Zhongchu Guoneng Technology (ZGT), a Chinese compressed air energy storage firm, has raised over 1 billion yuan ($140.9 million) in a Series A round of financing led by two domestic investment firms.
The two lead investors are Guokai Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading Fund, a hundred-billion-yuan fund backed by China’s Ministry of Finance; and Cinda Kunpeng (Shenzhen) Investment Management, a Chinese equity investment firm that mainly invests in mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
Several existing and new investors participated in the deal, Gaorong Capital announced in a statement on Monday. The China-focused venture capital (VC) firm backed ZGT in its Series Pre-A+ round in June 2022.
Led by its chief scientist Chen Haisheng, Beijing-headquartered ZGT started developing advanced compressed air energy storage solutions as early as 2004 with technologies incubated by the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
ZGT runs advanced compressed air energy storage projects, which enable the storage of energy generated at one time for use at another time using compressed air, across Henan, Shandong, Ningxia, and Jiangsu in China. The firm currently employs over 300 people, of which more than 200 are R&D professionals, shows the firm’s official website.
With the completion of its Series A round, ZGT has by far completed at least four funding rounds with 1.66 billion yuan ($234 million) in total disclosed financing.
In its latest Series Pre-A+ round, the firm closed 320 million yuan ($45.1 million) at a post-money valuation of more than 2.5 billion yuan ($352.4 million). Beijing-based private equity (PE) firm Tsinghua Holdings Capital (THC) led the investment.
Earlier, the firm raised 180 million yuan ($25.4 million) in a Series Pre-A round in October 2021. Prior to that, it completed its angel round at 160 million yuan ($22.5 million) in late 2020. Lead investors of its early deals include hard tech-focused CAS Star, financial services firm CMB International, and Zhuzhou Geckor Group.