solution for production management to chemical industry. Dr. Zhou Zhijie, the founder of the team, was formerly a professor of East China University Of Science And Technology. He has been engaged in large-scale chemical technology development and industrial transformation for a long time, and has contacted a large number of chemical enterprises in the process of technology development and industrial transformation. The core team includes chemical experts from university scientific research institutions, engineering companies and large chemical enterprises, and it is a professional and complete IT development team.
As a service provider focusing on providing advanced digital management and control products for chemical production, In-Road has a deep understanding of chemical production scenarios. Its developed industrial intelligence system focuses on high-frequency business in real production scenarios, closely integrates the online data flow and the offline workflow, and connects the chemical production safety management system with front-line work practice. We are committed to building a “Better digital solution for Chemical Industry” and an “operating system” covering the on-site control of chemical production. The widely used module products such as Permit to work management, smart patrol inspection and safety risk control among In-Road systems have effectively improved the production management efficiency and controlled the risk from the source. The mechanical and electrical management and process management modules of In-Road system will also be launched in the near future, providing advanced and easy-to-use products for the digital transformation and upgrading of chemical production, and building a basic platform for the IoT technology (including 5G, AI, IoT) to access the chemical safety field. The system has been highly recognized and deeply applied by BASF, Wanhua Chemical and other head chemical enterprises, and wins a leading position in the industry.
Dr. Zhou Zhijie, the founder of In-Road, believes that, “The digital transformation of production management in chemical enterprises is a process of management culture reconstruction. The path of digital transformation should be the same desire from the top to the bottom, so as to mobilize the front-line production personnel to identify with and actively participate in the digital transformation. It is advised that modularization and building-block mode should be adopted step by step, starting from the basic high-frequency functions, so as to quickly promote the recognition of employees and enterprises on the value of digital information construction, gradually start the company’s digital and information construction with less investment, gradually expand the elements covering enterprise management, realize the interconnection of various functions and solve the problem of information isolated island and duplication of work in each department of the enterprise. The system design should pay attention to standardization and convenience to reduce the workload of employees; improve the flexibility of enterprise production and operation and lean management, and reduce the production costs. The enterprise digital construction can not be achieved at a single leap. A too grand plan may be deviated from the reality of the enterprise, resulting in functional redundancy, unreasonable granularity and granularity impractical, and difficult to optimize and improve according to the enterprise management. Therefore, we should consider the gradual launching of various functional modules, quickly adjust and optimize them according to the actual situation, so as to finally realize the flexible and lean management of enterprise production, and realize the real intelligent operation and digital operation. ”
Up to now, In-Road has signed contracts with more than 100 chemical enterprise clients, including BASF, the world’s largest chemical group, Wanhua Chemical, the chemical enterprise with the highest market value in China, and a number of listed companies and industry benchmarks, covering petrochemical, coal chemical, fine chemical, pharmaceutical chemical, chip materials and other segments.
After the success of this round of financing, In-Road will increase investment in upgrading and optimizing the product structure, team development, market development, etc., and strive to become a leading enterprise in the field of digital control of chemical production.
Dong Ming, a partner of Cowin Capital, said that, “The chemical industry is a basic industry with a large number of enterprises. Even for small and medium-sized enterprises, the average output value is relatively high. However, the chemical industry is more traditional, and the level of digitization is low. With the fiercer competition and increasing labor costs, the chemical industry needs to reduce costs and increase efficiency through further informatization. Starting from the high-frequency operation scenarios, the core safety management module of Inroad gradually expands its product boundaries. The viscosity of the Company’s products is extremely high, which helps the chemical enterprises to reduce costs, increase efficiency and decline the probability of safety Accident. At present, the products have been recognized by world-famous chemical enterprises such as BASF and Wanhua Chemical. The industry experience of In-Road team is extremely profound, and the core members have decades of experience in the chemical industry. Therefore, In-Road can truly grasp the pain points of the industry and understand the needs of enterprises. With excellent products and the industry experience of the team, In-Road has gradually established deep barriers and become the leading enterprises in the subdivision fields. ”
Shi Xuesong, a partner of Longwater Investment, said that, “In-Road is the first-class provider of digital solutions for chemical production management in China, and their digital products for chemical production are based on the deep integration of chemical industry and IT, which lays a foundation for the realization of safe, efficient and intelligent chemical production in the industrial Internet era. Under the trend of accelerating the comprehensive digital transformation of chemical industry and material industry, the products starting with the digitalization of chemical production have broad space for vertical and horizontal extension.
Longwater Investment focuses on the fields of chemistry and material science and technology, and we pay attention to how to improve the comprehensive capabilities of material and chemical enterprises through digital means. In-Road has provided many leading chemical material enterprises with efficient digital products, and they are also important partners of BASF, the investor of our fund, in digitalization. We are delighted to cooperate with In-Road to improve the production safety and efficiency of the chemical industry, and accelerate the digitalization process of China’s chemical industry. We hope that with our in-depth understanding and extensive network in the field of chemical materials, we can bring the excellent products with In-Road to more enterprise users, help In-Road achieve better and faster development, and help the digital transformation of China’s chemical material industry. ”
Xiong Fei, a partner of MatrixPartners China, said that, “The chemical industry is a trillion-scale market. In recent years, the requirements for the refinement and systematization of production management are getting higher and higher, and there are great opportunities for digitalization and SaaS. The team with the founder Dr. Zhou Zhijie as the core is first-class and professional in the chemical industry, and has precipitated the first-class industry experience into SaaS products. Benchmark clients such as Wanhua Chemical, BASF, Yuntianhua, Shandong Energy Group, Nanjing Chengzhi, etc., are all using it heavily. I believe the Company will become a leading enterprise in digitalization and SaaS in the chemical industry in the future. ”
As the financial advisor of this round of funding, Zhou Wanjing, executive general manager of Phoenixtree Capital, said that, “The chemical industry involves a wide range of fields and plays an important role in almost all manufacturing industries. Benefiting from the rapid development of science and technology and the times, there is a huge digital market space in the chemical industry today. Dr. Zhou Zhijie’s team has been deeply involved in the chemical industry for decades. In-Road under his leadership has provided efficient digital management tools for the chemical enterprises, covered all aspects of factory management like capillaries, and solved the long-standing pain points of chemical plants. “
