The development of the automobile industry is inseparable from the help of capital, especially for technology-intensive and capital-intensive industries such as intelligent new energy vehicles.
Entering 2022, the automotive industry has once again ushered in a wave of financing climax. According to the incomplete statistics of Gaz Automobile, in the first quarter of this year, the automotive industry has accumulated more than 40 financings, and the related fields of intelligent driving are still the focus of capital attention.
In the past few months, a number of high-level autonomous driving solution providers for specific application scenarios, mass-produced autonomous driving solution providers, and core technology providers such as lidar and chips have received new investments, of which two financing amounts are known to exceed 1 billion yuan in the mass-produced ADAS track, which makes the valuation of related companies close to 10 billion yuan. In addition, in the field of electrified components and complete vehicles, there have also been many financings, and the entire industry continues to maintain a high gold-sucking heat.
Image source: Gaz Cars
Mass production ADAS financing is booming
In the first quarter, a number of leading autonomous driving solution providers received a new round of investment, involving various subdivisions, the most eye-catching of which was the mass-produced ADAS camp. In the past few months, a number of companies, including MINEYE, Hongjing Intelligent Driving, Heduo Technology, Zhongmu Technology, Soto Ruian, etc., have received new investments, and the maximum financing amount has even reached 1.3 billion yuan.
On March 28, Zhongmu Technology and Soto Ryan successively announced that they had obtained a new round of financing, of which Zhongmu Technology's financing was Series E, with a total financing of more than 1 billion yuan. Soto Ruian raised more than RMB1.3 billion for the B round, led by Ping An Capital Strategic, and followed by Harvest, Henan Investment Group and other institutions. After the completion of this financing, the valuation of Soto Ryan is close to 10 billion yuan.
In the field of autonomous driving, these two companies can be described as one of the biggest attractions of financing in the first quarter, not only because of the large scale of financing, but more importantly, behind the high capital support of these two companies, the investment institutions' preference for mass-produced ADAS is reflected. Over the past few years, because the L4/L5 story is beautiful, capital's attention has been more focused on high-end self-driving players, such as Waymo, which received $5.5 billion in two funding rounds in May 2020 and June 2021. Although the financing scale is not as good as Waymo, xiaoma zhixing and Wenyuan zhixing have completed 9 and 8 financings respectively since its inception, and the frequency of capital patronage is very high.
Xiaoma Zhixing financing, picture source: Qi Cha Cha
This year is obviously different, more and more mass-produced autonomous driving applications began to obtain capital increases. For example, MINEYE announced on February 21 that it had obtained hundreds of millions of yuan in D2 round financing, and on the same day, Hongjing Intelligent Driving also officially announced that it had completed more than 100 million yuan of financing. Behind this, the stable business support of the two companies in the mass production car market is a key aspect of financing.
Among them, MINIEYE has FAW, Geely, SAIC, BYD and other OEMs customers in the L0-L2 field, and is expected to ship 400,000 units in 2021. The company's iPilot intelligent pilot auxiliary mass production plan released at the end of last year also won the designated project of 2 car companies, and will be SOP in the third quarter of this year. In addition, MINIEYE's self-developed MINIEYE I-CS cockpit perception mass production program has also achieved a fixed point for more than 30 passenger car models.
In 2021, Hongjing Intelligent Driving will also mass-produce L2/L2+ ADAS products. Last year, Hongjing Intelligent Driving successfully mass-produced and delivered more than 100,000 sets of domain control products. According to Liu Feilong, founder and CEO of Hongjing Intelligent Driving, the company's all-in-one regional domain control system for parking launched at the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show will achieve large-scale mass production in a number of head OEMs in the second half of this year. To this end, Hongjing Intelligent Driving invested 20 million yuan to establish a new generation of intelligent manufacturing factory in Shanghai Lingang Jinshan Industrial Park, which is expected to be put into operation in the second half of the year for mass production of online parking integrated domain controllers and other products, with a single-line design capacity of 300,000 sets. In addition, Hongjing Intelligent Driving also plans to officially mass-produce the L3-level trunk logistics smart truck HyperTruck One this year.
