Anker spent 1.2 billion to invest heavily in Shenzhen!

Anker Innovations' 1.2 billion yuan for purchasing a building has attracted attention. It has invested heavily in research and development in Shenzhen, generously incentivized its employees, and increased its investment in portable and household energy storage products, driving the company's performance and brand to soar.

1.2 billion yuan of the purchase money will be used for office and project construction in Shenzhen

At the end of August, Anker Innovations disclosed its semi-annual report, with the balance of other non-current assets in its balance sheet at approximately 1.251 billion yuan. Such a large amount of funds has attracted attention.

Anker Innovations responded that the amount was an advance payment for the purchase of long-term assets, and its specific purpose was to buy a building in Shenzhen for office and project construction.

It is understood that as of June 30, 2024, Anker Innovations has leased a total of 37 houses in the country, with a total leased area of ​​61,333.20 square meters.

In China , the company has offices mainly in Shenzhen, Changsha, Suzhou, Beijing and Taiwan. Its overseas business covers many countries and regions around the world, with offices in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil and other countries.

Anker Innovations' decision to buy a building was reviewed and approved in December 2022. At that time, the company had a total of about 2,300 employees in Shenzhen, an increase of about 1,085 from the end of 2020, with an average annual compound growth rate of about 37.59%. Based on an annual growth rate of 20%, the company expects the number of employees in Shenzhen to reach about 4,800 in 2027. Based on an average office area of ​​8 square meters per person, the company will need about 38,400 square meters of office space in Shenzhen in 2027.

At present, the property purchased by Anker Innovations is under orderly construction. The property is located at the Runzhi R&D Center at the intersection of Liuxian Avenue and Chuangye 2nd Road, Xin'an Street, Bao'an District.

"Focus on R&D" is the label of Anker Innovations. Its founder Yang Meng mentioned that Anker Innovations has more than 2,000 R&D and engineers, including about 1,000 software engineers, 100 algorithm engineers, 300 APP and cloud engineers, 300 embedded engineers, and more than 100 IT system development engineers.

According to the semi-annual report, as of the end of June 2024, Anker Innovations had a total of 2,117 R&D personnel, accounting for 48.21% of the total number of employees.

Shenzhen shoulders the responsibility of R&D for Anker Innovations, and its main R&D technical personnel are also concentrated in Shenzhen.

A previous fundraising document showed that Anker had planned to invest in the Shenzhen Product Technology R&D Center upgrade project, with the investment amount in the Shenzhen Product Technology R&D Center upgrade project reaching 826 million yuan.

Shenzhen also gathers high-end talents and a systematic industrial chain, especially in the consumer electronics industry. As we all know, many cross-border e-commerce sellers in Shenzhen started out in the 3C category, and the region’s related upstream and downstream industrial chains are also relatively concentrated.

The core of R&D lies in talent, and Anker Innovations' investment in R&D also includes talent incentives. Yang Meng introduced: "Every year, Anker Innovations will take out a considerable portion of its profits and distribute it in the middle of the second year to motivate employees. In June this year , more than 1,000 people should have received 10 months, 15 months or even more wages in addition to their wages and year-end bonuses. The company will definitely let creators take the bulk of the value , so that creation can continue. "

Yang Meng mentioned that the company will definitely let the creators take the bulk of the value so that creation can continue.

R&D and performance drive

The R&D and technology center in Shenzhen has also brought practical benefits to Anker Innovations.

In the first half of this year, Anker Innovations' revenue exceeded 9.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36.55%; net profit was approximately 872 million yuan.

From the perspective of business segments, Anker Innovations' three core business segments all achieved significant growth. Among them, charging and energy storage products achieved revenue of 4.975 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 42.81%, accounting for 51.56% of total revenue; smart innovation products such as eufy smart home and AnkerMake 3D printing and other product series achieved a total revenue of 2.360 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 35.33%, accounting for 24.46% of total revenue; smart audio and video products achieved revenue of 2.309 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30.84%, accounting for 23.93% of total revenue.

In the first half of the year, the company's charging and energy storage business grew most rapidly, mainly from two aspects:

First, the continued development of digital charging products has won the favor of consumers through continuous product innovation and design innovation;

Second, it entered the consumer-grade new energy field and launched various forms of products such as portable energy storage, balcony photovoltaics, and distributed household energy storage , bringing new growth space. In the consumer-grade new energy field, the company launched the Anker SOLIXX1 home energy storage system and the balcony photovoltaic Anker SOLIX Solarbank 2nd generation Pro and Plus in the first half of the year, which continued to attract market attention.

Innovation is the driving force of growth. Continuous R&D innovation is an important guarantee for the long-term vitality of the company's products. In the view of the company, in the context of increasingly fierce market competition, it is necessary to continue to invest in R&D to achieve breakthroughs in technology and product capabilities.

In the first half of the year, Anker Innovations launched new products for portable energy storage and household energy storage. After tasting the sweetness of entering the consumer-grade new energy field, Anker Innovations has continued to increase its investment in this field.

Raised funds to increase product research and development

On September 18, Anker Innovations updated the prospectus for the issuance of non-directional convertible bonds, intending to raise no more than 1.105 billion yuan, of which 200 million yuan will be used for the research and development and industrialization projects of portable and household energy storage products to further enrich the company's energy storage product matrix, meet the diversified needs of users, and achieve multi-scenario coverage of energy storage business.

Anker Innovations' household energy storage products are mainly used in home scenarios, covering areas such as self-generated household electricity, regulating peak-valley electricity price differences, and providing emergency power supply for high-power electrical appliances during emergency disaster preparedness. Specific product types include both balcony photovoltaic energy storage products and household photovoltaic energy storage products.

Portable energy storage products are mainly used in outdoor scenarios, including outdoor travel, providing emergency power supply for small and medium-power electrical appliances during emergency disaster recovery, etc., and are mainly sold through online channels.

Anker Innovations entered the household energy storage product track in 2022. Although it has not been in the market for a long time, it launches new products every year, from outdoor energy storage power supplies suitable for lithium iron phosphate batteries, to portable energy storage series products, to the market's first new outdoor power supply that can achieve AC coupling and can be connected to rooftop photovoltaics. These products keep up with consumer demand.

The products are mainly sold on Anker's independent website and Amazon. Household energy storage and balcony energy storage products are developing rapidly overseas. For example, balcony energy storage has only taken one year from its rise last year to its current popularity.

Based on this, Anker Innovations' household energy storage products began to generate revenue in the first quarter of 2023. In 2023 and the first half of 2024, the revenue from household energy storage products was RMB 104.6067 million and RMB 64.4544 million, respectively, accounting for 0.60% and 0.67% of the main business revenue in the current period.

From 2021 to the first half of 2024, Anker Innovations' portable energy storage product revenues were RMB 133.8329 million, RMB 483.4274 million, RMB 958.6353 million and RMB 857.9407 million, respectively, accounting for 1.07%, 3.43%, 5.50% and 8.90% of the main business revenue in the current period, respectively. The proportion of revenue is increasing year by year.

Obviously, portable energy storage and household energy storage products are driving revenue growth, which is worth Anker Innovations' heavy investment in R&D. At the same time, the company is also exploring popular AI tools and further investing in innovation.

Currently, Anker Innovations has applied AI to a large number of efficiency-enhancing and creative work , and has also done a lot of exploration in product implementation. Yang Meng once publicly stated: "In the golden decade of entrepreneurship in the hardware field, Anker Innovations will use AI to create 'an assembly line' and 'a set of base models', build underlying capabilities, and support products that create the ultimate experience for users in multiple fields."

Anker

Shenzhen