Source丨IT orange
Author丨Fok Yingxian
Editor丨Wu Meimei
Cover picture source: Wenxin Yige
This article is the second part of the "2023-2024 China New Energy Track Investment and Financing Report", and the middle and first parts have been released. Links can be found at the end of this article.
According to the characteristics and industrial structure of the new energy industry, the industrial chain can be roughly divided into three parts: upstream, midstream and downstream.
Source: IT Orange New Energy Industry Chain
The upstream is mainly the mining, refining and production of raw materials and basic materials. This includes mineral resources such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, tin, etc., which are essential for the manufacture of batteries and other new energy equipment. At the same time, basic materials such as separators, electrolytes, cathode and anode materials, auxiliary materials, alloy materials and energy storage materials are also important components of the upstream. In addition, the upstream also includes the manufacture of components and components, such as cells, generator sets, battery cells, photovoltaic modules and silicon wafers. The midstream is composed of R&D manufacturers and energy suppliers of core components. The core components include power batteries, motors, electronic controls, PACK, BMS and photovoltaic products, which play a decisive role in the performance and efficiency of new energy vehicles and renewable energy systems. Energy suppliers include solar, wind, hydro, natural gas, photovoltaics, waste-to-energy and energy storage, which provide a clean and renewable energy supply for society. The downstream mainly includes vehicle manufacturing and post-production services. As the main downstream products, new energy vehicles include electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, etc., which are the ultimate embodiment of the application of new energy technology. Later services include charging piles, charging stations, hydrogen refueling stations and power transmission and transformation facilities, which are essential to ensure the operation and promotion of new energy vehicles, and are also the key factors to promote the popularization and application of new energy. On the whole, each link of the new energy industry chain is closely connected and interdependent. The upstream provides the necessary raw materials and components, the midstream is responsible for the manufacturing of core components and the production of energy, and the downstream is the realization of products and applications.
According to the industrial chain distribution of investment and financing events in the new energy industry, it can be found that investors have a layout in all aspects of the industrial chain, among which investors have the largest investment in the midstream, accounting for 43%, upstream investment accounting for 33%, and downstream investment accounting for 24%, but the overall difference is not significant.
Midstream investment is mainly in the field of energy storage and power batteries, which are the core components of the new energy industry. With the large-scale integration of renewable energy such as wind and photovoltaics, energy storage technology has become particularly important, which can solve the intermittent problem of renewable energy and become a "rigid demand" of the market. In addition, the mainland clearly proposed to strengthen the construction of energy storage systems in the "14th Five-Year Plan", and policy support and cost reduction have also promoted the development and application of energy storage technology. The rapid development of the new energy vehicle industry has brought huge growth opportunities to the power battery industry. As the core component of new energy vehicles, power batteries have a fast industrial commercialization process and large market demand, so investors have increased their investment in the power battery industry chain in order to obtain returns in this field. Industrial capital has also increased investment in the power battery industry chain, such as GAC Capital, Xiaopeng Motors, and Weilai Capital have invested in Sunwoda Power EVB, and Xiaomi Group, Weilai Capital, and Geely Holding have invested in Weilan New Energy. Upstream raw materials and basic materials are the key to the manufacture of new energy products such as power batteries and photovoltaic modules, raw material price fluctuations, mineral resources mining and other factors will affect the development of the new energy industry, in the past two years, investors continue to explore opportunities in the upstream of the new energy track, positive and negative electrodes, separators, photovoltaic modules, battery cells, etc. have received extensive attention from investors.
The downstream link mainly focuses on the investment in the new energy vehicle industry, and also drives the development of related infrastructure construction, such as charging piles and battery swap stations. With the popularization of new energy vehicles, the investment demand for downstream new infrastructure is also growing, providing necessary support for the widespread use of new energy vehicles.
Overall, the investment trend of the new energy industry in the past decade shows that investors are paying full attention to all links of the industrial chain, covering from the upstream original resource guarantee to the midstream technological breakthrough, to the downstream market expansion and infrastructure construction.
