- Round backed by state investors and market-oriented venture funds
- Funding targets two-phase liquid cooling technology and production expansion
Coling (芯寒科技), a Zhejiang startup developing liquid-cooling systems for AI infrastructure, has raised nearly 100 million yuan ($14.78 million) in a Pre-Series A funding round, as surging demand for computing power drives interest in more efficient data center cooling technologies.
The round was led by Orient Renassiance Capital, with participation from the Zhejiang Provincial Science and Technology Innovation Fund, Puhua Capital and the L2F Lightsource Founders Fund.
The company said it will the proceeds to advance two-phase liquid-cooling technology, expand manufacturing capacity and support overseas expansion.
The financing follows a seed round completed in July 2025, when Coling secured tens of millions of yuan from listed manufacturer HEC Group (东阳光).
The company’s office building (Left) and production facilities (Above) in Jiaxing, Zhejiang.
The investment comes as China’s AI buildout and the government’s “Eastern Data, Western Computing” initiative place growing pressure on data center operators to improve energy efficiency.
Newly built large-scale facilities are generally required to maintain power usage effectiveness (PUE) levels of 1.30 or below, making advanced cooling technologies increasingly important.
Two-phase liquid cooling
Founded in 2025 and headquartered in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, Coling focuses on chip cooling, thermal management and intelligent control systems.
Its founding team includes specialists in energy systems, thermal engineering and AI, with founder Zhuang Yuan holding a doctorate from Zhejiang University and also serving as chairman of HEC Group’s liquid-cooling business.
Coling aims to address persistent challenges in two-phase liquid-cooling systems, a technology that uses liquid evaporation to dissipate heat and has gained traction as AI servers become increasingly power-hungry.
Key hurdles include dry-out, vapor blockage and leakage, all of which can impair cooling performance or damage equipment.
Coling said it has developed AI-assisted flow-control technology capable of dynamically redistributing cooling capacity between high- and low-load computing nodes within milliseconds.
Reducing reliance
The company has also built an in-house development platform covering refrigerant selection, testing and system integration, supported by tens of thousands of hours of operational data.
Its technology is designed to reduce reliance on conventional mechanical cooling by using ambient air to dissipate heat, potentially lowering energy consumption for AI training workloads.
“The liquid-cooling industry is entering a phase of broader commercial adoption as data center demand and policy support converge,” lead backer Orient Renaissance Capital said in a statement.
The venture fund added that phase-change cooling, with its high heat-transfer efficiency, could become an ultimate solution for data center thermal management.
“Coling has built capabilities spanning materials, cooling systems and integration, helping address key technical bottlenecks in two-phase liquid cooling,” another investor Puhua Capital said.
On the commercialization front, Coling said it has established partnerships with leading Chinese server makers and completed product validation programs, laying the groundwork for broader adoption in the country’s fast-growing AI infrastructure market.
