Editor? |? Wang Shuangshuang
Recently, the unmanned distribution enterprise Neolithic completed the A+ round of financing, with a scale close to 200 million yuan. Start-up financing is normal, but it is worth noting that the leading investment enterprise status of Neolithic A+ round financing is "special".
According to public information, the A+ round financing of Neolithic was led by Li, followed by Capital, Yida Capital and Yaotu Capital. After the completion of this round of financing, Li will become the second largest shareholder of Neolithic after CEO Yu Enyuan.
The new car-making forces dominate the investment in start-ups, and this rare combination has aroused great enthusiasm. Many people in the industry question: Why can the new car-making forces that are deeply mired in financing problems still invest abroad? What did Li see in the Neolithic Age?
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Become the second largest shareholder of Neolithic
According to public information, the A+ round financing scale of Neolithic is nearly 200 million yuan. This round of financing was invested by Li Ling, joined by Yida Capital, a new investor, and additional investments were made by the old shareholder capital and Yaotu Capital. According to the survey data, the main operator of Neolithic tools is Neolithic Huitong (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., which was established in February 20 18 with a registered capital of about RMB19.99 million, and its legal representative is Yu Enyuan, the founder of the company.
For this financing, Yu Enyuan said in an interview with the media that this round of financing started in the fourth quarter of last year, was finalized in June 5438 +2020 10, and was completed in February. The reason for starting this financing is not only because it needs financing to maintain operations and accelerate the pace of expansion, but also because "shareholder Li intends to increase investment in the field of unmanned distribution".
Relevant business information also supports Yu Enyuan's statement. According to the survey, on February 28th, a series of industrial and commercial changes took place in Neolithic Huitong (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., and the registered capital of the company increased from about 6.5438+0.634 million yuan to about 6.5438+0.999 million yuan now. At the same time, the company's business scope has also added intelligent robots, unmanned vehicles and other related businesses.
After this A+ round of financing, Li, who joined the investment of Neolithic Angel Wheel in May 20 18, subscribed RMB 3,960,900, and his operating entity, Beijing Chehejia Information Technology Co., Ltd., will become the second largest shareholder of Neolithic, holding 19.82%. Yu Enyuan himself is still the largest shareholder of Neolithic, holding 33.62%.
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Advance investment under "capital emergency"
As we all know, the new car-making forces generally face financing problems due to delivery and operation problems. The data shows that in the first half of 20 19, Li's operating income was about 5,277,600 yuan, net profit was about-629 million yuan, total assets were about 5,842 million yuan, and total liabilities were 93 1 10,000 yuan. In addition, there are public reports that Li will conduct an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States, and plans to raise at least 500 million US dollars, which will be completed in the first half of 2020 at the earliest. It is not difficult to see that Li has not escaped the "curse" of all the new forces making cars-lack of money.
On the other hand, public information shows that Neolithic has built the world's first intelligent manufacturing plant for L4 unmanned vehicles in Changzhou, with an estimated annual production capacity of over 1 10,000 vehicles. Up to now, Neolithic has produced more than 120 unmanned vehicles, with a cumulative mileage of more than 500,000 kilometers.
As a landing form of autonomous driving technology, unmanned distribution is much simpler in application than autonomous driving. Even a few years ago, traditional car companies or new forces built cars? Products with the selling points of "artificial intelligence cockpit" and "autonomous driving technology" emerge one after another. However, according to some experts in the automobile field, the automatic driving technology in China and even the whole world is still in the exploratory stage. Strictly speaking, the products with "automatic driving" as their selling point only add some driving assistance technologies on the basis of traditional cars.
On the other hand, because of the outbreak of the epidemic, this concept was put on the stage again. As of Wednesday, many unmanned distribution concept stocks, such as Derun Electronics, Huayang Group, Luchang Technology, Sara, Qi Ming Information and Yitong Technology, had daily limit or rose sharply.
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Unmanned distribution "tuyere" becomes the key
The enthusiasm of the unmanned distribution industry has come, which is almost the view of all practitioners. The outbreak of the epidemic in COVID-19 gave birth to the demand for automatic distribution and non-contact distribution. To help the frontline, including Baidu? A number of technology companies such as Apollo, Neolithic and Zhixing began to provide unmanned services such as cleaning and disinfection, food delivery and intelligent logistics for epidemic areas across the country.
February 10, Baidu? Apollo? Announced the free opening of low-speed mini-car kits and self-driving cloud services, and provided financial support such as software, services, hardware and landing. Needed in the R&D process of ecological partners; February 14, Baidu Apollo? Join hands with Neolithic to launch a brand-new unmanned vehicle in Haidian Hospital, Beijing, responsible for contactless food delivery at the isolation point of Haidian Hospital. The whole process from getting on the bus to getting food is completed by the vehicle alone, which can be roughly? 100? First-line medical staff provide services to avoid contact between people during the epidemic.
2? Month? 20? In April, two Neolithic unmanned disinfection vehicles were sent to Wuhan for disinfection and sterilization at Wuhan Business School and Jianghan University. Moreover, Meituan, a well-known takeaway platform, also demonstrated the achievements of self-developed unmanned vehicle business during the epidemic, distributing fruits and vegetables to residents in several communities in Shunyi District, Beijing. Suning Logistics and JD.COM Group launched "zero contact" delivery service in Suzhou and Wuhan respectively.
In the past two months, these unmanned delivery vehicles have done quite beautifully in special scenes such as epidemic areas and schools. A Baidu Apollo staff member said that Apollo's recent performance is by no means a case, but only a typical one. It is an inevitable trend for autonomous driving technology to help cities achieve intelligent travel upgrades, and the arrival of the epidemic has just pushed unmanned distribution to everyone in advance.
In addition to the epidemic factors, some people think that the national policy has further boosted the "take-off" of the unmanned distribution industry. On February 12, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Communications and other ministries and commissions jointly issued 1 1 the Innovative Development Strategy of Smart Cars, pointing out that China's standard smart car system will be fully built and improved in 2035-2050. The vision of safe, efficient, green and civilized smart cars will be gradually realized, and smart cars will fully meet the people's growing needs for a better life.
"Under the grand national goal, every' small action' that benefits the people and the people hides opportunities." In the eyes of the industry, the smart car system emphasized by the state is a systematic project. In this big project, every field involved should be matured in a lot of practice and application. As a branch of unmanned driving, unmanned distribution has stronger landing ability, more intuitive application effect and easier integration into people's daily life.
If we go back to the original question, why did Li, who was in a financial emergency, take the initiative to lead the Neolithic Age? "Only when you really see hope can you explain why a company that is short of money will make great efforts to invest in another startup." The above-mentioned person said.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.