"Car power battery track, another super unicorn." Source | Investor (ID: touzijias) author | Old high
Car power battery track, and kill a super unicorn.
Investor network learned that a few days ago, the domestic lithium battery startup company Hive Energy obtained a strategic capital increase of 322 million yuan, the investor is Hangzhou Hanzhi, if calculated by 0.7% of the shares, the post-investment valuation of Hive Energy has reached 46 billion yuan, stabilizing into the ranks of super unicorns.
The high valuation corresponds to the "amazing" growth rate of Hive Energy - established in 2018, Shenzhen Venture Capital, IDG Capital, CDH Investment, Sany Heavy Industry, Country Garden Venture Capital, Xiaomi, Han's Laser, Industrial Bank, Haitong Kaiyuan and other "top-notch" VC/PE, industrial capital into the game, won more than 21.1 billion yuan of financing, in 2021 won the global power battery installed capacity, the tenth place.
Unlike the Internet army's entry into new energy and the giant's "tiger's mouth", behind Hive Energy stands a "hard-core automan" - Wei Jianjun, the helmsman of Great Wall Motors, who is worth 274.4 billion yuan in the A stock market, and Yang Hongxin, a battery technology expert for China's young generation after 80s.
One
Similar to Wang Chuanfu's BYD Semiconductor, the background of the establishment of Hive Energy is also derived from the growth story of a project team.
In that year, wei Jianjun, an automobile tycoon, led Great Wall Motors to complete the A-share listing and felt that electrification would become a new trend of the next generation of automobiles, so he convened experts within the company and established a power battery project group to engage in research related work on battery technology.
To the internal surprise, the power battery project composition far exceeded expectations, and it was soon promoted to a business unit to promote the commercial layout of Great Wall Motors in new energy. The leader of this business department is Yang Hongxin.
Don't look at him is a post-80s, but has more than 10 years of vehicle, battery R & D and management experience, fully responsible for the great wall motor new energy three-electric system, EV, PHEV vehicle research and development work, is a car-making, but also understand the battery, has a sense of smell of the technical experts.
As the influence of the power battery division grew, Wei Jianjun began to think about its future business direction.
Finally finalized, led the business department from the Great Wall Motor to split and independent, complete the internal incubation of entrepreneurship, and open up a new front.
In 2018, Hive Energy was established, specializing in the research and development and manufacturing of automotive power battery materials, batteries, modules, PACK, BMS, and energy storage products. Wei Jianjun indirectly holds 45.9932% of the shares, and the outside world calls him a "second venture", but from the perspective of directorship, he is more like an angel investor, and the overall operation and management of the company is handed over to Yang Hongxin.
With the initial funding provided by Wei Jianjun, Hive Energy began to exert its strength in the direction of short knife batteries based on the lamination process.
Lamination is one of the battery technology routes, which is different from the CTP technology of the Ningde era (the battery cell is directly integrated into the battery pack).
The advantage of the process is that it can greatly improve the safety of the battery. Because it is necessary to use ceramic coating to cover the bare collector of the only polar ear position, thereby reducing the problem of uneven force of the battery during the cycle.
Only 1 year after the establishment of the company, Hive Energy has emerged in the market, Yang Hongxin planned at the brand strategy meeting: launched a high-speed lamination process for power batteries, and spent 2 billion euros to build a 24GWH large-scale power battery factory in Europe.
"We were born in the post-subsidy era. Entering the market at this time means that from the first moment we enter the market, we are completely competing with others with market rules. Without innovation, it is difficult to survive the existing oligopolistic pattern. Yang Hongxin said.
In recent years, due to the hidden dangers in the safety of power batteries, they have repeatedly appeared on hot searches, and how to kill hidden dangers in the cradle has become the focus of market attention. Of course, this includes betting on new energy outlets and finding capital for investment space.
Ever since Hive Energy released its high-speed lamination process in 2019, the company has been on the cusp.
It is known as "the company with the shortest establishment time, the strongest financing ability and the fastest growth rate of the automotive power battery track".
Two
Imagine what kind of concept is it to get more than 21.1 billion yuan of financing in two years and 5 rounds of financing?
Even if it is a fraction of 1.1 billion yuan, many startups are difficult to finance.
The financing ability, speed and volume of Hive Energy are definitely "first-class in the industry".
In 2020, when they just started external financing, they got 1 billion yuan of financing from SDIC China Merchants, followed by "rare" completion of 3 rounds of large financing within 1 year, including: in February 2021, they received 3.5 billion yuan of A round financing such as SDIC China Merchants, BOC Investment, IDG Capital, Haitong Kaiyuan, Jiuzhi Capital, etc.; in July, they got BOC Investment, Country Garden Venture Capital, Sany Heavy Industry, Jianxin Investment, Xiaomi Group, IDG Capital, Haisong Capital, etc.; in July, they got BOC Investment, Country Garden Venture Capital, Sany Heavy Industry, Jianxin Investment, Xiaomi Group, IDG Capital, Haisong Capital, etc.; in July, they got BOC Investment, Country Garden Venture Capital, Sany Heavy Industry, Jianxin Investment, Xiaomi Group, IDG Capital, Haisong Capital, Shenzhen Venture Capital and other 10.28 billion yuan B round of financing, in December, received Taikang Investment, China Mobile Capital, Han's Laser, Advantage Capital, Industrial Bank, CDH Investment, PICC Capital and other 6 billion yuan B+ round of financing.