Zhongmu Technology and Soto Ryan have received a large amount of blessings from the capital market, largely because of the support of business and revenue scale. Zhongmu Technology's intelligent parking system and related core products such as cameras, radars, and controllers have been applied to many car companies. For example, Changan Automobile's APA6.0 remote intelligent parking system applies the parking system assembly of Longitudinal Technology's controller, surround view camera and ultrasonic sensor, and the two companies are currently working together to create an APA7.0 remote unmanned valet parking system. On AITO's first model, the Q&I M5, Longitudinal Technology offers APA and angle radar support. Not only that, Zhongmu Technology was also exposed to be considering applying for an IPO on the Science and Technology Innovation Board this year, which undoubtedly also gained additional points for Zhongmu Technology from investors.
Image source: Soto Ryan
Soto Ryan, relying on the urgent demand for mass production of ADAS in the commercial vehicle market, and at the same time, the favorable blessing of the policy side, has also mass-produced a number of products and is enjoying the market dividends brought by automatic driving.
Moreover, Soto Ryan is also exploring the "technology + insurance" innovation model, using ADAS to improve the driving safety of commercial vehicles while empowering innovation in the insurance industry. In the current insurance model, once an accident occurs, not only will the owner's premium rise sharply, but the insurance company will also affect the profit margin due to the claim cost. However, if autonomous driving technology is introduced, because it can help reduce the incidence of accidents, it will not only help car companies reduce premiums, but also help insurance companies reduce costs.
Xu Xianjie, founder and CEO of Soto Ryan, has previously said that based on the company's products, the average accident rate of bicycles can be reduced by 44.6%, the amount of compensation for bicycles has decreased by 47.9%, and the amount of compensation for bicycle accidents has been reduced by 71.1%. It is not difficult to understand why Ping An Capital is present among the investors of Soto Ryan, and in addition to this, Soto Ryan will also establish cooperative relations with insurance companies such as Munich Re, PICC P&C and Pacific P&C.
In addition to these financings, another signal to boost the mass-produced ADAS sector is that Intel's self-driving unit Mobileye wants to IPO in the United States, valuing itself at nearly $50 billion. To know that in the field of automatic driving, Mobileye has been sitting firmly in the front of the ADAS market suppliers for a long time, even now, Mobileye can still support the research and development and landing of high-end automatic driving technology through ADAS product revenue and data empowerment, which many autonomous driving companies do not have, but Mobileye has done it.
According to Intel's previous financial report, for the full year of 2021, Mobileye's revenue was $1.4 billion, up 43% year-on-year, and operating profit was $460 million. This is undoubtedly a popular occurrence in profit-seeking capital markets, and with precedents such as Mobileye, it is bound to give investors the confidence to discover and cultivate more such players. What's more, the current market environment also proves the necessity of the existence of mass production ADAS, and the trend of continued prosperity of the track in the next few years.
High-end autonomous driving track ice and fire double day
In the field of high-level L4 autonomous driving, two major unicorn companies Wenyuan Zhixing and Xiaoma Zhixing also received a new round of financing in March. Its Chinese Yuanzhi banking has newly raised US$400 million, including GUANGZHOU AUTOMOBILE Group, Bosch, Sino-Arab Industrial Investment Fund, Carlyle Investment Group, etc., with a post-investment valuation of US$4.4 billion.
The company did not disclose the amount of new financing, only disclosing that after the completion of the first delivery of the D round of financing, the company's overall valuation reached US$8.5 billion, an increase of about 65% over the C series valuation. Admittedly, whether in the domestic or global autonomous driving market, this represents a lot of value. But it should be known that when Xiaoma Zhixing was exposed to the United States to carry out SPAC merger and listing last year, the valuation once reached $12 billion, and the current valuation fell by nearly $3.5 billion compared with that time, which is the reason for this.
