Everbright-IDG joins Series C for Chinese electric car maker
Everbright-IDG Industrial Fund has invested an undisclosed sum in China-based smart electric car maker Nio - formerly known as NextEV - as part of a Series C round that is still in the process of being raised.
Nio received an initial Series C commitment of approximately $600 million in March, led by Baidu Capital and Tencent Holdings. Investors including Warburg Pincus, IDG Capital, Hopu Investment, Legend Group, Hillhouse Capital, TPG Capital, CICC Jia Cheng Investment, GIC Private, ChinaEquity and Haitong International also participated.
Nio - also called "Weilai" in Chinese - was established by Bin Li, founder of Bitauto Holdings, and Xiang Li, founder of Autohome.com, in 2014. Xiang Li also set up another smart electric car manufacturing company, Chehejia, which raised $120 million from VC and strategic investors last year.
Nio develops mid- to high-end electric cars and autonomous electric vehicles. At present, it has more than 2,000 employees in San Jose, Shanghai, Munich, London and eight other locations.
Last month, the company launched an electric driverless supercar called Nio EP9. It is said to be the fastest electric car in the world with a top speed of 257 kilometers per hour. Nio is expected to launch its first mass-produced car, an electric sports utility vehicle with an autopilot function, in China next year. The company’s electric cars also compete in the FIA Formula E Championship over the last two years.
The company’s electric cars have also taken part in the FIA Formula E Championship over the last two years.
AVCJ Research’s records show that Nio raised RMB500 million ($73 million) in June 2015 and $100 million last year. Investors in previous rounds include JD.com, Shunwei Capital Partners, Sequoia Capital, Joy Capital, and Temasek Holdings.
A total of 517,000 new energy vehicles (NEVs) were sold in China last year, up 53% from 2015, although this only represented 1.8% of total car sales. The government wants to boost the sales of NEVs to hit two million by 2020, and by 2025 NEVs should account for more than 20% of total vehicle sales.
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