China EV maker WM Motor raises $1.5b

Existing investors Baidu, SIG Asia and Yingke Capital also took part. Baidu and Baidu Capital contributed to a funding round of undisclosed size with SIG and Ameba Capital in 2017. Baidu Capital then led a RMB3 billion Series C last year, supported by state-owned fund Taihang Industrial Fund and Linear Venture.

The latest round features an array of local government vehicles from the likes of Hubei, Anhui, Hunan and Guangzhou provinces. It is being presented as a model for Shanghai’s government-enterprise cooperation scheme. Additional contributions came from the State Development & Investment Corporation's Industrial Fund and state-owned enterprises such as Sino IC Leasing, Tsinghua Unigroup, Hongta Tobacco Group, and Agile Property.

Within the new generation of independent Chinese EV manufacturers, WM is positioned as a relatively low-end player targeting commercial vehicles. However, the company embarked on a rebrand earlier this year, hiring the likes of singer Jam Hsiao as a spokesperson. WM claims that sales to individuals born after 1995 increased 43.4% year-on-year in the first six months of 2020. Families accounted for 69% of overall sales.

As of July, WM had delivered 30,000 units of the EX5, its core model, second only to Tesla’s Model 3. The company plans to launch a vehicle equipped with autonomous parking next year. This function was developed in collaboration with Baidu. The new model will be capable of level-four autonomous driving - the car is fully autonomous in certain environments, but it still needs a driver in the seat – in specific scenarios.

China’s EV industry has recovered from a difficult 2019 and seen two IPOs in the US this year. First, Li Auto raised $1.1 billion through a NASDAQ offering in July, and then Xpeng tapped the New York Stock Exchange for $1.5 billion in August. With Nio listing in 2018, WM the last of China's best-funded EV start-ups in private hands.

Last week, real estate developer Evergrande Group ramped up its EV ambitions by raising HK$4 billion ($516 million) from investors including Tencent Holdings, Sequoia Capital China, Yunfeng Capital, and Didi Chuxing. The capital went into Evergrande New Energy Vehicle, which entered the EV space with the acquisition of Sweden's NEVS in June.

Lighthouse Capital served as the financial advisor for WM's most recent round. 

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Greater China
• Expansion
• Technology
• China
• automobiles
• SIG
• Baidu
• SDIC Fund Management