Zeon Corporation (Zeon; head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Kimiaki Tanaka), through its subsidiary Zeon Specialty Materials Inc. (California, U.S.A.; representative: Hirokazu Matsumoto), has purchased 100% of the shares of Edge Precision Manufacturing, Inc. (Edge; head office: Massachusetts, U.S.A.; representative: Andrew Kamholz), a manufacturer of micro featured thermoplastic devices, from shareholders including venture capital funds managed by U.S. investment company Anzu Partners, LLC (head office: Florida, U.S.A.; representative: David Seldin), on December 28, 2022. As a result of this acquisition, Zeon will accelerate business development in healthcare and life sciences, a key area for exploring new businesses under its medium-term management plan, while seeking to enter the European and U.S. markets in this area.

Under its medium-term management plan, Zeon has been exploring new businesses in the four key areas of healthcare and life sciences, CASE and MaaS, telecommunications (5G/6G), and energy conservation, with the aim of generating 60 billion yen by FY2030. Not only does this latest move demonstrate Zeon’s initiative to explore new businesses in healthcare and life sciences, but it is also aimed at opening up opportunities to develop new businesses for cyclo olefin polymers (COPs).

Zeon’s COPs (product names ZEONEX® and ZEONOR®), well known for their unique properties such as low autofluorescence, high light transmittance, low biomolecules adsorption, low impurities, and low melt viscosity, have been used as materials for analytical devices such as microfluidic chips*1 and for biochemical analysis applications such as biotechnological/biological products containers.

Zeon will strengthen its molding business for biochemical analytical devices that use COPs, through the acquisition of Edge, which uses many of Zeon’s materials, and by leveraging its customer network, including that of Aurora Microplates for microplates, acquired in February 2022. In addition, Zeon will provide the necessary resources for developing mass production technology for microfluidic devices*2 to expand its business from the creation of prototypes to the manufacture and sale of mass-produced products.

Outline of Edge

Company Name: Edge Precision Manufacturing, Inc
Business: Manufacturer of custom micro-featured thermoplastic disposables for diagnostic, clinical, optics, and research applications featuring high definition and high aspect ratio based on proprietary compression molding technology
Representative: Andrew Kamholz
Address: 12 Dunham Rd Billerica, Suite 4, Massachusetts 01821, U.S.A.
URL: www.edgeprecision.com

Outline of Anzu Partners

Company Name: Anzu Partners, LLC
Business: Investment firm specializing in investing in technologies with the potential to transform industries
Representative: David Seldin
Address: 12610 Race Track Road, Tampa, Florida 33626, U.S.A.
URL: www.anzupartners.com/

Outline of Zeon Specialty Materials

Company Name: Zeon Specialty Materials Inc.
Business: Marketing and sales base for specialty materials established to provide a swift response to customer needs in North America
Representative: Hirokazu Matsumoto
Address: 25 Metro Drive, Suite 238, San Jose, California 95110, U.S.A.
URL: www.zeonsmi.com

*1: Microfluidic chips: Chips with micro-scale channels fabricated by etching, micro-machining, or molding on a substrate.
*2: Microfluidic devices: Equipment for handling extremely small amounts of liquid on microfluidic chips.

For more information, contact:
Department of Corporate Communication, Corporate Sustainability Division, Zeon Corporation
Phone: +81-3-3216-2747