NIO Capital's Picks

 

NIO Capital wins ChinaVenture awards

 

NIO Capital was listed on ChinaVenture's annual ranking — China's Top 100 VC Firms and Top 30 Equity Investment Firms in the Carbon Neutrality Industry. ChinaVenture annual lists are one of the most influential rankings in the primary investment sector in the country.

NIO Capital's portfolio companies Black Sesame Technologies and Hyper Strong also featured on the lists. Autonomous driving chips developer Black Sesame Technologies was awarded the title of Top 10 Investees in China's AI and Big Data Industry, while Autonomous driving chips developer Hyper Strong was named China's Top 10 Investees in the Carbon Neutrality Industry.

 

NIO Capital Managing Director LI Yao recognized as '40Under40' investor

 

Fund-of-Fund research firm China-fof.com released a series of "40U40" lists to highlight outstanding investors under the age of 40. Li Yao, managing director of NIO Capital, was named as one of the 40 investors. The list is aimed to inspire down-to-earth, young investors who are contributing to the private equity investment sector.

 

Leading ESG Initiatives

 

NIO Capital CEO Club highlights the importance of ESG

 

In May, NIO Capital CEO Club joined hands with JPMorgan to hold an ESG-themed webinar.

Maggie Ye, director of NIO Capital, Sherrill Shurui Lu, executive director of TMT Investment Banking at JPMorgan, and Setch Chang, regional sales manager for Sustainalytics, shared their insights on ESG financing and corporate sustainable development amid China's push to achieve carbon peak and neutrality targets.

They shared recent development in ESG financing, applications of ESG in different financing products, ESG rating and verification, as well as specific cases, to show how important it is for companies to value ESG.

 

Portfolio Spotlight

 

Automobiles and Logistics

 

Pony.ai enters the 2022 CNBC Disruptor 50 list

 

CNBC released its 10th list of 2022 CNBC Disruptor 50 earlier this month to recognize "50 private enterprises growing and innovating through a challenging market and changed the world while inspiring change in their larger, incumbent competitors".

This year's list honored Pony.ai, the only autonomous driving company among the 50 finalists, indicating Pony aims to free drivers' hands and feet with its cutting-edge autonomous driving technologies, making mobility more convenient, comfortable, and safe, under the title "Hand over the reins".

 

Innovusion joins TuSimple to scale up autonomous freight

 

Innovusion, the world's leading supplier of image-grade LiDAR, and TuSimple, a global autonomous truck developer, formed strategic cooperation. The two companies plan to scale up the application of autonomous heavy-duty trucks in ports and long-haul highways among other suitable places.

 

TrunkTech strategically partners with HIKAILINK

 

TrunkTech, a maker of autonomous trucks, formed strategic cooperation with HIKAILINK, a subsidiary of State-backed CETHIK Group. The two companies aim to build a vehicle-road-cloud computing ecology and put vehicle-road coordination technologies into the mass application, leveraging their complementary advantages in intelligent connected vehicles, vehicle-road coordination, and smart transportation.

 

SAIC Mobility robotaxi, empowered by Momenta's autonomous driving technology, is on display at China International Big Data Industry Expo 2022

 

A robotaxi of SAIC Mobility, which boasts Level 4 autonomous driving solutions developed by Momenta, is showcased at China International Big Data Industry Expo 2022. SAIC Mobility robotaxi is jointly developed by three leading parties in the self-driving industry, namely Momenta, a world-leading autonomous driving company, SAIC AI Lab, and SAIC Mobility. SAIC Mobility launched robotaxi services in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, at the end of 2021.

 

Energy

 

AlphaESS showcases products in Australia and Germany

 

World-leading energy storage solution and service provider AlphaESS unveiled new products at the Smart Energy Council Conference and Exhibition, the premier solar, storage and smart energy event in Australia, which is a major market for the company.

The company also demonstrated its storage systems at the smarter E/Intersolar Europe/ees Europe exhibition in Munich, Germany, the largest and most influential solar energy technology exhibition in the world.

 

AlphaESS and Maxeon Solar Technologies target residential customers

 

AlphaESS and Nasdaq-listed Maxeon Solar Technologies have entered into a strategic partnership to develop integrated clean energy solutions for residential customers. The two companies will combine AlphaESS' power conversion and storage solutions with Maxeon's solar panel technology and its go-to-market channel comprising more than 1,400 installers and resellers in over 100 countries. This partnership is expected to result in more energy independence, bill savings, and positive contributions to the environment.

