Extremely krypton completed $750 million Series A financing, and Geely Automobile accelerated the transformation of new energy in an all-round way.

Returning to the rational capital market, the new energy vehicle projects are more carefully evaluated. The latest one that is favored is Geely Automobile’s new energy brand.

On February 13th, Krypton Motor announced the completion of $750 million Series A financing, with a post-investment valuation of $13 billion. This round of financing was invested by five eco-partners: Amnon Shashua, founder and CEO of Autopilot Technology Company Mobileye, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, Yuexiu Industrial Fund, Trading Fund and Quzhou Xin An Zhi Creation Fund.

According to Krypton, the funds raised this time will be mainly used for research and development of Krypton products and technologies, global business development and user experience improvement. The five companies participating in the investment have core competitiveness in intelligent driving, power batteries, innovative materials, high-end equipment manufacturing, etc., which will help the company to further innovate and develop in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain.

Founded in March 2021, Krypton is different from the traditional car-making and new power model. It not only relies on the industrial base and global resources accumulated by Geely Holding Group for 36 years, but also quickly builds a complete pure electric intelligent ecosystem. These two advantages make Krypton favored by the capital market at the beginning of its establishment.

According to Sky Eye Survey, in August 2021, Krypton completed the Pre-A round of financing, which was led by Intel Capital Strategy, followed by Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, Bili Bili, Hongshang Group and Boyu Investment, with a total investment of 500 million US dollars, accounting for about 5.6% of Krypton shares after the investment. After the A round of financing, the total shareholding ratio of five investors in Krypton rose to 6.15%.

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited participated in two external financing. On the one hand, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, as the number one power battery company in the world, can provide the most advanced technical products for Krypton and ensure a stable supply; In addition, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited also holds more market share by binding auto companies.

In August, 2022, Krypton announced that the 009 model will be the first model of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited Kirin battery technology, and the 001 model will also launch a version equipped with Kirin battery. This battery technology improves the cruising range of vehicles through structural innovation. It is reported that the cruising range of Krypton 001 can reach 1000 kilometers. At that time, Krypton also signed a five-year long-term strategic cooperation agreement with Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited.

In addition, intel capital and Amnon Shashua are also partners in krypton industry, and the latter is the founder and CEO of the self-driving company Mobileye. The automatic driving assistance system of the existing models of Krypton has been developed in cooperation with Mobileye. In January last year, Extreme Krypton also announced that it would further deepen its strategic cooperative relationship with Mobileye. The two parties plan to jointly launch the world’s first consumer-grade intelligent driving electric vehicle with L4 intelligent driving capability in 2024.

The completion of the A round of financing this time also represents that the capital market remains enthusiastic about the high-quality standards of the new energy automobile industry, and it is also optimistic about the long-term development model.

Interface News previously reported that many auto industry analysts believe that due to the increase in economic uncertainty, even the popular track of new energy vehicles, investors have become more cautious and more conservative about investment in the middle and late stages.

"Investors have gone through the process from investing in’ wide’ to investing in’ fine’. Previous investment and financing tend to do early investment and track verification for a wide range of targets; After the business model gradually matures, investors will be more selective and will focus on the good head targets with good growth and clear return on investment. " An industry insider told the interface news.

Krypton can quickly gain a foothold in the highly competitive new energy vehicle market, and at the same time gain 750 million US dollars in Series A financing. Its unique feature is that it is more thoroughly transformed than ordinary traditional automobile companies, operates in the way of Internet technology companies, and establishes new user relationships, which can continue to evolve according to user needs and creativity, and achieve equal integration between enterprises and users.

In addition, the global layout of Geely Holding Group in the fields of intelligent cockpit, intelligent driving, intelligent network connection, vehicle-mounted chips and low-orbit satellites has also helped the company to quickly build a full-stack self-developed pure electric intelligent technology ecosystem, and its products have obvious advantages in intelligence, handling performance, power generation and safety.

The first model, Krypton 001, broke the traditional thinking of cars and SUVs, and adopted the design of hunting coupe to support the brand tonality in another way; The second model, Krypton 009, subverts the tradition and redefines the luxury MPV from the perspective of users. Brand direct marketing system, extreme krypton energy, online community and other aspects have also brought users a full-service experience to meet diverse needs.

At present, there are more than 270 offline stores, ranking among the first echelon, and the innovation force is the fastest. A variety of store types, such as Krypton Center, Krypton Space and Krypton Delivery Center, bring users a more fashionable, more compact and more scientific lifestyle.

