Alibaba-Backed IM Motors Completes Initial Funding Round

Chinese EV brand IM Motors announced on August 1 its signing of a Round-A Equity Financing Agreement, bringing the company’s overall valuation to nearly 30 billion yuan ($4.4 billion).

The financing was led by Bank of Communications Capital Management, an equity investment platform of Bank of Communications Group, and SAIC continued to make additional investments. At the same time, many investment institutions such as ICBC Investment, National Green Development Fund, Zhiyou Venture Capital, Shanghai State-Owned Enterprise Comprehensive Reform Fund and CITIC Securities have been introduced.

Established at the end of 2020, IM Motors is a high-end electric vehicle brand jointly built by SAIC, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech and Alibaba Group. In terms of equity, SAIC accounts for 54%, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech accounts for 18%, and Alibaba accounts for 18%.

This June, IM L7, the first model of IM Motors, was officially launched, and the prices of the two models – the L7 Pro and the L7 Dynamic – were 408,800 yuan ($64,143) and 368,800 yuan ($57,866) respectively.

Liu Tao, the co-CEO of IM Motors, said that market demand in the 400,000-yuan segment and its growth of users are very great, and IM Motors directly targets traditional luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi in this field. According to the latest data, since the start of delivery on June 18th, IM’s L7 has delivered 1,051 units in total, the volume of which is expected to continue growing in August.

SEE ALSO: Alibaba-Backed IM Motors Releases New L7 Models

IM Motors revealed that it plans to go public in the second half of 2022 and start delivering the SUV version of L7 – the IM LS7. In 2023, the EV maker will also introduce two luxury pure electric intelligent B-class models to enter the mainstream luxury market segment. In view of a new high-end consumption trend whereby users pay more and more attention to art and style, it also plans to mass-produce AIRO, a model designed in cooperation with world-famous design studio Heatherwick Studio, in 2024.