Geely-owned Chinese EV brand gets $750m Series A

Investors include Amnon Shashua, founder of Israel-headquartered autonomous driving solutions developer Mobileye, and CATL, a leading Chinese battery manufacturer. There were also commitments from Yuexiu Industrial Fund, Ningbo-based Tongshang Fund, and a Quzhou government-backed smart manufacturing fund.

Zeekr's pre-Series A closed on USD 500m in 2021 with support from Intel Capital, Boyu Capital, CATL, Cathay Fortune Corporation, and online entertainment platform Bilibili. The valuation was approximately USD 9bn. The new investors took 5.6%, with Geely’s equity interest falling from 51% to 48%.

Geely has increasingly turned to external funding sources as its business lines diversify. Last year, Farizon Auto, which focuses on commercial EVs, secured USD 300m in pre-Series A funding. Last month, Lotus Technology, an EV unit under the Lotus brand, which is owned by Geely, agreed to merge with a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by L Catterton Asia.

Outside of the EV space, Geely's ride-hailing arm, Caocao Chuxing, raised a CNY 3.8bn (USD 588m) Series B round in 2021.

Zeekr's Series A will go towards product R&D, global expansion, and user experience improvement. The company already uses Mobileye’s advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) and CATL’s batteries. The three other investors will help Zeekr pursue upstream and downstream industry consolidation, according to a statement.

Zeekr has released two models - the Zeekr 001 and Zeekr 009 - and sales exceeded 70,000 units last year. The Zeekr 009 launched in November 2022. There are plans to roll out two new models this year and enter the European market.

The company is targeting sales of 650,000 units by 2025, which would make it a top-three player in the high-end EV market globally. This target was announced after the pre-A funding round was announced and reappears in the latest statement.

Zeekr claims a network of more than 250 outlets across 70 cities in China at the end of last year. The first opened in September 2021. 

Tesla remains the global leader in EVs, delivering 1.31m units in 2022, up 40% year-on-year. China’s BYD was second on 910,000. However, BYD ranks first in the broader new energy vehicle (NEV) category, having also sold 940,000 hybrid cars.

Hozon Auto, which is typically regarded as a tier-two EV player, was second in China after BYD with sales of 150,000 units. It surpassed the three leading independent manufacturers: Li Auto, Nio, and Xpeng reported sales of 133,200, 122,500, and 120,000 units, respectively, in 2022.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Early-stage
• Industrials
• Cleantech
• China
• Electric Vehicles
• automobiles