If you count the latest strategic capital increase of 322 million yuan, according to the 0.7% of the shares, the post-investment valuation of Hive Energy has reached 46 billion yuan, stabilizing into the ranks of super unicorns.
Why is Hive Energy so wildly sought after by capital? There are two reasons for this.
First of all, China has the world's largest market for automotive power batteries. According to SNE Research data, among the top 10 companies in the global power battery installed capacity in 2021, CATL ranked first with a market share of 37.8%, LG New Energy ranked second with a market share of 19.7%, Panasonic ranked third with a market share of 12.2%, BYD ranked fourth with a market share of 8.7%, and SK Ranked fifth with a market share of 5.6%.
The huge market space, growth potential and industrial status have stimulated the outbreak of the automotive power battery track. The honeycomb energy technology background comes from Great Wall Motors, and with the blessing of Wei Jianjun, who is on a par with Wang Chuanfu and Li Shufu, it will naturally trigger capital enthusiasm.
Secondly, the market value of the CATL era exceeded one trillion yuan, providing a standard reference model for the market. Players with hard core strength in the track will get a higher valuation, which is an important reason for the continuous growth of the valuation of Hive Energy for 4 years.
Matching the financing schedule, Hive Energy is "flying" at a "general" growth rate.
According to relevant information, Hive Energy has laid out 7 R&D centers and 8 battery production bases around the world, with a new production capacity of more than 225GWh. It is also a power battery player, "rare" just established not long ago, squeezed into the global TOP10 companies.
In the top ten list of global power battery installed capacity, in addition to the previously mentioned, CATL, LG New Energy, Panasonic, BYD, the fifth SK On, the sixth to the tenth are: Samsung SDI, Zhongxin Airlines, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, Envision Power and Hive Energy.
Hive Energy is at the end, but it is the shortest to establish and the fastest growing.
At the strategy meeting at the end of 2021, Yang Hongxin, chairman and CEO of Hive Energy, also released a plan that shocked the outside world: "In 2025, it is planned to achieve a production capacity of 600GWh. He revealed that "the 600GWh production capacity target is derived from the company's obtained installed orders for new energy vehicles of nearly 400GWh by 2025." ”
What is the concept of 600GWh?
Previously, according to the ningde era capacity planning statistics, it is predicted that its production capacity by 2025 is only about 600GWh, hive energy dares to put the plan to a level with the Ningde era, Wei Jianjun and Yang Hongxin's appetite, it is really not small.
Three
Morgan Stanley's global automotive team predicts that electric vehicles will account for 40% of new car sales by 2030. In the face of the window period brought about by the global energy revolution and technological iteration, the fierceness of the "fight" of the power battery track has also climbed to a higher level.
Take the top five companies in the world's top 10, for example, in 2022, they are accelerating their pace to build barriers to advantage.
At the beginning of the year, LG New Energy completed capital expansion and was listed on the Korea Stock Exchange, with a market value of 112.8 trillion won (about 593.6 billion yuan) on the first day. Soon, they signed a five-year off-take agreement with Liontown Resources Ltd, a well-known lithium miner in Australia, to purchase 700,000 dry tons of spodumene concentrate in batches.
It is reported that CATL is negotiating a project with Zhongke Electric to establish a joint venture to establish an "integrated project for anode materials with an annual output of 100,000 tons of lithium batteries". Once successful, the material supply of the CATL era will meet the demand for higher capacity release.
Panasonic has accelerated its layout in China. Yoshio Ito, vice president of automotive-related business, said recently, "Panasonic is studying cooperation with two factories in Jiangsu to produce automotive power batteries. Last year, Panasonic invested 50 billion yen (about 2.7 billion yuan) to build an automotive lithium battery factory in Dalian. Ito said that this year will also spend a huge amount of money to build factories in China.
BYD recently announced that it has settled in Xiangyang Industrial Park, including power battery production lines and parts, zero carbon parks and auto parts, plus 17 production bases in Xining, Huizhou, Shenzhen Pingshan, Chongqing Bishan, Xi'an, Changsha Ningxiang, Guiyang, Anhui Bengbu and other places. It is expected that the planned production capacity in 2025 is expected to exceed 670GWh.
SK On was not idle, and they went to the United States to negotiate with Ford Motor Co. to advance the battery sample and commercial production time by at least 3 months than originally planned.
In addition to the world's top five companies, other head companies have also changed their original expectations this year, striving to outperform their opponents in terms of capital, raw materials, production capacity and other aspects as much as possible, and seize the broad sales space given by the soaring sales of new energy vehicles.
According to the China Automobile Association, China's annual sales of new energy vehicles increased from 507,000 units in 2016 to 3.521 million units in 2021, ranking first in the world for seven consecutive years. In January 2022, production and sales of new energy vehicles totaled 452,000 units and 431,000 units, up 1.3 times and 1.4 times year-on-year, respectively.
In the market environment of "lack of core and less electricity" and subsidies, the sales volume of new energy vehicles is still growing at the multiple level.
This reflects from the side, why the power battery company has to desperately run forward. Analysts said, "The automotive power battery industry has not yet formed an oligopolistic situation, but the future trend must be to accelerate competition and elimination." ”
In front of hive energy, it is both an opportunity and a test.