CATL establishes a new investment platform
According to investment industry sources, recently, CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited) issued an announcement stating that the company plans to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary, Times Resources Group (Xiamen) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Times Resources Group"), with a proposed registered capital of 30 billion yuan.
This is another professional investment operation and management platform of CATL, which focuses on the new energy mineral field. It is worth mentioning that not long ago, CATL invited mining tycoon Chen Jinghe to serve as a consultant for the company's mining department.
This situation is thought-provoking.
The Birth of CATL's New Investment Platform
Why establish a new investment platform?
In the announcement, CATL further explained the reason: To ensure the safety and stability of the upstream raw material supply, the company has gradually laid out key new energy mineral resources such as lithium, nickel, and phosphorus. On this basis, to further extend to the upstream key raw material field and build an integrated industrial chain competitive advantage, the company plans to establish Times Resources Group.
In terms of positioning, Times Resources Group will serve as a professional investment operation and management platform in the new energy mineral field. After its establishment, this platform will integrate existing mining-related assets around the company's battery industry layout and needs, actively expand high-quality domestic and overseas mineral resource projects, and ensure the supply of raw materials for the main business and the safety of the industrial chain.
In other words, by establishing a new platform, CATL will extend its investment reach further into the energy mineral field.
Actually, there have been signs of CATL's move for a long time. In the past few years, the prices of key raw materials such as lithium, nickel, and phosphorus have skyrocketed and plummeted like a roller coaster. Even the absolute leader in the global power battery industry has suffered a great deal from such extreme fluctuations.
For this reason, CATL has long set its sights on upstream mining rights. Recently, CATL officially hired Chen Jinghe, the founder and former chairman of Zijin Mining, to serve as a consultant for the company's mining department to help it expand its mining supply chain business.
It should be noted that Chen Jinghe is known as a "godfather-level" figure in the Chinese mining industry. The latest market value of Zijin Mining, which he led, is as high as 930 billion yuan. In January this year, Chen Jinghe officially announced his retirement. The urgency of CATL to invite the "King of Asian Mining" out of retirement is self-evident.
When CATL takes action, it's still the familiar formula. It is reported that the proposed registered capital of Times Resources Group is 30 billion yuan, which will be contributed by CATL in the form of currency and equity. The cash part will be self-owned and self-raised funds, and the equity part will be the equity of relevant subordinate holding subsidiaries and affiliated companies held by the company.
On the same day, CATL also released its first-quarter report for this year. During the reporting period, the company achieved an operating income of 129.131 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 52.45%; the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 2.0738 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 48.52%. This means that the company earned a net profit of 230 million yuan per day in the first quarter. It's not hard to imagine how generous it is.
The CATL Ecosystem
The Busy Industry Investor
What the venture capital circle is more familiar with is that CATL has built a huge investment map.
According to Qichacha data, since its establishment, CATL has made 152 external investments and indirectly holds shares in as many as 14,107 enterprises, covering lithium battery raw materials, manufacturing/testing equipment, complete vehicles and components, wind power, photovoltaics, energy storage, aerospace, etc.
Unconsciously, a group of investment institutions with the "CATL DNA" have begun to be active in the venture capital circle. For example, Puquan Capital, Chendao Capital, Bairui Capital, etc., all have inextricable relationships with CATL.
For CATL, such a need is particularly urgent. As a new wave of industrial tides is coming, it is an inevitable move to extend its reach to the upstream and downstream through investment, which is related to its future survival and status. Therefore, the CATL ecosystem frequently appears behind unicorns such as Galaxy Universal, Qianxun Intelligence, Songyan Power, and Zhongqing Robot.
Specifically, Puquan Capital is held by "CATL New Energy Industry Investment Co., Ltd.", a CVC subsidiary wholly owned by CATL. It focuses on tracks such as carbon neutrality, embodied intelligence, new energy materials, and unmanned driving. So far, it has appeared behind star projects such as Galaxy Universal, Zhongqing Robot, Lingyi Automobile, and Yikong Zhijia.
Chendao Capital is more like a flexible, extensive, and deeply bound "external partner" or "ecosystem fund". It almost conducts investments along the mid - and downstream applications and emerging scenario incubations of the CATL industrial chain. Not long ago, it just invested in Jiangxing Intelligence, a physical AI model company, and also became the lead investor in the Series B financing of Songyan Power, a Beijing - based embodied intelligence company.
Even earlier, the "CATL ecosystem" had bet on an embodied unicorn. In 2024, Bairui Capital, an investment institution founded by Li Ping, the co - founder and vice - chairman of CATL, invested in Qianxun Intelligence, whose latest valuation has exceeded 20 billion yuan. The latest move is to bet on Digua Robot.
Gradually, the CATL ecosystem has become a kind of benchmark. As we can see, the financing of embodied intelligence is booming at present, and whether a company has received investment from the CATL ecosystem has become a hard indicator to measure the commercialization ability of an embodied enterprise. Recently, the "CATL round" has become popular.
After all, embodied intelligence is moving from technological breakthrough to large - scale commercial implementation. Securing industrial capital like CATL is a testament to a company's commercialization ability. More importantly, enterprises not only gain real money but also the most real verification scenarios and the most stable order sources.
Looking back more than a decade ago, when CATL was first established, perhaps no one could have imagined that it would grow from a small coastal city in Fujian to become a global power battery giant. Now, it's its turn to support the rise of a new batch of Chinese technology enterprises.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Investment World" (ID: pedaily2012), written by Wu Qiong and reprinted by 36Kr with authorization.