The self-built charging station of ZEEKR Power of Krypton Energy has accumulated 620+ stations in nearly 120 cities across the country, among which the number of extremely charging stations has exceeded 200, which makes Krypton Energy the first in the industry in the number of charging stations with a peak power of more than 360kW per gun.

As of January 31, 2023, the cumulative delivery volume of extreme krypton brand has exceeded 80,000 vehicles, creating the fastest delivery record for new forces. In 2023, Extreme Krypton plans to launch two new products to enrich the product matrix and double the delivery of new cars; By 2025, the planned sales volume of Krypton will reach 650,000 units, ranking the top three in the world in the market share of high-end electric vehicles.

With the rapid iteration of various products and the improvement of delivery volume, the extremely stable supply chain and strong bargaining power of suppliers have driven the scale effect to appear. At the same time, the utilization rate of krypton factory will also be improved, and the depreciation expense will be diluted, thus realizing the annual gross profit increase at the manufacturing end.

It is worth mentioning that new energy vehicles have entered the "knockout" stage, and some auto companies have exchanged prices for sales to expand the market share. However, Krypton believes that the price war will have an impact in a short time, but it will not affect the development space of Krypton in the long run.

The main products of Krypton focus on the luxury market, and the scale of this market will continue to increase in the future. According to the data of the Federation, the overall sales volume of the luxury car market in 2022 was 3.09 million, a year-on-year increase of 6%. Among them, the traditional luxury car market declined by 4% as a whole, while the new energy luxury car market increased by 49% year-on-year. 　

Moreover, the trend of increasing purchases will further promote the development of the luxury market. According to McKinsey’s survey, over 80% of consumers with existing models of more than 200,000 choose luxury models of more than 200,000 when purchasing. According to statistics, users from Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi brands account for 32% of the total number of users who have purchased 001.

As a global technology enterprise, Krypton will accelerate the pace of globalization. This year, it will take the lead in landing the European strategy, create value in the international mature automobile market, and show the advanced and forward-looking nature of China Automobile Company in the luxury intelligent pure electric circuit.

At the capital market level, Krypton is preparing for an independent listing. In December 2022, Geely Automobile announced that it had submitted a draft registration statement for possible IPO to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on December 7 according to confidentiality standards. At present, the US IPO plan is still in progress.

Krypton has become an important representative of Geely’s transformation in the direction of new energy. Gui Shengyue, CEO of Geely Automobile Holdings Co., Ltd. said that the success of this A round of financing fully proved the profound accumulation and development strength of Geely Automobile in the field of intelligent electrification.

"Taking this as an opportunity, Geely Automobile will transform into electrification, intelligence and globalization more firmly and quickly, continuously increase its market share, and fully enter a new era of intelligent electric Geely development."

According to the data of the Federation, in 2022, China’s new energy automobile industry grew explosively, with production and sales of 7.058 million vehicles and 6.887 million vehicles respectively, up by 96.9% and 93.4% respectively, and the market share reached 25.6%. Under the wave of new energy, Geely has accelerated the transformation to electrification and formulated clear strategic planning objectives.

At present, Geely’s new energy transformation has achieved remarkable results. It has built an electrification system with the parallel development of pure electricity, hybrid, power exchange and methanol. It already owns a number of new energy automobile brands such as Geometry, Extreme Krypton, Extreme Star, Ruilan, Lotus and Radar, and the price distribution range is wide.

According to official data, in 2022, the cumulative sales volume of Geely Automobile’s new energy reached 328,700 vehicles, and the annual new energy penetration rate was about 23%, which was three times higher than that in 2021, far higher than the industry average growth rate, and the new energy penetration rate in a single month has repeatedly exceeded 30%. In 2023, Geely Automobile Group set the sales target at 1.65 million vehicles, among which the sales target of new energy vehicles increased by more than 100% compared with the total sales achieved in 2022.

On February 4th this year, CEO Gan Jiayu of Geely Automobile Group announced at the internal annual business meeting that Geely brand will officially release the "Geely brand new energy strategy" at the main venue of Hangzhou Asian Games on February 23rd, and launch the Geely brand high-end new energy series, the first intelligent electric product in this series will also usher in the world premiere.

Yang Xueliang, senior vice president of Geely Holding Group, said during the interview that the high-end new energy series has three power forms: pure electricity, plug-in hybrid and extended-range hybrid. The new series will adopt a brand-new design language and intelligent configuration, and emphasize the direct connection of users in operation.

With the launch of the new series, Geely Automobile will be strengthened in the new energy market of 200,000 to 300,000 yuan. It can be expected that Geely Automobile, which is more determined to transform into an electrified route, will still be the leader in the new era.