Both the passenger car and commercial vehicle businesses of Xiaoma Zhixing have made breakthroughs in commercialization, image source: Xiaoma Zhixing
Since the second half of last year, Xiaoma Zhixing has repeatedly fallen into the whirlpool of negative public opinion. Not only has it been exposed to the bureau of car manufacturing, the car-making team is on the verge of dissolution, the business structure adjustment, the core executives have left, but also at the end of the year due to the accident was suspended by California driverless test license, into 2022, the impact of this accident continues to ferment, and finally Xiaoma Zhixing had to recall part of its automatic driving system software, it is reported that this is also the first time that California recalls the automatic driving system. Coupled with the complexity and change of the current international situation, as well as changes in the macro financial environment, it has affected investor confidence to a certain extent.
In fact, not only Xiaoma Zhixing, waymo, which has always been regarded as a "benchmark" company by the global autonomous driving track, has also suffered a sharp decline in market value in recent years. Morgan Stanley valued Waymo at $175 billion in 2018, but soon slipped to $105 billion in 2019. After 2020, although Waymo has received two rounds of financing totaling $5.5 billion, it has not stopped the downward trend in valuations, and by 2021, Waymo's valuation has fallen to $30 billion.
Tucson future stock price trend, image source: Futu Niu
Aurora stock price movement, image source: Futu Niu
In addition, autonomous driving companies such as Tucson Future and Aurora have also been coldly received in the secondary market after being listed on the NASDAQ in the United States, and their stock prices and market value have both fallen sharply. Among them, Tucson Future, when it was listed in the middle of last year, the market value was as high as $16.7 billion, and now the total market value is less than $3 billion, evaporating more than $13 billion. Aurora's total market capitalization was close to $13 billion when it went public at the end of last year, and it is now almost waist-cutting.
Behind this, there are still large uncertainties in the commercial mass production of high-level autonomous driving, which is an important aspect. Although at present, whether at home or abroad, Robotaxi for unmanned sharing scenarios has begun to carry out demonstration operations in various places, the industry has not yet determined when this format will be truly applied on a large scale and replace traditional human taxis, and it is even more that this vision will never be realized.
Based on such a macro environment, many autonomous driving players have now begun a multi-line layout to master more chips to reach the final, such as the establishment of the Pony Zhixing. However, the business of Xiaoma Zhixing does not seem to be going well, and a lot of core talents have been lost in the past period of time. In January this year, the self-driving startup Kinte Zhika announced the completion of an angel round of financing of nearly 10 million US dollars, exclusively invested by Wuyuan Capital, and it is reported that the two founders of the company are Pan Zhenhao, CTO of Xiaoma Zhika, and Sun Youhan, head of planning and control of Xiaoma Zhika's US team, which to some extent supports the rumors of internal turmoil in Xiaoma Zhixing.
Image source: Wincher Technology
In addition, Mainline Technology and Wincher Technology, which focus on the self-driving truck track, also received Series B and B+ rounds of financing in February, respectively, of which Inche Technology received $188 million in capital support in the new round of financing, and in August last year, Inch Technology just completed a $270 million Series B financing. Huituo, which is committed to the unmanned use of minerals, announced the completion of nearly 300 million yuan of C round financing in mid-January, which is only four months after Huituo received more than 200 million yuan of B1 financing in August 2021. The intensive support of capital in the fields of self-driving trucks and unmanned mining trucks further highlights the recognition of the application prospects of autonomous driving technology in these subdivisions.
In the core technology fields such as lidar, millimeter wave radar, chips, and wire control chassis, the first quarter also ushered in a wave of financing climax, including one-way technology, Liangdao intelligence, Sagitar Juchuang, black sesame intelligence, core Qing Technology, Nanjing Jingweida, Gelubo technology and other enterprises have received new investment.
The new energy components and vehicle sectors are also attracting gold
In addition to the hot autonomous driving track, there were also many financings in the new energy auto parts and vehicle sectors in the first quarter.
Among them, the new energy sector, with charging and battery technology, has attracted more attention. For example, Fute Technology, which announced in January that it received nearly 100 million yuan of strategic financing, and Lingchong New Energy, which completed a PreA round of financing of 50 million yuan in February, are committed to the development of new energy vehicle charging technology. The ji chong hydrogen energy and high energy era focuses on battery technology, the former mainly developing hydrogen fuel cell stacks, and the latter is engaged in the development of all-solid-state lithium batteries.
