Less than 5 months after its establishment, Shenzhen cross-border enterprise received nearly 150 million yuan in financing

In recent years, global sales of new energy vehicles have grown rapidly, and there is a strong demand for charging pile infrastructure.

Many domestic companies have begun to increase their investment in this field and accelerate their overseas expansion, while also gaining favor from the capital market.

"Endless Watt" completed nearly 150 million yuan in angel round financing

Recently, Shenzhen Wujinwatt Technology Co., Ltd. announced that it has completed an angel round of financing of nearly 150 million yuan. This round was led by Shunwei Capital, followed by Yunqi Capital, Zhen Fund, Yunmu Capital and others .

It is understood that this round of financing of Infinite Watt will be entirely used for research and development of early products.

Endless Watt is a startup company in the smart charging pile field. It was established in Shenzhen on July 20, 2023. Its founder Wan Yunpeng is the former co-founder of Stone Technology and has participated in the entire entrepreneurial journey of Stone Technology.

It is worth mentioning that Infinite Watt is Wan Yunpeng's first personal venture. The company completed a financing of 150 million yuan just over 4 months after its establishment. It can be seen that the capital market fully recognizes the importance of the smart charging pile track industry and is optimistic about its development prospects.

Before joining Stone Technology, Wan Yunpeng, the founder of Endless Watt, worked as the head of product R&D at Huawei for nine years and has rich experience and resources in intelligent software and hardware.

In addition, Infinite Watt's R&D team is also very strong, mainly from leading hardware and software companies such as Huawei, Alibaba, and Tencent. Overseas team members mainly come from international companies such as ZTE, Huawei, ABB, etc. with rich overseas localization experience.

After its establishment, Infinite Watt has focused on the research and development and production of smart charging piles in the direction of energy management systems. The company focuses on the research and development of "solar storage and charging, virtual power plant" products, and is committed to promoting the digitization and intelligence of green energy.

For the international market, Endless Watt has chosen the technology export route, and plans to first select the European and North American markets. In terms of products, it is mainly used for destination charging and home charging. Endless Watt's products can effectively help customers save expenses in two aspects: one is to reduce the expenses on installation, expansion and reconstruction, maintenance, and inspection; the other is to reduce the comprehensive electricity expenditure of users and improve the operating efficiency of the energy network.

The charging pile track has set off a financing wave

This year, the charging pile industry has seen round after round of financing.

On July 26, 2023, Runchengda Electric Power Technology Co., Ltd. completed a strategic round of B2 financing of 224 million yuan. This round of financing was supplemented by the old shareholder Hongtai Fund, and jointly invested by Fulcrum Investment (a sub-fund of the National Science and Technology Achievement Transformation Guidance Fund), Pingxiang Guotou, Sugaoxin, and Haoshu Capital.

It is understood that Runchengda was founded in Shenzhen in 2010. It is a provider of smart car charging piles and digital energy overall solutions. The company's main business is new energy charging pile products, power monitoring systems, original high-voltage switchgear, etc.

At present, Runchengda has established more than 20 offices in China, and plans to fully cover more than 30 provinces and autonomous regions and more than 100 cities in China in the next five years. Runchengda's overseas business has expanded to North America, mainstream European countries, Australia and the Middle East.

Another company that received financing is Jianwang Technology Co., Ltd. In August 2023, the company completed a nearly 100 million yuan Series A financing. This round of financing was jointly led by Zhejiang Energy Fund and CDH Investments, followed by Citron Investment and Shenzhen Small and Medium-sized Guarantee Venture Capital, and Taihe Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor. This round of funds will be used for Jianwang Technology's capacity expansion and technology research and development.

It is reported that Jianwang Technology was founded in Shenzhen in 2011, focusing on the new energy industry and providing smart energy solutions. The company's main business is new energy charging /battery replacement systems, distributed energy storage systems and smart energy operation and management platforms. At the same time, it is committed to creating a new generation of industrial and commercial energy storage systems and charging pile products.

At present, Jianwang Technology has projects in more than ten provinces and cities in China, including Tianjin, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu. It has also established long-term and in-depth cooperative relationships with State Grid, China Southern Power Grid, Dongfeng Motor, GAC Energy, and NIO.

At the same time, Jianwang Technology's charging pile products have also been recognized by overseas markets. It is understood that Jianwang Technology's European standard charging pile products have passed the DEKAI certification and TÜV SÜD certification. Moreover, Jianwang Technology's 180KW DC high-power super charging products have been exported to the EU region in batches.

Since charging piles were included in the "new infrastructure", the industry has become more popular. As charging pile companies continue to improve their operating models, more capital will be attracted to enter the new energy vehicle charging pile track in the future.

The charging pile industry has both opportunities and challenges

In 2022, global sales of new energy vehicles exceeded 10 million units, but the construction progress of charging piles, as the basic energy replenishment facilities for new energy vehicles, was slightly lagging behind.

According to the data, in 2022, on average, one charging pile will be used for every 2.6 new energy vehicles. Therefore, there is a huge market gap and business opportunity in the charging pile industry.

Especially in the past two years, the market demand for charging piles has continued to rise, and has transformed from policy-driven to demand-driven.

It is estimated that by 2027, the global charging pile market share will reach 192.9 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 45%. Moreover, the overseas charging pile market is currently in its early stages of development. With its high cost-effectiveness, Chinese companies' charging piles are expected to be successfully exported and enjoy the dividends of the overseas market.

The essence of a charging pile is a power source, and the underlying technology is power supply technology.

There are three main types of charging piles on the market: public charging piles, private charging piles and dedicated charging piles.

It is understood that the technical threshold for entering the charging pile industry is not particularly high. The upstream of the charging pile industry chain is the charging pile equipment parts manufacturers, the midstream is the charging pile and other charging equipment manufacturers, and the downstream is the operation service and terminal. The production of the entire charging pile in the midstream is to put the parts together, and the technical requirements are not complicated.

The low threshold of the charging pile industry has attracted three types of companies to join in: charging pile operators, new energy vehicle companies that provide charging services, and SaaS platforms that integrate operator services.

Among them, private charging piles are generally provided as gifts by new energy vehicle manufacturers, which is a way for car companies to bundle new energy vehicle sales.

Although the technical threshold of the charging pile industry is relatively low, its biggest entry barrier is capital, because the charging piles laid by the enterprise must reach a certain number before they can be widely used by users and achieve the purpose of profitability.

In terms of overseas expansion of charging piles, charging pile products exported to Europe need to obtain CE certification, which costs 500,000 to 600,000 yuan and must go through multiple processes including certification application, document preparation, product testing, and submission for review; exports to the United States require UL certification, which costs more than 1 million yuan and takes 7 months.

In addition, it should be noted that due to differences in testing and certification in different countries and regions, charging pile companies must comply with local laws and regulations when conducting global business. At the same time, they must also pay attention to adapting to the characteristics of overseas power grids, and the payment system must conform to local consumption habits.

Financing

Cross-border enterprises