Posted 2025-02-11 00:00:00 +0000 UTC
In the cold winter of this industry, the $400 million round C financing is very valuable. According to Bloomberg, after round C financing, Xiaopeng's car valuation reached nearly $4 billion, that is to say, in the context of the sharp decline in the market value of the head company, Xiaopeng completed the fundraising with a market value of nearly 30 billion, which is less than the valuation of $3.57 billion in round B, which also maintains the basic dignity of the new car industry. Of course, the financing of Xiaopeng automobile is also a twists and turns. 36 krypton learned from the investors close to the top of Xiaopeng automobile that the round C financing was originally planned to be completed in June, but it coincided with the organizational structure adjustment of Alibaba, the largest institutional shareholder. Cai Chongxin, the head of the war investment department with deep friendship, retired, and Wu Wei, the CFO of Ali, took over. With the transfer of senior power, the investment strategy for Xiaopeng automobile also changed. On November 13, the results of round C of Xiaopeng automobile were announced, and Xiaomi group of Lei Jun became the strategic investor of this round of Xiaopeng automobile instead of Ali. "At this stage, the giants are hesitant to give the new car company a chance to win." Said the above management. After landing in the open market, it issued convertible bonds twice, and Tencent, the investor of the war, also cooled down. A Weilai executive told 36 krypton that in the two rounds of convertible bond issuance, Tencent spent a lot of effort to persuade Tencent to subscribe, and finally Tencent subscribed a total of 130 million US dollars of the total convertible bond amount of 850 million US dollars. Compared with the enthusiasm cooling of the first-line Internet giants such as bat, members of the Internet second pole camp, meituan, Xiaomi, and even today's headlines, are eager to try, and have invested heavily in new car companies. On August 16, ideal automobile announced the completion of 530 million USD round C financing. Wang Xing, CEO of meituan reviews, led the investment of nearly 300 million USD, and byte jump also invested 30 million USD. The complexity of the automobile manufacturing industry exceeds the imagination of the Internet giants. After burning nearly 10 billion yuan, the products of newly established automobile enterprises have reached mass production, and the sales volume has been slowly boosted, almost still facing the hole of 10 billion yuan. Even the well funded bat has to look at its investment strategy. Today 's latecomers, such as Xiaomi and meituan, can you see clearly enough? The tuyere of smart phones is fleeting. Only Alibaba, which has independently developed OS, has taken capital layout measures for Meizu and hammer. Baidu and Tencent have hardly invested in them, and the industry has matured. On the tuyere of smart electric vehicles, bats are reluctant to miss them. They locked in a new car making company early, such as Tencent betting on Weilai auto, baidu multi round betting, and Ali becoming the largest external shareholder of Xiaopeng auto. The value logic of smart phones for bat is relatively simple, that is, through the terminal occupation system, to lock the upper application entrance. But for the investment in the field of new car building, the three bat companies have different ideas. For Tencent, the power industry internet, how to quickly understand and deeply participate in the automobile industry with huge output value, the most direct strategy is capital binding. A person in charge of Tencent's travel business also told 36 krypton in an interview that the travel track is very long and the cycle is very long. After Tencent has determined its role and direction, it will invest in the industry for two purposes: "one is to observe and understand the industry, the other is to build closer cooperation through investment." The person in charge said frankly that the investment to belongs to the former, while the investment to Weilai, Weima and other enterprises contains the above two logics at the same time. In March 2017, Tencent acquired 8.1675 million shares of Tesla in the open market with us $1.778 billion through its Yellow River Investment Limited, which accounted for 5% of the total at that time. In the wave of car building in China, Tencent has invested in Weilai automobile in many rounds. At present, Tencent holds all B-class shares of Weilai automobile and becomes the largest institutional shareholder. At the same time, Tencent also participated in the financing of Vemma B +. The cloud service of Weilai in China adopts Tencent cloud, and GAC and Weilai, which establish joint ventures with Weilai respectively, are also the two key partners of Tencent in the layout of automobile industry. The first model of vehicle wechat landing is Chang'an's cs75plus. An investor of Weilai lamented to 36 krypton, "the early Weilai was a key for Tencent, helping Tencent understand the industry and open up the situation. Now, Weilai is a project for Tencent. In order to obtain Tencent support, Weilai also needs to have corresponding performance." Baidu's strategy for investing in new car companies is similar to Tencent's, but the direction will be more clear, that is, the strategy to supplement the whole vehicle manufacturing. An ideal car investor once told 36 krypton that before investing in Weima, Baidu's target was ideal car, and the two sides would once sign an investment agreement. However, one of Baidu's requirements for ideal car is that the latter needs to open the underlying data of the car, which can't be accepted after pondering. Baidu turned to Vemma, betting multiple times through Baidu group and Baidu capital. At CES in 2019, Weima and Baidu announced that they would cooperate in the field of L3 and L4 level automatic driving for a long time to develop automatic driving solutions, which include Apollo pilot software services, hardware solutions of vehicle computing platform, high-precision map and self positioning services, simulation services, security services, OTA services, etc. In March 2019, Weima announced the completion of round C financing of 3 billion yuan, led by Baidu group. Compared with Tencent and Baidu, Ali's investment logic in the field of car building is