Kuraray has decided to acquire Nelumbo, a company with unique materials technology for surface modification. The purchase price has not been disclosed.

Nelumbo was founded in 2016 as a technology start-up out of University of California, Berkeley and has been exploring the application and practical use of various substrate surface modification technologies. In 2023, Kuraray entered into an "Exclusive Partnership Agreement" with Nelumbo and have been working together to apply the surface modification technology to fibers and other polymer products.

Through this collaboration, the company evaluated Nelumbo's technology and concluded that it has excellent potential to improve the functionality of substrate surfaces on a wide range of substrates, including water repellency, without using PFAS and other chemicals that are increasingly regulated.