36Kr Exclusive: Fudan-Donghua Team Develops "Ionic Skin," Secures Over RMB 10 Million in Funding from Yuanhe and Huawei's Hubble

Author | Qiao Yujie Editor | Yuan Silai This article is about 1,500 words and takes about 4 minutes to read. Hard AI (硬氪) learned that Shanghai Lingshu Zhifu Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "Lingshu Zhifu") has recently completed two consecutive rounds of financing. The seed round was led by Yuanhe Holdings with participation from Huawei's Hubble, while Yuanhe Holdings, an existing shareholder from the angel round, continued to invest. The two rounds total over RMB 10 million, with Lingjing Capital (领甪资本) serving as exclusive financial advisor. Lingshu Zhifu was founded in April 2025 and focuses on the research, development, production, and sale of flexible tactile sensing materials and devices. Founder Jia Wei graduated from the Department of Polymer Science at Fudan University with an integrated master's and doctoral degree. The core team mainly comes from Fudan's Department of Polymer Science and has complete capabilities in materials, processes, circuits, and management. The company's scientific advisor is Professor Wu Peiyi, dean of the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Donghua University, and the company has jointly established a robot materials R&D center with Donghua University. (Image source: company) As robots rapidly enter the physical world, tactile perception, known as the "last piece of the puzzle for embodied intelligence," is moving from the laboratory to industrialization. According to data from Zhiyan Consulting, the global flexible tactile sensor market was about US$2.67 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach US$5 billion by 2029. The first hurdle in tactile perception is materials, which is where Lingshu Zhifu is starting. Lingshu Zhifu focuses on the ionic skin technology route. "Ionic skin" refers to adding ions into a polymer substrate and generating electrical signals through changes in those ions. Compared with other technology routes, one advantage of ionic skin is that its chemical system offers a richer range of choices. From ion selection to organic chemical modification, it can open up more possibilities for material design, further raising the ceiling of material performance. Second, ionic skin itself conducts ions but not electricity, making it more suitable for capacitive devices. Pressure-capacitive devices perform well in sensitivity, baseline stability, and signal linearity. At the same time, in terms of functional design, the rich selection of salts and polymer systems in ionic skin allows for layering functions such as self-healing and thermal hardening through different intermolecular interactions, providing more performance combinations for materials. Lingshu Zhifu's current product portfolio mainly targets two fields: embodied intelligence and consumer electronics. In embodied intelligence, it mainly includes tactile sensors in data collection gloves and tactile sensors mounted on dexterous hand bodies. In consumer electronics, it mainly focuses on touch-interaction sensors for wearable and smart terminal devices such as earphones, phones, and smartwatches. Company