Car stuff (public number: chedongxi)
Author | Juice
Edited by | Xiaohan
Huawei, Xiaomi, Li Bin invested at the same time, what is the magic of this power battery startup?
According to the official website of the enterprise investigation, Beijing Weilan New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. has recently completed the industrial and commercial changes, among which the new shareholders have appeared hubei millet yangtze river industry fund cooperative enterprise and Shenzhen huber technology investment partnership.
▲Weilan New Energy shareholders add Xiaomi and Huawei
Friends who are more familiar with the technology circle must know that behind these two companies are Xiaomi and Huawei, which also means that Xiaomi and Huawei have invested in this power battery startup at the same time.
After carefully studying the list of shareholders, Che Dong found that behind this company is not only Xiaomi and Huawei, the company's largest shareholder is Hefei Blue Mileage Venture Capital Partnership, and the force behind it is Weilai Capital.
In fact, although Weilan New Energy is not well known to the outside world, the background of this company is not simple. The company was born out of the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and was officially established in 2016. According to investment reports, the valuation of Weilan New Energy has reached 15 billion yuan, becoming a unicorn enterprise.
The three core figures of Weilan New Energy, Chen Liquan, Yu Huigen and Li Hong, are all from the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, of which Chen Liquan was once the doctoral supervisor of Zeng Yuqun, chairman of the Ningde era, and was also evaluated as "the first person in China's lithium battery".
Whether from the perspective of shareholder background or founding team, Weilan New Energy is very topical, so what is the current development status of this company? What are its advantages in terms of technical capabilities?
First, Huawei Xiaomi has invested many times Li Bin is the largest shareholder
Che Dongxi found from the enterprise investigation that Weilan New Energy has just completed a strategic financing on March 24 this year, Shunwei Capital, Xiaomi Group, Hubble Investment have participated in this round of financing, and other investors include Geely Holding Group, Jiaxing Gu lithium enterprise management partnership (limited partnership), Jiaxing Weilan enterprise management partnership (limited partnership), Yangzhou Weilan Investment Partnership (limited partnership), Ningbo Blue Engine Equity Investment Partnership (limited partnership), Beijing High-end Manufacturing Base Investment and Development Co., Ltd.
▲Huawei Xiaomi has repeatedly invested in Weilan New Energy
But this is not the first time that Huawei and Xiaomi have tied up with this company.
On November 26 last year, Weilan New Energy officially completed a C round of financing of about 500 million yuan, and the main investors were Huawei, Xiaomi Group, NIO Capital, and IDG Capital.
At present, Huawei and Xiaomi have participated in two rounds of financing, and the importance of this company is increasing, and the fate of Weilai Capital and Weilan New Energy in the C round of financing is deeper.
According to the official website of Qichacha, the largest shareholder of Weilan New Energy is Hefei Blue Mileage Venture Capital Partnership, with a shareholding ratio of 19.15%, and after equity tracking, the largest shareholder behind the latter is Li Bin.
▲NIO Capital is the largest shareholder behind it
In other words, Li Bin and NIO Capital are the biggest financiers behind this company.
In fact, Li Bin not only made financial investment, its WEILAI Automobile has established a direct cooperative relationship with Weilan New Energy, the semi-solid-state battery capacity developed by the two sides can reach 150 kWh, the energy density is 360Wh/kg, and the NIO ET7 equipped with this battery can reach 1000 kilometers after a single charge. The battery is expected to be mass-produced in the first half of next year.
Second, adhere to the development of solid-state batteries Zeng Yuqun mentor is one of the founders
Being able to allow star investors and investment companies such as Li Bin, Xiaomi, and Huawei to inject capital multiple times also shows that this company is unusual.
First of all, the founding team of this company is very unusual, Chen Liquan, Yu Huigen, Li Honger, the three founders are from the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Chen Liquan is the oldest of them, born in 1940, he is 82 years old this year, and he is also the most legendary experience.
Since 1978, he has been engaged in solid ion science and its application in energy research, in 2001, he visited the "863" program of electric vehicle major project leader, to promote the vehicle lithium-ion battery project into the electric vehicle special project.
▲Academician Chen Liquan
In addition, as a doctoral supervisor of the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the students he has supervised also include Zeng Yuqun, the founder and chairman of the Ningde era. Whether in terms of qualifications or actual merits, Chen Liquan is worthy of the evaluation of "China's first lithium battery".
Yu Huigen is a graduate supervisor and professor-level senior engineer at the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, while Li Hong has been working at the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences since 1999.
In addition, the company's technical route is also unusual. Weilan New Energy did not choose the largest liquid battery on the market at present, but chose the solid-state battery that no company has been able to successfully mass-produce so far.
From the perspective of technical path, Weilan New Energy has not yet completely overcome the solid-state battery, but has chosen the transition path of semi-solid-state battery. Che Dong has previously learned that on the basis of the current NCM 811 battery, adding silicon carbon elements to the anode material can produce semi-solid-state batteries, which is completely feasible from a technical point of view.
▲Semi-solid-state battery parameters released by NIO Day 2020
The biggest advantage of semi-solid-state batteries is that the energy density is higher, and the energy density of the battery cell is more than 300Wh/kg, which has the advantage of allowing electric vehicles to carry more batteries.
However, this battery also has the disadvantage of high cost, but the average price of Weilai automobile is around 400,000, and the impact of battery cost on the price of the whole vehicle is not too large, which may also be the reason for the cooperation between the two sides.
The all-solid-state battery is still in the experimental stage, according to a number of industry experts, large-scale commercial use of solid-state batteries may not wait until after 2025.
Conclusion: The power battery field is ushering in a wave of financing listings
As a core component product in the field of new energy vehicles, power batteries are very important for all car companies.
However, at present, the two-eight effect in the field of power batteries is obvious, the head enterprises occupy most of the market, and the car companies are at a disadvantage in bargaining. At the same time, the head enterprise supplies to a number of car companies at the same time, which will inevitably cause insufficient supply.
In this case, car companies have also begun to consider more power battery companies, since the end of last year, the power battery field has also set off a round of financing, AVIC innovation, Hive Energy have carried out large financing, has now reached the eve of listing.
Startups like Weilan New Energy have also recently gained important partners and investors, which will also play a key role in its development.
Under the trend of rapid development of new energy vehicles, the power battery field will enter the peak period of financing and listing.