As far as 2023 is concerned, the distribution of investment and financing activities in the domestic new energy industry in the industrial chain has shown new characteristics. Although the midstream remains a hotspot for investment (42.5%), the gap between investment activity in the upstream sector (39.2%) and the midstream is gradually narrowing, while investment activity in the downstream sector is relatively decreasing.
This trend reflects a new stage in the development of the new energy industry, and with the improvement of the industrial chain, it is becoming increasingly rare to see projects that can bring good returns in downstream applications. In order to explore high-quality projects, investors need to have a deeper understanding of the industry, take root in the industry, explore those "underwater projects" that are not well known to the public, pay more attention to the upstream field, explore key materials and cutting-edge technologies that can promote the development of the new energy industry, and solve the potential bottlenecks in the development of the industrial chain.
In 2023, the company with the most financing in the domestic new energy industry is Power Construction New Energy Group, which has received 7.625 billion yuan of strategic investment from 10 investors, including Zhejiang Energy Group, China Southern Power Grid, CCB Investment, CRRC Capital, Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, National Adjustment Fund, Pacific Insurance, Chinalco Capital, and Yunda Co., Ltd., which is also the highest single financing event in the new energy industry in 2023.
Among the 20 companies that raised the most money in the new energy industry in 2023, Huasheng New Energy, a manufacturer of heterojunction cells and modules, received three growth stage investments, making it the company with the most financings. Photovoltaic module supplier CHINT New Energy, new energy application solution integrated service provider Yiyi New Energy, solar cell technology R&D manufacturer Zhongrun Solar, solar cell energy storage system developer Daqin Digital Energy, and electric vehicle battery pack solution provider Sunwoda Power EVB all received two investments. Of the 20 companies, four more received US dollar investments: Envision Technology Group received US$1 billion, Geely's Zeekr received US$750 million, Yuanyuan Automotive received US$600 million, and EcoCeres received US$400 million investment.
In 2023, a total of 911 investment institutions in the domestic new energy industry will make 1,297 shots, of which Hillhouse Venture Capital will make the most shots, with 12 shots. Chaoxi Capital, State Power Investment, and CICC Capital all made 10 shots. Eight institutions, including GF Xinde, Hanhui Capital, Shunwei Capital, Tongchuangweiye, Xianfeng, CMB International, Zhongke Chuangxing and Zhongding Capital, all made 6 shots. We can find that the active investment institutions in the new energy industry are mainly state-owned assets and vertical VC/PE, in addition to the leading institutions such as Hillhouse Venture Capital. State-owned assets include State Power Investment, CICC Capital, Hefei Industrial Investment, Shenzhen Venture Capital, and Zhongke Chuangxing, and institutions that carry out vertical investment layout around the industrial chain include Chaoxi Capital, Fenghe Capital, Chendao Capital, Hanhui Capital, etc. Chaoxi Capital is an industrial investment institution focusing on the field of new energy and electronic semiconductors for a long time, and has invested in star enterprises in the new energy industry such as Haichen Energy Storage, Maitian Energy, and Chint New Energy. Chendao Capital is 34% owned by Winner Investment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CATL, and has many synergies and cooperation with CATL, mainly focusing on the upstream and downstream of the new energy industry chain. As a rookie in the new energy track born in November 2021, Fenghe Capital specializes in the energy storage track and has invested in many companies such as Haichen Energy Storage, Singularity Energy, and Jingqing Digital Electric. In December 2023, Fenghe Capital, Chongqing Municipal Government and Haichen Energy Storage jointly initiated the establishment of Chongqing Yuhaifeng Energy Storage Industry Investment Fund with a total scale of 1.5 billion yuan. In the process of two-way selection of investment institutions and enterprises, enterprises are not only concerned about the capital dimension, but also whether capital can be empowered and whether they can provide industrial resources and other added value are also factors considered by enterprises, so institutions that focus on the industry and carry out the layout of the whole industry chain are more likely to obtain high-quality projects.
This article is the second part of the "2023-2024 China New Energy Track Investment and Financing Report". The first part is the macro statistics of the investment and financing trends and regional distribution of the new energy track:
How hot has new energy investment been in recent years? The amount of financing has increased 100 times in 10 years!
The middle part is the interpretation of unicorn companies in the new energy track: 10 new unicorns ran in this track last year......
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