Voyah, a premium electric vehicle brand under China’s auto giant Dongfeng Motor Group has notched 4.55 billion yuan ($638.5 million) in a Series A round, Chinese financial media outlet Yicai reported on Thursday.
The round has brought the company’s valuation to 29.5 billion yuan ($4.1 billion), per the report.
Mixed Ownership Reform Fund, a national fund that sets out to support mixed-ownership reforms of state-owned enterprises (SOEs); Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Bank of China (BOC) Financial Asset Investment, as well as Ganfeng Lithium, one of the world’s biggest lithium chemicals makers for electric-vehicle batteries, were among the 11 investors in the round. The 11 investors have taken a combined 15.41% stake in Voyah, per the report.
Dongfeng Motor Group, too, chipped in 900 million yuan ($125.9) to pick up an additional 3.04% stake in Voyah.
According to a company filing to the Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange (dated August 1), Dongfeng was the majority stakeholder of Voyah, with an 89.66% stake; while Wuhan Woya Enterprise Management Consulting Partnership, the firm’s employee shareholding platform, owned the remaining 10.34% stake.
In September, Voyah said in a filing to the SUAEE that the firm plans to launch its first public fundraising — with no more than 15% of its equity owned by strategic investors after the deal. Dongfeng would hold no more than a 77% stake, while Woya will take the remaining shares, per a report by Caixin.
Since its launch in July 2020, Voyah has so far launched two models including Voyah Free, an all-electric five-seater SUV, as well as Voyah Dreamer, an all-electric hybrid minivan. In the first half of 2022, the firm logged a net loss of 737 million yuan ($106 million), while its revenue stood at 1.9 billion yuan, per the filing in September.
The news comes at a time when major auto firms in the country are rushing to tap into the world’s largest consumer marker for EVs — 57.1% of the 4.2 million global EV sales in the first half of 2022 were delivered to customers in mainland China, per data from market research firm Canalys.
Last month, GAC AION, affiliated with the Chinese state-owned automaker Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC), bagged 18.3 billion yuan ($2.5 billion) in a Series A round to become the most valuable startup in China’s electric vehicle (EV) industry.