Out of a Hong Kong university laboratory, a small materials science company has found a way to let buildings, vehicles, and machines shed heat by whispering it into space — no electricity, no refrigerants, no moving parts. i2Cool, now four years old and operating in more than thirty countries, has secured Series B funding from TopoScend Capital to scale what was once an academic curiosity into an industrial force. The investment arrives at a moment when the world's hunger for cooling — driven by AI, electrification, and a warming climate — is colliding with the urgent need to consume less ener
i2Cool Secures Series B Funding to Scale Passive Radiative Cooling Technology
cooling without electricity, refrigerants, or moving parts
Mark
So the core claim here is that i2Cool has built materials that cool things down without electricity. How does that actually work?
Mimi
They use nanoparticles engineered to reflect sunlight while emitting heat through a specific infrared wavelength that passes straight through the atmosphere into space. It's passive—no moving parts, no power draw. The materials achieve over 95 percent reflectivity and emissivity.
Luke
That's the physics. But I want to know: is this proven at scale, or is it still mostly lab results? The company reports 1.1 million square meters deployed across 30 countries, which sounds substantial, but we don't have independent verification of those numbers or what "deployed" actually means.
Mimi
Fair point. What we do know is they have a 120 million yuan order backlog and 377 percent three-year revenue growth. Those are company figures, not audited by a third party in this piece.
Mark
Who are the customers? Are these real commercial applications or pilot projects?
Mimi
They've worked with Toyota Tsusho, Sunwoda Electronic, and Towngas—established manufacturers. The applications range from building coatings to automotive finishes to data center thermal management. Overseas markets are half their revenue.
Luke
Again, we're taking the company's word for the revenue split and customer list. The piece doesn't include independent market analysis or customer testimonials. We know they exist and have worked together, but not the scale or depth of those relationships.
Mark
What's the actual innovation here beyond the basic physics?
Mimi
They've built what they call a Particle+ platform—standardized nanoparticles that work across different applications rather than custom-engineered for each use. They're also adding color customization and adaptive thermal properties. And they use AI-powered optical simulation to model how light moves through the nanoparticle systems, which they say speeds up R&D 12 times over.
Luke
The 12-fold efficiency claim is internal benchmarking. We don't have external validation of that number. It's a meaningful claim if true, but it's the company measuring itself.
Mark
Why does this funding round matter now?
Mimi
They're moving from research and small-scale production to building standardized manufacturing lines. The capital lets them scale output and push into new sectors—AI data centers, robotics, electric vehicles—where thermal management is becoming a bottleneck as these industries grow.
Luke
The timing aligns with China's dual-carbon goals and global pressure on energy efficiency, which is real. But we should note that passive radiative cooling is still a niche technology. We don't know how much market share it might capture or whether it will face competition from other thermal management approaches.
O Pulso
- Global demand for cooling is accelerating precisely as the energy cost of conventional refrigeration becomes untenable — i2Cool's electricity-free approach enters this tension as a structural answer, not a marginal improvement.
- The company's nanoparticle coatings achieve over 95% solar reflectivity and emit heat through the atmosphere's infrared window into space, delivering a net cooling effect that requires zero energy input.
- With 377% compound annual revenue growth over three years, a CNY 120 million order backlog, and deployment across 500+ projects in 30+ countries, the technology has already escaped the laboratory and found real commercial gravity.
- The new Series B capital from TopoScend Capital will fund a critical transition: moving from prototype-scale manufacturing to standardized industrial production lines capable of meeting surging demand.
- i2Cool is now targeting the sectors most desperate for thermal solutions — AI data centers, new energy vehicles, and robotics — positioning itself at the intersection of China's dual-carbon policy goals and global green technology demand.
Out of a Hong Kong university laboratory, a small materials science company has found a way to let buildings, vehicles, and machines shed heat by whispering it into space — no electricity, no refrigerants, no moving parts. i2Cool, now four years old and operating in more than thirty countries, has secured Series B funding from TopoScend Capital to scale what was once an academic curiosity into an industrial force. The investment arrives at a moment when the world's hunger for cooling — driven by AI, electrification, and a warming climate — is colliding with the urgent need to consume less energy doing it. In backing this technology, capital is quietly acknowledging that some of the most powerful solutions are those that work by doing almost nothing at all.
Four years after spinning out of City University of Hong Kong, i2Cool has closed a Series B funding round worth tens of millions of yuan from Shenzhen-based TopoScend Capital. The raise will fund industrial-scale manufacturing and an aggressive push into new markets — a significant step for a company whose technology is built on a principle both elegant and counterintuitive: surfaces can be cooled by doing nothing more than reflecting sunlight and emitting heat silently into space.
