As China actively promotes its carbon neutrality strategy, venture capital is increasingly interested in investing in new business models based on the concept of low carbon environmental protection.
The reporter learned that ROEHL, a subscription-based life service company that focuses on the research and development of environmentally friendly smart home appliances, is brewing A round of equity financing, after which the institution completed millions of dollars of angel financing and millions of dollars of pre-A round of financing led by linear capital at the end of 2019 and the end of 2020.
According to the data, ROEHL was established in 2019, is committed to the concept of "carbon neutrality" and the Internet of Things technology, home appliances, environmental protection life, with "durable" as the product development logic, the production of smart home appliances are upgradable, modular and easy to maintain, to maximize the service life and reduce carbon emissions.
At present, roeHL's first product on the line is an air purifier, which not only increases the CADR value of formaldehyde to 323m³/hr (higher than the industry standard), but also through re-design evaluation, so that the product life can reach up to 25 years, compared with ordinary air purifiers, ROEHL This product can save 65% of resource consumption, reduce 85% of garbage, and reduce carbon emissions by 67% compared with products in the same industry.
RoEHL founder Ye Johnson said in an interview with this reporter that the company intends to use the A round of equity financing funds mainly to improve the smart home appliance product line and market promotion.
"At present, many venture capital institutions are quite interested in our unique business model. First, they believe that our business model and product design model are relatively subversive and have a large space for development; second, in a carbon-neutral environment, more and more venture capital institutions are incorporating ESG factors into investment decisions, and our product design and business model based on low-carbon environmental protection can meet their new investment standards. He told reporters. The so-called unique business model, that is, the L.a.a.S (Lifestyle as a Service) business model adopted by ROEHL, which turns one-time purchase into a long-term service model, that is, ROEHL leases equipment such as air purifiers to users, and maintains sustainable parts maintenance and technology upgrade services by maintaining long-term interaction with users, on the one hand, maximizing product life to reduce the resource loss of scrap recycling, on the other hand, it can also effectively help users reduce carbon emissions , practice the concept of environmental protection and low-carbon life.
Ye Johnson said bluntly that it is not easy to do a good job in doing a full L.A.A.S business model.
First of all, at the level of product development and design concept, enterprises must adhere to the "durable" operating philosophy, if a traditional air purifier is used for two or three years, it may be scrapped (into garbage disposal) due to damage to a part, ROEHL is committed to the idea of modular design, so that air purifier parts get long-term maintenance and parts update and upgrade protection, so as to maximize product life, which is also the cornerstone of L.a.a.S business model to continue to operate.
Secondly, based on L.a.a.S product leasing and long-term service model in the early stage of operation need to invest a lot of money for product research and development, enterprises must fully use high technology to understand the product status, and and technology upgrades, maintenance, renovation and other business expenses are controlled within a reasonable range, which also puts forward high requirements for enterprise operation capabilities;
Finally, the L.a.a.S business model also needs to find a correct market target customer group and user profile, which can accept the relatively new L.a.a.S model and make them feel that this model has a very high cost performance.
"At present, the newly renovated offices and shopping malls on the enterprise side are a good landing point, making the promotion of our L.a.a.S model easier and more sustainable, and we can also provide them with more appropriate pricing." Ye Johnson said bluntly. This has also received strong support from many venture capital shareholders. For example, linear capital, which has long been involved in the field of hardcore technology, believes that air purifiers based on the L.a.a.S model are relatively easy to succeed at the B-end; in comparison, C-end users may need a period of time to accept the new consumption concept of "long-term service instead of purchase".
Therefore, in the past year, ROEHL has focused on expanding the B-end market – as of now, ROEHL has reached cooperation agreements with dozens of B-end users.
Ye Johnson said that through the in-depth interactive communication of enterprise B-end users, ROEHL also grasps more needs and provides more intelligent services. For example, some corporate customers want to achieve "carbon neutrality" as soon as possible, ROEHL has invested more energy in product energy conservation and environmental protection, completely abandoning the concept of waste disposal, that is, after the product life reaches 25 years, these devices can be recycled and reused, rather than incinerating and landfilling to increase carbon emissions. At the same time, through intelligent management, ROEHL can be set to shut down all the devices at a specified time point and turn off their standby power, helping enterprises to save energy and power.
Zheng Can, Managing Director of Linear Capital, said: "We have always paid attention to the segment of smart home appliances, and have high expectations for ROEHL, they will apply cutting-edge technology and data management to home appliances to create a full range of smart home appliance services. They adopt a subscription system model to lower the threshold of smart home life. Environmental protection and technology go hand in hand with the service, can create a better cost performance for enterprise users. We believe THAT ROEHL will inject living water into the home appliance market and create a new business model. ”
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