 

YKC Charging cooperates with SF Express for green logistics; joins hands with Hainan Haiqi Transportation Group to expand in Hainan Province

 

YKC Charging, a leading EV charging network and energy management service provider in China, has formed a cooperation deal with SF Express, a logistics giant in China. YKC will offer smart charging services for the new energy freight trucks of SF Express, leveraging on its 200,000 charging terminals countrywide.

YKC Charging and road transportation service provider Haiqi Transportation Group have reached a cooperation deal to provide software R&D services for Haiqi’s charging platform. This cooperation marks the second large order YKC has secured to customize software services.

 

NewLink signs deal with Lion Tech to offer drivers refueling and recharging services

 

NewLink, a digital energy solutions provider, and Lion Tech, Chinese automaker Chery's automotive intelligence arm, have reached a strategic cooperation to provide gas refueling or battery charging services for cars equipped with Lion Tech's cloud system. Drivers can search for the nearest gas stations or charging piles via NewLink's platform and pay the bills on their car screen.

The agreement is part of a prevailing trend for digital energy suppliers to cooperate with automakers. NewLink can automatically match drivers' needs and the location data recorded by their cars with nearby refueling and charging services, creating an excellent energy supply experience with its "energy+ car-side intelligence" solution.

 

NewLink and China Certification and Inspection Group form JV to accelerate the digital transformation of the energy sector

 

Digital energy solutions provider NewLink and quality service provider China Certification and Inspection Group have established a joint venture, following the trend of building win-win cooperation between State-owned companies and private enterprises.

The newly established JV will provide quality inspection, rating, and standardization certification services for operators of energy retail terminals, such as gas stations and charging stations, and for firms in the carbon neutrality and energy storage sectors.

It aims to promote the safe, carbon-free, intelligent and digital development of the energy industry. NewLink has built a complete chain engaging companies in energy production, transportation, storage, consumption, and recycling since its establishment six years ago.

 

Deep Technologies

 

Ambilight to provide BYD with electrochromic flexible solid thin-film technology

 

Ambilight's electrochromic (EC) flexible solid thin-film technology will be applied to BYD's new model Seal. As a world leader in EC technology, Ambilight is the only high-tech company capable of mass production of large flexible EC thin films globally. Its cooperation with BYD on the Seal model will also contribute to the cause of carbon peak and neutrality.

 

Black Sesame Technologies to provide high-performance autonomous driving chips to JAC Group

 

Sutonomous driving chips developer Black Sesame Technologies and JAC Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement to co-develop an intelligent driving system based on Black Sesame's HuaShan-2 A1000 chips.

The platform will be used for JAC's Sehol models, which can also be upgraded based on Black Sesame's next-generation chips in the future. HuaShan-2 A 1000 autonomous driving chips will start mass production soon since related certification has already been gained and the supporting software system is also ready.

 

Black Sesame Technologies launches autonomous driving middleware platform to cut application development costs

 

Black Sesame Technologies has released its middleware platform Hanhai-ADSP (Autonomous Driving Solution Platform), to compress the time of developing and deploying intelligent driving applications. The platform plays a major role in Black Sesame Technologies' goal to build a team of domestic high-performance computing autonomous driving platforms.

 

An autonomous driving middleware platform serves as a bridge connecting application programs and operating systems, providing comprehensive function integration while maintaining a high-level operating performance. It is a unified and standard interactive interface for application developers, lowering their R&D workload, which means this kind of platform will become an indispensable part of future autonomous driving solutions.

 

Nreal Air AR glasses go on sale in the UK

 

Britain's leading 5G operator EE launched the Nreal Air smart glasses in the United Kingdom on May 20, making the UK the sixth country Chinese AR glasses company Nreal has entered.

 

The Nreal Air, which debuted in Japan in February this year, focuses on large-screen viewing with a 201-inch screen at a distance of 6 meters. While most AR glasses on the market are considered "heavy, ugly and uncomfortable", the latest Nreal product solves those problems and provides users with a better experience of watching streaming videos and playing games with EE's 5G service.