CrystalTech and ResearchOne (研一) Forge Strategic Partnership, AI+Automation Empower Next-Generation Lithium Battery New Materials R&D

In recent years, as the electric vehicle industry has rapidly expanded on a large scale, the demand for battery materials with higher efficiency, better safety, and longer lifespan has been steadily increasing. This presents enormous opportunities and urgent innovation needs for the new energy industry.

The field of power batteries has reached a breakthrough point, demanding power battery materials with higher key performance metrics, such as energy density, cycle life, charging speed, and safety. Moreover, there is a need to reduce production and R&D costs and overcome resource bottlenecks, enabling new-generation technologies to be rapidly applied in the industry to meet the energy supply demands in various downstream applications. However, traditional research and development in the new energy battery market have heavily relied on extensive experimental exploration, leading to high costs and long cycles. Thus, there is an urgent need for more efficient research and development technologies to drive innovative breakthroughs and industrial applications of new energy storage materials.

As a technology company with a long-standing focus on quantum physics, computational chemistry, and artificial intelligence methods in the field of biomedicine, CrystalTech has accumulated extensive expertise in various areas such as molecular generation, crystal structure search, and molecular/materials' physical and chemical property prediction. It also possesses unique insights into cross-scale simulations of complex systems. The company's independently developed large-scale automated experimental robot cluster can efficiently conduct chemical experiments and testing in parallel, collecting and providing real-time high-precision research and development data to AI algorithms. This further enhances the innovation efficiency of research personnel and empowers the optimization and iterative upgrade of algorithm models.

The collaboration between CrystalTech and ResearchOne will fully leverage the technological advantages of both companies. CrystalTech will transfer its successful experiences in AI and automation from the biomedicine field and combine it with ResearchOne's extensive experience and expertise in new energy battery development to achieve technology spillover. Together, they will explore new modes of research and development for new energy batteries.

CrystalTech and ResearchOne will collaborate in various directions, including the understanding of battery micro-mechanisms, the development of new battery materials, complex structure design, and integrated battery simulations. Combining CrystalTech's automation technology, they aim to jointly pioneer a new mode of design and research for next-generation batteries. This partnership will provide strong support in achieving breakthroughs from "0" to "1" in key materials and key technologies for new power and energy storage batteries. Ultimately, it will accelerate the transformation from traditional energy to new energy and drive more revolutionary progress in China's new energy field.

CrystalTech's Co-founder and Chairman, Wen Shuhao, stated, "Both CrystalTech and ResearchOne are innovative platform-type companies focused on the high-value development of new materials based on first principles. Our technological advantages and professional expertise complement each other. ResearchOne is at the forefront of technology and production scale in the lithium battery materials field. We look forward to a strong collaboration with ResearchOne and applying CrystalTech's intelligent research and development platform, honed and optimized over the years, to the development of next-generation energy storage materials. This will inject energy into the vigorous development of downstream industries in the new energy sector and create a more sustainable and efficient intelligent future."

ResearchOne's Chairman and President, Yue Min, remarked, "The collaboration between ResearchOne and CrystalTech has created a brand-new mode of developing lithium battery new materials. By combining AI and automation experimental platforms, we will completely subvert the constraints of traditional material development and greatly accelerate the iteration speed of lithium battery new materials. This will provide our customers in the new energy sector with more innovative, unique, simple, and efficient material solutions. It is bound to drive rapid and high-quality development of the future new energy industry."

[Company Information]

About CrystalTech:
CrystalTech is a cutting-edge technology company driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics-driven innovation. Founded in 2014 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the company is committed to digitizing and intelligentizing innovations in life sciences and new materials. Leveraging quantum physics, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and large-scale experimental robot clusters, CrystalTech provides innovative technologies, services, and products to global industries, including biomedicine, chemical engineering, new energy, and new materials.

About ResearchOne:
ResearchOne New Materials Co., Ltd., based in Longhua District, Shenzhen, is a unicorn enterprise in the field of new energy and new materials. Its founder, Mr. Yue Min, has nearly 30 years of experience in the lithium battery materials industry and was the former General Manager and Chief Engineer of BETTERY. The company has innovation platforms in Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Nanjing, Chengdu, and Osaka, Japan, and large-scale production bases in Quzhou, Zhejiang, Meishan, Sichuan, and Wuxi, Jiangsu, as well as pilot bases in Xuancheng, Anhui, and Longhua, Shenzhen. With the development concept of "disruptive, unique, singular, economic, and mass-produced" products, ResearchOne seizes the opportunity presented by the accelerating penetration of electric vehicles and explosive growth of the new energy industry, and strategically positions itself for the future, rapidly advancing production capacity construction and promoting rapid development. Since its establishment in early 2019, the company has received multiple rounds of equity investment from venture capital firms, including Shenzhen Venture Capital, Cindat Capital, Sequoia Capital, Hillhouse Capital, and SoftBank Investment Funds, with total financing exceeding billions of yuan. As of December 2022, the company has employed more than 650 people.