Nanorock: Transforming the ProtectiveCoating Industry
Disruptive technology can take many shapes. In Nanorock’s case, it’s a new polymer coating that combines glass-like hardness with the flexibility of polymers for unmatched durability.
Nanorock, a small spin-out from Queen’s University, has been creating a stir in the coatings industry with its unique recipe that already has major interest from the cell phone manufacturing industry.
Their coating has demonstrated exceptional durability, exceeding 9H pencil hardness and resisting steel wool scratching, while withstanding over 10,000 bending cycles without cracking. This makes it a strong candidate to replace current foldable phone coatings, which are typically much softer (around 3H) and prone to damage. By comparison, most foldable phone coatings begin to show visible scratches within just one month of use. As a result, manufacturers are increasingly looking to Nanorock’s solution to enhance product longevity for foldable devices.
From the Chemistry Lab to the Market
Founder Kaka Zhang, CEO, did not start her Nanorock journey as an entrepreneur. The development of her product came from long hours in the lab at Queen’s University, where she received her doctorate in Polymer Chemistry.
“After completing my Master’s in Polymer Science at Zhengzhou University, I moved to Kingston to pursue my PhD under Professor Guojun Liu, whose work in advanced coatings profoundly shaped my perspective,” Zhang recalled. “In his lab, I began developing flexible, wear-resistant transparent coatings—and more importantly, learned how to translate research into real-world impact.”
The result was Nanorock, a coating technology that matches the hardness of glass protectors without inheriting their brittleness, offering flexibility comparable to plastic films. The coating also achieves over 99% transparency and features self-cleaning properties, effectively resisting water, oil, ink, paint, and fingerprints. Zhang recognized that this formulation represented a significant advancement over existing technologies, as the coating industry had seen little fundamental innovation since its widespread adoption in the early half of the 20th century.
Better Protection with a Major Production Advantage
In the cellphone coating sector, most screen protectors are currently made from tempered glass. While glass offers high hardness, it is inherently brittle and can crack from a single drop. Beyond this, tempered glass protectors require complex, multi-layer manufacturing processes, which increases production difficulty and cost.
For foldable phones, polymer coatings such as TPU are used because they can bend and flex with the device. However, their softness makes them highly susceptible to scratches and creasing from repeated folding and everyday contact, such as fingertip abrasion.
As a result, the industry faces a fundamental trade-off: tempered glass coatings are durable but brittle, while polymer coatings are flexible but too soft and prone to wear.
Nanorock’s coating is a single-solution system that combines glass-like hardness, polymer-like flexibility, and anti-smudge performance, while remaining significantly thinner and more environmentally friendly.
Running the numbers, traditional tempered glass protectors are typically around 200 micrometres thick, whereas Nanorock’s coating is only 50 micrometres, representing a 75% reduction in thickness. This not only enhances device performance and form factor but also contributes to lower production costs.
The company has also continuously refined its synthesis process, further optimizing manufacturing efficiency and reducing overall costs. One major factor is the coating’s use of fluorine-free formulation, improving user safety, reducing environmental impact, and aligning with increasingly strict PFAS regulations.
The result is a mass-producible, low-cost, all-in-one coating that delivers the transparency, anti-smudge performance, and hardness of tempered glass, while retaining the flexibility of polymer-based coatings.
Taking the Entrepreneurial Path
Upon completing her PhD, Zhang patented the coating formulation at Queen's and spent the next two years in China as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen) under the supervision of Prof. Shiping Zhu. During this time, Prof. Zhu emphasized that impactful research should not only be published in top-tier journals, but also translated into real impact, ensuring that innovations move beyond the lab and become part of everyday life. During this time, coating manufacturing companies and massive phone vendors approached Zhang to collaborate. Zhang recalled the initial response from the market:
“There was a strong excitement for the new coating solution from the phone industry. With foldable phones growing in market share, companies in the hyper-competitive smartphone space were looking for a phone protector that maintained the benefits of tempered glass with increased bendability.”
Zhang leveraged this opportunity to validate the solution with leading smartphone manufacturers in China, resulting in multiple substantial offers to acquire the product’s rights.
“After demonstrating the durability of our product, partner interest accelerated rapidly,” Zhang said. “That momentum became a turning point. It pushed me to pursue the entrepreneurial path and focus on bringing the technology to market.”
Zhang returned to Kingston to focus full-time on turning her invention into a widely used innovation for protective coatings. In 2024, she incorporated under the name Nanorock and formed a small team to drive the company.
Gathering Momentum
Nanorock has continued on an accelerated path to commercial success, garnering major angel investment, funding through the Launch Lab i.d.e.a. Fund, even winning a $20K international pitch competition hosted by The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen). This success is just the beginning of what is planned to be continuous, scaled growth in the years to come.
“The short-term goal is to raise half a million in seed funding to begin delivering product in the next year. From there, we will look to raise another $2.5 million to build our first factory. A $5 million third round will fund capacity expansion and build a global-ready supply chain. This will coincide with an expansion of the Nanorock team to 50 employees,” explained Zhang.
These goals, while ambitious, are grounded in a belief in the product and a focus on moving forward with clear eyes on the business model. Zhang confided that an important part of the entrepreneurial journey is relying on the experience of others to support any blind spots an owner may have:
“My team and I are primarily researchers and scientists. We have limited business knowledge, which makes the entrepreneur track more intimidating. Our solution to this was to collaborate with organizations that could support us with our business modelling, IP strategy, and commercial growth forecasting.”
Collaborating with Launch Lab
Nanorock turned to Launch Lab for business mentorship and support. As with many first-time business owners, Zhang and her team are experts in their own technology but wanted to ensure they were on a path to market success. Beyond funding support through the i.d.e.a. program and introductions to potential angel investors, Launch Lab advisors supported Nanorock with the creation of a North American-centric business strategy, including high-level business modelling all the way down to a custom pitch deck.
Launch Lab also supported Nanorock’s IP development, providing crucial advice on patent licensing. Zhang emphasized the importance:
“IP is everything. It protects your product and ensures you can grow your customers on a global scale. Having an IP strategy should be top of mind for every innovative company relying on new technology to disrupt a market. Launch Lab was an invaluable resource for us while we developed our IP strategy because they have experience working with hundreds of small businesses in a similar position.”
Protecting More Than Phone Screens
In the long-term, Nanorock wants to see its product become not only the ipso facto solution for phone screens, but also any other use cases that require wear-and-tear protection, like wooden furniture, hardwood floors, and car and boat finishes. To Zhang the most important driver is to see her invention put to good use in the world:
“The difference between research and innovation is utilization. I decided to lead Nanorock because I wanted to ensure my research was leveraged in all related use cases and improved upon what is currently out there.”
The Nanorock team is looking forward to the years ahead, embracing any barriers that they may face with an attitude to assess, learn, and overcome. As Zhang put it:
“Only roughly 10% of small businesses succeed, so to give your company a chance, you must be constantly learning on your commercial journey, listening to the wealth of knowledge coming from the people and organizations collaborating with you. Remind yourself that the reason you became an entrepreneur is your belief in the value of your product, and the investors and customers will come to you.”