This is actually not difficult to understand, one of the biggest development problems facing new energy vehicles at present is the anxiety of endurance and replenishment. According to the "2021 National Consumer Association Organization Acceptance of Complaints" previously released by the China Consumer Association, among the main complaints of consumers about new energy vehicles, the shrinkage of battery life is on the list, especially in the winter low temperature, the endurance loss is fast, which is a major complaint point. In addition, battery quality problems are prominent, such as charging failures, which have also made new energy vehicles criticized. To solve these problems, it is necessary to start from the aspects of improving battery performance and optimizing energy replenishment solutions.
This is also why major car companies have begun to innovate battery solutions, such as BYD released a blade battery technology based on lithium iron phosphate, GAC Aean released a magazine battery technology based on ternary lithium, and Great Wall Motors released Dayu battery technology, all of which are the efforts made by automakers, and at the same time, the energy supplementation program represented by power exchange has also begun to receive widespread attention.
Although battery technology is blooming at this stage, as long as the battery life anxiety of new energy vehicles is not really solved, the development space behind this is actually unlimited, including the charging technology closely related to energy replenishment anxiety. Because of this, in addition to the several companies mentioned above, in the past few months, battery companies including Weilan New Energy, Enli Power, SES, Huineng Technology, etc. have also received capital blessings from relevant investors.
Many investment institutions even regard power batteries as the focus of layout. According to Yuan Feng, general manager of GAC Capital, at the 8th Electric Vehicle 100 Forum a few days ago, GAC Capital is currently establishing an ecosystem around the battery industry, so GAC Capital has not only reached close cooperation with battery giants such as AVIC Lithium Battery and CATL Times, but also carried out investment layout in the core industrial links of the upstream battery, including copper, lithium, anode materials and other fields.
Fang Jianhua, a new energy vehicle partner of the National Science and Technology Achievement Transformation Fund, also said that with the outbreak of the entire power battery market last year, the price of upstream and even midstream materials soared, and the supply of downstream batteries was in short supply, such as upstream scarce resources such as cobalt, lithium, nickel, and related equipment, which still have investment value. In addition, it also includes flat wire motor related technologies, such as flat wire coating, flat wire motor equipment manufacturing, etc., which is also their main investment direction at this stage.
2021 new energy vehicle track financing amount TOP10 projects; image source: qichacha
In the vehicle sector, thanks to the rapid development of intelligent electric vehicles, it is also the focus of capital attention. In the first quarter of this year, Changan New Energy, Jidu Automobile, Nezha Automobile, GAC E-An and other brands have received a new round of financing. Behind this, in addition to meeting the needs of enterprise development, it is also a new "getting on the car" outlet for investors.
Although the new energy vehicle sector has recently declined, in the eyes of many investors, this does not mean that the prosperity of the new energy automobile industry is declining. In the long run, the new energy vehicle sector is still expected to grow. Guo Chen, fund manager of Shanghai Investment Morgan, recently said that the future transformation of the energy structure based on new energy may be another factor to promote the long-term prosperity of the new energy vehicle sector.
Especially under the current guidance of the current "double carbon", it provides a good policy and market environment for the development of new energy vehicles. Previously, Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi, said that under the guidance of the global carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, the low-carbon development of new energy vehicles has become the key winner and loser of the global competition in the automotive industry, and the strategic significance of developing new energy vehicles behind this is beyond doubt.
In fact, as a typical "capital-intensive" industry, new energy vehicles have always been a gold-sucking powerhouse. According to the "2021 New Energy Automobile Industry Investment and Financing Data Report" released by the Enterprise Investigation Data Research Institute, a total of 239 new energy vehicle tracks occurred in 2021, with a total disclosure of 363.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 181.66%. Enterprise investigation said that in the future, the new energy vehicle track will continue to gain the favor of capital, but whether it can maintain the high prosperity in 2021 still needs to be verified by the market.