more secretive. In fact, before investing in Xiaopeng automobile, Ali had made a deep layout in the field of automobile intelligence by virtue of its advantages in the industrial Internet, including the investment of Beidou Positioning Technology Co., Ltd. Qianxun position, the joint venture of SAIC to set up the zebra network of the Internet of vehicles Co., Ltd., and the use of tmall genie's terminal scale to serve as a front-end voice assistant for automobile enterprises. At the same time, Gaode map, a subsidiary of Ali, has also become a fist level product of vehicle and machine system, and has successfully entered the field of high-precision map. Alibaba, which started from the platform, is well versed in the value of underlying technology and infrastructure. During its tenure as chairman of zebra Internet, Alibaba made it clear that "Alibaba will not build its own car". In the automotive industry, Alibaba's more clear demand is still to provide the underlying system and facilities, with the help of scale and rapid capacity. Of course, it may also be similar to the consideration of investing 590 million US dollars in Meizu in 2015. Ali also wants to seek opportunities for Alios in the automobile end, so he Xiaopeng, who left Ali to start his own business, was selected. However, an Alibaba auto business line executive once told 36 krypton, "zebra (based on the car scheme developed by Alios) won't have much incentive to cooperate with Xiaopeng, and they (Xiaopeng) are too few now." The rapid evolution of the automobile industry to intelligence and digitalization is a link that can not be ignored for the giants seeking new growth opportunities from the industrial Internet. With the help of investment, getting involved in the manufacturing industry, getting familiar with the upstream and downstream industrial chain has become a required course. But in terms of the weight of the business, cars failed to occupy that fortress. "Automobile is not a moat and lifeline for Internet giants, so it's not enough to make them make a big bet. Unlike Ali, when he was hungry for investment, this is the entrance to the last kilometer of logistics. Ali's support is very resolute, almost every round needs to be advanced, and at last, he spent a lot of money to acquire." A person who invested in several new car companies told 36 krypton. New car companies have not received much news of big money this year. Instead of bat, they are the small giants in the second extreme camp of the Internet. In August this year, ideal automobile announced that it won 530 million US dollars in round C financing, led by Wang Xing, CEO of meituan, and participated in 30 million US dollars in headlines today. On November 13, Xiaopeng automobile announced that it had obtained a round C financing of 400 million US dollars, and Xiaomi group became a war investor. This is the first time Xiaomi group has participated in the financing of new car companies as an investor. Prior to this, both Leijun and Xiaomi's Shunwei capital have entered the market. Leijun is the early investor of Weilai automobile, and Shunwei capital has invested in Weilai and Xiaopeng automobile respectively. "Lei Jun has also considered the investment between Weilai and Xiaopeng, and finally thinks that Xiaopeng's car spending is more controllable, and from the perspective of positioning, it is more likely to become a millet in the automobile industry." An investor with access to the top management of Xiaopeng automobile disclosed to 36 krypton. Of course, Xiaomi's "mobile + aiot" strategy announced at the beginning of the year is also the driving force for him to continue to invest in new car companies. With the sluggish growth of mobile phone business, Xiaomi began to bet on a broader IOT field, and home appliances is a major market. According to statistics of krypton Research Institute, as of October 2019, Xiaomi has set foot in eight new categories of home appliances this year, covering mainstream products such as TV, air conditioner, washing machine and refrigerator. In the product line of "car home interconnection" from home to car, smart speakers have been connected in series. By virtue of the terminal volume, tmall Genie has signed contracts with, Renault and other cross vehicle enterprises. The main content of the cooperation with Baidu and Ali in the Internet of vehicles market is also the "car Internet" with smart speakers as the entrance. Xiaomi has also gained in this field, with Weima automobile and Xiaopeng automobile as its partners. In fact, Xiaomi is able to take the home Internet business from Weima, which is invested by Baidu, relying on the home ecology behind it. "Xiaomi group and Xiaopeng automobile have carried out in-depth cooperation in smart phone and smart car connectivity. It is hoped that through this strategic investment, further cooperation between the two sides in the field of intelligent hardware and IOT will be deepened. " Lei Jun talks about the starting point of this strategic investment in Xiaopeng automobile. The market value of Weilai automobile has dropped to $2 billion, and Lei Jun is willing to invest in Xiaopeng at a valuation of nearly $4 billion. The above reason is not a cliche. Compared with Xiaomi's gradually clear investment strategy, Wang Xing invested in the ideal car in his own name. However, 36 krypton learned from many investors of ideal automobile that Wang Xing's nearly $300 million investment was from his pledge of meituan comment stock, and the investment logic was not complicated. A key supplier of ideal car told 36 krypton about Li Xiang's understanding of Wang Xing's investment, "whether it's meituan's future delivery or delivery, it needs a car." The automobile industry is transforming to intelligence and digitalization. Whether it's for the purpose of grasping the tuyere or for the collaborative layout of business, it's necessary for Internet companies to participate deeply with the help of capital power. However, the complex industrial chain and long maturity period of automobile manufacturing industry also decide that the new car companies have extended the financing tentacles to government funds, industrial capital and overseas capital, but different from the high tide, the new car companies need more solid performance to persuade the capital.
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