Electric Vehicle Charging Operator Yunkuaichong Completes B1 Financing, Led by Lithium-ion battery manufacturer CATL
Jiangsu Yunkuaichong New Energy Technology Co., Limited on Monday completed a B1 round of financing, led by Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, Empower Investment and Chasing Fund.
“The fresh funds will be mainly used for the research and development of SaaS technology and energy storage technology,” a spokesman for Yunkuaichong said.
The Jiangsu-based company previously completed round A financing worth 100 million yuan ($16 million) in 2018, which was led by Hidden Hill Fund under GLP.
Established in November 2016, Yunkuaichong, a leading new energy service provider, built the largest third-party electric vehicle charging platform in China. In 2017, the enterprise officially released the charging sharing platform. Through the platform, users can search for a charging point, pay by scanning a QR code, and monitor the charging status in real time. As of May 2021, the platform had covered more than 270 cities in China, serving over 2,100 charging point operators.
Instead of building charging points, Yunkuaichong focuses on technology research and user operation. On the one hand, it offers charging point operators nationwide all-sided support ranging from site selection, station construction schemes, access to the platform for operation improvement, finance, some value-added services. On the other hand, it provides such services as point searching, charging and payment for new energy vehicle owners.
In China, the scale of new energy vehicles is growing rapidly. According to the latest statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, as of the end of May this year, the number of new energy vehicles in China has reached about 5.8 million units. As of April, 65,000 charging stations, 644 recharging stations and 1.87 million charging points have been built nationwide. The rapid growth of new energy vehicles has driven the development of charging point manufacturers and operators.
SEE ALSO: Tencent-backed Leading Chinese EV Maker NIO Patents Technology for Wireless Charging System, Method
As of May this year, there are 884,000 charging points in the country, of which 67,000 were operated by Yunkuaichong, China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance’s report showed.
CATL is a global leader in the development and manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries, with businesses covering R&D, manufacturing and sales in battery systems for new energy vehicles and energy storage systems. At the 2nd China Data Center Renewable Energy Technology Summit held in June, the company exhibited its UPS lithium battery cabinets, dedicated to providing an uninterruptible power supply for special scenarios.
