The top 3 startups with the highest financing in the new energy sector in Q3 are actually located in Inner Mongolia and Sichuan.

State-owned enterprises, with strong financial strength, take the lead, while private enterprises boast strong innovation capabilities. IT Juzi has found that this round of new energy investments is quite remarkable.

Let's first look at some macro statistical data charts and then delve into the micro levels of enterprises and investors.

From the first quarter of 2024 to the third quarter of 2025, the financing scale of domestic new energy industry chain (covering new energy vehicles, photovoltaic, wind power, energy storage, etc.) start-up enterprises showed significant fluctuations. The specific data are as follows:

Note: The new energy industry chain includes new energy vehicles, photovoltaic, wind power, energy storage, etc.

In terms of financing events, in the past two years, the number of single-quarter financing transactions in the domestic new energy track has been relatively stable, fluctuating between 120 and 180, with an average of 140.

In Q3 2025, it reached 174, a year-on-year increase of 29.9% and a quarter-on-quarter increase of 12.3%.

From the trend of financing amount, affected by individual extremely large-scale financings, the overall financing amount in the new energy track fluctuated greatly (as shown by the blue dotted line), and the maximum difference between quarters could reach 40 billion yuan. After excluding the extremely large values, the fluctuation range of single-quarter financing amount narrowed to about 12 billion yuan (as shown by the blue solid line), which can better reflect the normal financing level of the track.

Specifically in the third quarter of 2025, the estimated total financing amount of domestic new energy start-up enterprises was 41.583 billion yuan. After analysis, there were two large abnormal financings in this quarter, which were 11.8 billion yuan (Inner Mongolia China General Nuclear Power) and nearly 11.5 billion yuan (Fusion Energy). After excluding these two transactions, the financing amount in the third quarter dropped to 18.283 billion yuan. Compared with 16.583 billion yuan in the same period last year (after removing abnormal values), the total financing amount increased by 10.3% year-on-year. This data is more in line with the overall financing rhythm of the industry in the current period.

In the third quarter of 2025, the number distribution of financing rounds in the new energy track showed the characteristics of "emphasis on both early and growth stages and active strategic investment". Among them, Series A financing became the most core financing round in this period with 79 deals, followed by 31 strategic investments, and there were 29 angel rounds.

In terms of financing scale, the strategic investment round attracted the largest amount, reaching 32.265 billion yuan, accounting for as high as 77.6% of the total. Excluding strategic investments, the total financing of other venture capital rounds was about 9.318 billion yuan, with an average financing of about 65.16 million yuan per deal.

Overall, capital tends to invest in new energy enterprises with high technological maturity and clear commercial prospects. At the same time, industrial capital has a significant demand for resource integration and collaborative development by strategically investing in new energy start-ups, and the capital investment is greater.

In the third quarter of 2025, the regional concentration of financing activities in the new energy track was relatively high, forming a pattern of coordinated development with Jiangsu Province as the core and multiple regions.

Among them, Jiangsu Province, with a 19% share of the number of financing enterprises, became the most active region for financing in the domestic new energy track, fully reflecting the province's comprehensive advantages in terms of new energy industry foundation, policy support, and industrial chain matching.

New energy start-up enterprises in Shanghai and Guangdong received about 15% and 14% of the transaction volume respectively, ranking second and third. Beijing and Zhejiang accounted for about 9% and 8% respectively.

The capital enthusiasm in the new energy track is not only concentrated in the traditional economically strong provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong and the first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. For example, other regions such as Sichuan and Tianjin accounted for 35% of the new energy financing transactions.

Among them, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, with their unique new energy industry foundations (abundant natural resources such as wind and solar energy), are also attracting capital investment, and are expected to form a more balanced regional distribution pattern in the future.

In the first three quarters of 2025, the investor camp in the domestic new energy track showed a situation of "coordinated efforts of market-oriented GPs and state-owned platforms", and the two types of entities had different focuses in capital layout.

Zhongke Chuangxing and ICBC Capital tied for the most active new energy investors with 9 investments each.

Zhongke Chuangxing is good at early-stage investments. Recently, it invested in two new energy start-up enterprises, "Zhongke Yian" (innovative energy) and Lithium Tai New Energy (battery safety control agent). ICBC Capital mainly focuses on mid- and late-stage investments. It recently participated in the Series D+ financing of "Weilan New Energy" (solid-state lithium battery) and the investment in Fuchuan New Energy (wind power generation), both of which are relatively mature in development.

Hefei Innovation Investment stood out among the investors with local state-owned background and invested in new energy enterprises such as Xingneng Xuanguang this year.

It is worth mentioning that Renfa New Energy Investment, a new investment institution established in 2019 and focusing on the new energy field, ranked among the top five active new energy investment institutions in China by investing in projects such as Hydrogen Ring Energy (biological green hydrogen), Guangxian Technology (photovoltaic energy storage), and Xingneng Xuanguang (controllable nuclear fusion power station) in the first nine months of 2025.

In addition, there are two alumni-based funds, the Tsinghua Alumni Seed Fund (Tsinghua University) and the Beiyang Haitang Fund (Tianjin University). They mainly invest relying on the local entrepreneur alumni circles and are also active in the front line of new energy investment.