The mechanism at the heart of i2Cool's products is passive radiative cooling. The company's nanoparticle-based coatings, films, and textiles reflect more than 95% of incoming solar radiation while simultaneously releasing heat through the 8-13 micrometer atmospheric window — a narrow infrared band that passes through Earth's atmosphere unimpeded. The net effect is meaningful surface cooling with no electricity, no refrigerants, and no moving parts. The founding team, assembled in 2022, includes researchers with over 15 years of collective experience in the field and two scientists ranked among the world's most-cited.
What has allowed i2Cool to move quickly from research to market is its Particle+ platform — a modular nanoparticle system that can be adapted into exterior wall coatings, automotive finishes, textile treatments, powder coatings, and tiles without rebuilding the underlying technology for each application. The company has also integrated photoluminescence and thermochromic capabilities, and an AI-powered optical simulation system that it says has compressed its R&D cycle roughly twelvefold.
The commercial results are difficult to dismiss. i2Cool reports a CNY 120 million order backlog, three-year revenue growth of 377%, and completed deployments across more than 500 projects in over 30 countries — with overseas markets accounting for roughly half of total revenue. Clients have included Sunwoda Electronic, Towngas, and Toyota Tsusho.
The new capital will be used to build standardized production lines, hire key personnel, and deepen the company's presence in sectors facing acute thermal management pressure: AI data centers, robotics, and new energy vehicles. TopoScend Capital framed the investment as part of its focus on low-carbon value chains aligned with China's dual-carbon commitments. For i2Cool, the round marks something more than a financing milestone — it is recognition that passive radiative cooling has crossed from scientific novelty into scalable, global technology.
i2Cool, a materials science company founded four years ago in Hong Kong, has closed a Series B funding round worth tens of millions of yuan—several million dollars—from Shenzhen-based TopoScend Capital. The capital will fund the company's push to scale manufacturing and bring its passive radiative cooling technology into new markets and industries.
The core of what i2Cool has built is deceptively simple in concept but technically demanding in execution: materials that cool surfaces without electricity, refrigerants, or moving parts. The company's nanoparticle-based coatings, films, and textiles work by reflecting incoming solar radiation while simultaneously emitting heat through a narrow band of the infrared spectrum—the 8-13 micrometer atmospheric window—that passes through Earth's atmosphere into space. The result is a net cooling effect that requires no energy input. The company's materials achieve solar reflectivity and mid-infrared emissivity both exceeding 95 percent.
The founding team brings substantial credibility to the work. Assembled in 2022, the group includes researchers with more than 15 years of collective experience in radiative cooling science, among them two scholars ranked in the top 2 percent of most-cited scientists globally. The technology originated in academic research at City University of Hong Kong before the team moved to commercialize it.
What distinguishes i2Cool's approach is its Particle+ platform—a standardized system of functional nanoparticles designed to work across multiple applications. Rather than building separate products for each use case, the company has engineered a modular technology that can be deployed as exterior wall coatings, automotive finishes, textile treatments, powder coatings, and tiles. The company is also layering in additional capabilities: photoluminescence and thermochromism, which allow the materials to shift color and adapt their thermal properties while maintaining cooling performance. Behind this sits an AI-powered optical simulation system paired with polymer materials science, which the company says has accelerated its research and development cycle roughly 12-fold compared to conventional methods.
Commercially, i2Cool has moved beyond the laboratory. The company reports an order backlog of 120 million Chinese yuan—approximately $17.9 million—and has grown operating revenue at a compound annual rate of 377 percent over three years. Its products have been deployed across more than 30 countries and regions, covering more than 1.1 million square meters in over 500 completed projects. Notably, overseas markets account for roughly half of total revenue, indicating the technology has found traction beyond China's borders. The company has worked with established manufacturers including Sunwoda Electronic, Towngas, and Toyota Tsusho.
With this funding, i2Cool plans to build out standardized nanoparticle production lines—moving from prototype-scale manufacturing to industrial-scale output. The company will also continue developing its core technologies, hire key personnel, and push into high-value applications it sees as growth areas: AI data centers, robotics, and new energy vehicles. These sectors face acute thermal management challenges as they scale, and passive radiative cooling offers a way to reduce energy consumption without adding complexity to existing systems.
TopoScend Capital's investment reflects a broader strategic bet on green technology aligned with China's dual-carbon goals—the commitment to reach peak emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. The investor framed the deal as part of its focus on low-carbon value chains and technological innovation supporting the green transition. For i2Cool, the capital represents validation that passive radiative cooling has moved from academic curiosity to market-ready technology, and that the company's path from university laboratory to global deployment is worth backing at scale.
Citações Notáveis
Our ambition extends beyond any single radiative cooling product. We aim to build a platform company for the sector.— Prof. Martin Y. Zhu, Co-Founder and CEO of i2Cool
i2Cool has taken passive radiative cooling from a City University of Hong Kong laboratory to scaled production and commercial deployment across more than 30 countries and regions. It is a strong example of industry–university–research collaboration between Shenzhen and Hong Kong.— Yanping Shi, Vice President of TopoScend Capital
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