SVOLT Energy Technology, an electric vehicle (EV) battery maker and storage solutions provider, has raised 6 billion yuan ($942.8 million) in its third big-ticket fundraising of 2021. The latest round is yet another sign of the heightened interest in China’s rapidly growing EV infrastructure sector.
The new investment, an extended Series B round, followed the completion of its Series B round at 10.28 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in August and its Series A round at 3.5 billion yuan ($550.2 million) in February.
This Series B+ round attracted investors including asset manager CDH Investments; Chinese state-owned telecom firm China Mobile’s investment unit China Mobile Capital; and Shanghai-based investment group PreIPO Capital.
China’s Industrial Bank; PICC Capital, the alternative investment platform of insurer PICC Group; and Taikang Asset Management, which is affiliated with Beijing-based insurer Taikang Life Insurance, participated in the round.
Other investors include Sichuan Energy Investment, a government-led energy sector investor in southwestern China’s Sichuan province; laser equipment manufacturer Han’s Laser Technology Industry Group; and automotive lamp firm Changzhou Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems.
The new funding will be mainly used for the R&D of new technologies and the construction of its phase IV production centre, R&D base, and headquarters in eastern China’s Changzhou city, Jiangsu province.
“We’re standing in the forefront of an ongoing revolution in the world’s energy, transportation, and technology sectors. SVOLT is fortunate to be presented with growing strategic opportunities coming alongside this major global advancement,” said Yang Hongxin, chairman and CEO of SVOLT, in a statement.
“The company will stick to its plans of increasing investment in R&D and building a global, tech-driven brand. We aspire to raise our annual capacity worldwide to 600GWh by 2025, with an aim to help China realise its carbon reduction targets,” said Yang.
Prior to these deals, the firm had closed 1 billion yuan ($157.2 million) in a strategic investment from CMG-SDIC Fund management in April 2020, giving it a unicorn valuation of 8.2 billion yuan ($1.3 billion).
Investors in SVOLT’s previous rounds include a wide range of companies with national backgrounds, such as Bank of China Group Investment, a Hong Kong-incorporated direct investment arm of Bank of China (BOC), and sub-funds of China’s National Fund for Technology Transfer and Commercialisation.
China’s state-linked investors have jumped on the EV bandwagon after the country set a target last year that its sales of new energy vehicles (NEV) should reach 20% of overall new car sales by 2025 from just 5% currently, and to 50% by 2035. This aim is under a grand plan by China — the world’s biggest auto market — to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
SVOLT was started in 2012 as part of Chinese automaker Great Wall Motors and later developed into the firm’s battery business unit in late 2016 before it spun off from the parent firm in 2018 to become an independently operated company.
The firm specialises in high-speed stacking process, cobalt-free batteries, long-lifespan solid-state batteries, and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled automotive-qualified intelligent manufacturing. It has seven R&D centres in Japan, South Korea, the US, India, as well as Wuxi, Baoding, and Shanghai, China.
The firm has over 3,100 employees, including 1,400 R&D professionals. It plans to spend a total of more than 26 billion yuan ($4 billion) on the construction of new factories worldwide by 2025, according to its website.