Among the start-up enterprises that received the most financing in the domestic new energy track in the third quarter of 2025, the following characteristics were relatively significant:

1. Business areas focus on three core tracks:

Enterprises that received more than hundreds of millions of yuan were mainly distributed in three major fields: clean energy services, advanced energy technologies, and new energy vehicles and their industrial chains.

Among them, there were 10 enterprises related to clean energy services (including wind and photovoltaic power station development) and advanced energy technologies (controllable nuclear fusion, hydrogen energy), and 7 enterprises in the new energy vehicle and its industrial chain (including heavy trucks, batteries, and parts), reflecting the current capital's key layout in the key links of the entire "green power generation - energy storage - terminal application" chain in the new energy field.

2. Regional distribution is highly matched with industrial foundation:

Enterprises with high financing were mainly concentrated in new energy industry strong regions such as Inner Mongolia, Shanghai, Sichuan, and Jiangsu.

Relying on the advantages of wind and solar resources, Inner Mongolia gathered clean energy service enterprises such as Inner Mongolia China General Nuclear Power and Xilin Energy.

Relying on the advantages of technology R & D and commercialization, Shanghai cultivated advanced energy technology enterprises such as Fusion Energy and Nova Fusion.

Based on the industrial foundation of upstream photovoltaic materials, Sichuan gave birth to photovoltaic industrial chain enterprises such as Yongxiang Co., Ltd. and Yingfa Ruineng. The fit between the regional industrial characteristics and the business areas of enterprises is extremely high.

3. State-owned enterprises and central enterprises lead with strong strength, while private enterprises are strong in innovation:

In terms of financing scale, there were 2 enterprises with a single financing of more than 10 billion yuan, which is a very rare phenomenon. Although they are non-listed enterprises, they are all state-owned or central enterprises with special backgrounds, representing the strength of the "national team" in the new energy track.

Inner Mongolia China General Nuclear Power raised 11.8 billion yuan in a single quarter in Q3 2025, making it the enterprise with the highest financing scale in the new energy track in this period and also the largest single strategic investment project in the new energy field in Inner Mongolia in recent years.

Inner Mongolia China General Nuclear Power is a member enterprise of China General Nuclear Power Group. This investment is mainly used for China General Nuclear Power to develop clean energy projects such as wind power, photovoltaic, and energy storage in the Inner Mongolia region, which is an important action to promote the transformation and upgrading of the regional energy industry.

Fusion Energy raised 11.492 billion yuan in the third quarter of this year. This financing is used to promote the upgrade of the new generation of nuclear fusion experimental device and accelerate the breakthrough of nuclear fusion technology from the "experimental stage" to the "small-scale commercial demonstration".

Controllable nuclear fusion is regarded as the "ultimate clean energy", but the technology R & D cycle is long and the investment cost is high. The large-scale financing of Fusion Energy not only injects capital momentum into its own technology R & D, but also drives the development of the domestic nuclear fusion industrial chain (such as the increasing demand for upstream superconducting materials and precision instrument enterprises), and promotes China to occupy a more favorable position in the global nuclear fusion technology competition.

State-owned and central enterprises have outstanding advantages in terms of financial strength and resources, while private enterprises mainly rely on technological innovation capabilities and in - depth experience and technology accumulation in the industrial chain to obtain capital support.

For example, Yongxiang Co., Ltd. raised 4.916 billion yuan in July this year, making it the enterprise with the highest financing scale among photovoltaic industrial chain enterprises.

Yongxiang Co., Ltd. was established in November 2002, jointly invested by Tongwei Group and Sichuan Juxing Enterprise Group. Its headquarters is located in Leshan, Sichuan. It focuses on the production and sales of high - purity silicon and polycrystalline silicon and is one of the leading enterprises in the "silicon material" link in the upstream of the domestic photovoltaic industrial chain. Its products are widely used in the manufacturing of photovoltaic cells and solar modules, and its customers include leading photovoltaic enterprises such as LONGi and JinkoSolar.

Another emerging new energy vehicle enterprise is worth noting - Alcohol Hydrogen Technology. It was established in September 2023 and its headquarters is located in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. In July this year, it announced a Series A financing of 200 million US dollars and received a Pre - A financing of 135 million US dollars at the end of last year. As a start - up enterprise established only two years ago, this achievement is remarkable.

On the one hand, Alcohol Hydrogen Technology has a strong background, backed by the Geely Group. Its founder is Zhou Jianqun, a senior industry veteran who once served as the workshop director and technical deputy factory director of Hangzhou Wanxiang Joint Factory and is currently the chairman of Zhejiang Geely Remote New Energy Vehicle Co., Ltd.

On the other hand, the company has many years of technical accumulation in the methanol field and focuses on the R & D of a new generation of electric vehicles using alcohol - hydrogen energy. Different from the traditional pure - electric and hydrogen - powered vehicle tracks, it is an innovative player in the segmented field.

Currently, pure - electric vehicles have the problems of "difficult charging and short range", and hydrogen - powered vehicles have the problem of "high hydrogen storage cost". In comparison, alcohol - hydrogen energy vehicles have the advantages of "fast energy replenishment, long range, and easy fuel storage", enriching the technical routes of new energy vehicles and promoting the transformation of the industry from a "single technical route" to "diversified technical competition".

This article is from the WeChat public account “IT Juzi” (ID: itjuzi521), author: Wu Meimei, published by 36Kr with authorization.