Shanghai Lengchen raises tens of millions in Pre-A for water-guided lasers

What's the deal? Shanghai Lengchen Technology (Watlaser)Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has raised tens of millions of yuan in a Pre-A round led by Nanjing Municipal Venture Capital Group, with lücheng among the participants. The company designs, makes, and sells water-guided laser equipment used to cut hard materials.

What's the endgame? Water-guided lasers channel a laser through a high-pressure water jet that cools the material as it cuts, keeping the heat-affected zone small. That suits diamond, diamond-copper composites, silicon carbide, and other hard, brittle materials where conventional lasers and machining hit limits on heat damage and edge chipping.

Why now? Lengchen says the industry is at a key window, moving from single-use cases toward large-scale deployment. The new funds will go to developing next-generation equipment, expanding capacity for batch delivery, and widening market reach.

What's the backstory? Lengchen builds its full technology stack in-house, from the numerical control software to core hardware such as coupling heads and high-pressure pumps. It previously raised tens of millions in a 2023 angel round backed solely by Kaifeng Venture CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.

What could go wrong? "The bottleneck is not the principle, but the stability, usability, and processing efficiency of the equipment," a company representative said (translated from Chinese). Rivals are also pushing water-guided laser equipment toward commercialisation, so Lengchen must still prove it can deliver and win orders at scale.

The signal: As third- and fourth-generation semiconductors and AI chip cooling drive demand for harder materials, water-guided lasers are drawing investor interest. But with no deal size details or verifiable bulk orders disclosed, this round reads as support for scaling up — not proof that demand has already arrived.

Read more: sohu.com