Tencent Invests in Electric Bicycle Firm Tenways
One of Tencent’s investment affiliates recently took a stake in ShenZhen Tenways Technovation Limited, a manufacturer of electric bicycles. The registered capital of the company increased 38.8%, from about 19.2857 million yuan ($2.7 million) to about 26.7669 million yuan ($3.8 million).
ShenZhen Tenways Technovation was hatched from Trinity, headquartered in Guangzhou. It is a comprehensive enterprise with many well-known bicycle brands and a complete supply chain system for producing mountain bikes, road bikes and folding bikes.
Around 2014, Liang Xiaoling, who had accumulated many years of experience at HSBC, took over as the general manager of Trinity. After taking office, Liang launched the electric bicycle business.
The firm’s electric bicycle design is similar in appearance to ordinary bicycles, equipped with a power system with sensors as the core, mainly driven by human pedals and supplemented by electric power. It combines aesthetics, sports and convenience. Electric bicycles can be used in mountainous regions, cities and for short-distance travel. Usually, the motor power of bicycles for mountainous regions is higher, with a higher price tag.
Tenways was established in May of 2021, and its main brand is primarily for European and American consumers. Investors of this electric bicycle company also include well-known investment institutions such as Hillhouse Capital, Eastern Bell Capital, Meridian Capital and Cygnus Equity.
According to the official introduction, within one year of its establishment, the company quickly set up its sales headquarters in Europe and the Netherlands, and set up over 200 physical stores. Tenways is currently offering two models at £1,499 and £1,899.
The pricing of global electric bicycle brands is relatively high, because Europe has special standards for batteries, motors and motor controllers, leading to higher costs. In contrast, China has a relatively mature bicycle supply chain system, lower labor costs, more efficient production methods and faster logistics system.
An investor who pays attention to cross-border e-commerce in Shenzhen said that since last year, electric bicycle makers in the cross-border e-commerce field have attracted much investment.”
SEE ALSO: Niu Technologies Releases New Electric Bicycles
In February of this year, Urtopia completed a pre-A round of financing totaling nearly $10 million, jointly led by Lightspeed China Partners and DCM. Its products are mainly for the European and American markets, with an average selling price of $2,500. In March this year, Aventon completed its first round of financing worth tens of millions of dollars, featuring exclusive investment by Gaorong Capital. Although Aventon is a US electric bicycle brand, its founder Zhang Jianwei is a Chinese person born in Yongkang, Zhejiang Province, which is famous for its hardware industry. In July of this year, SURPANDA received angel financing of several million yuan.
