Gaorong backs China energy storage company

Qunqing Juneng New Energy Technology and Beijing Evjade Asset Management Company also participated. The funding was raised across several rounds in the past six months.

Founded in 2018, WeView aims to significantly reduce the cost of zinc-iron liquid flow batteries while increasing production capacity. It will use the fresh capital for R&D and to construct a new production plant.

Energy storage and carbon neutrality have proven resilient investment themes in China as overall private equity activity has contracted. Most leading GPs have established a carbon neutrality fund in the past 18 months, including Primavera Capital Group, which is targeting CNY 10bn.

Several private equity investors have teamed up with strategic operators to launch carbon neutrality funds of similar size. For example, Sequoia Capital China is working with Envision Technology Group, CICC Capital with GCL Energy Technology, and IDG Capital has partnered Hong Kong-listed Towngas.

Hillhouse Capital has also established a climate change investment team and is expected to launch a dedicated fund. Meanwhile, Lightspeed China Partners changed its Chinese name to Lightspeed Photosynthesis, reflecting a new focus on green technology.

Private equity investment in China cleantech and renewables businesses is at record levels, spurred by robust government support for the industry and hopes that the boom could be sustainable.

About USD 5.4bn was deployed in the sector – including EV manufacturers – in 2021, while another $1.3 billion went into renewables, according to AVCJ Research. The overall total of $6.8 billion surpasses the previous two years combined. As recently as 2015, it was less than $550 million.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Early-stage
• Technology
• China
• energy
• Cleantech
• ZhenFund
• Green Pine Capital Partners
• Gaorong Capital