China gas station location platform Newlink raises $100m
Newlink Group, operator of a platform that helps drivers in China locate the best value gas stations, has raised $100 million in funding led by CMB International. Other investors include Hongtai Capital, Joy Capital and Nio Capital.
This follows a RMB900 million ($128 million) Series D in July of last year led by China Capital Investment Group. The company closed two rounds in 2019: a RMB450 million Series B led by China’s National Small Medium Development Fund and Oriental Fortune Capital; and a $110 million Series C led by Joy Capital. GSR United participated in an undesignated round of RMB275 million the same year.
Newlink's annualized gross merchandise value has reached more than RMB100 billion, up from RMB50 billion at the end of 2019.
The company, which launched in 2016, has two core products: Tuanyou, which specializes in fossil fuels and is linked to more than 20,000 gas stations; and Kuaidian, which focuses on electric vehicle charging and is linked to 500,000 charging piles. In addition, there is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that works with more than 10,000 gas stations.
Zhen Dai, the company’s CEO and founder, told AVCJ in a previous interview that Newlink has become one of the largest data providers in the energy infrastructure industry. It has developed a heat map showing the most active driver areas to help network operators plan new construction according to the demand.
“We only recommend the charging stations that can offer the best user-experiences to our users. The correct location is very important for the operators," he said. Dai sees charging stations as equivalent to hotels and Newlink wants to be the equivalent of Ctrip, taking a cut of traffic flow that goes to all parties.
Investors believe that Newlink represents a huge opportunity in terms of digital restructuring of the refined oil industry chain as well as in the scaling up of EV charging networks. The company's smart match feature also helps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2.1 million tons per year, according to a statement from Hongtai.
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