Raised hundreds of millions in financing, a post-1997 Peking University alumnus created a revolutionary battery: Eliminated charging cables

In the classic Hong Kong movie "From Beijing with Love", the agent "Da Vinci" took out a solar flashlight that doesn't require batteries. It only lights up in the presence of light and definitely won't light up in the dark. What if you need to use it at night? You have to shine another flashlight on it for it to light up.

This useless invention made countless audiences burst into laughter.

Now, the solar flashlight has become a reality. By covering the flashlight with a layer of "clothing" thinner than a playing card, the flashlight can be charged when the "clothing" is exposed to light and can light up at any time. This layer of "clothing" is a flexible photovoltaic cell made of perovskite materials. It is not only lightweight but also has extremely high photoelectric conversion efficiency.

Perovskite is regarded as the core material for the next - generation photovoltaic power generation. As early as from 2021 to 2022, the investment in the perovskite field was already close to 10 billion yuan. Investment giants such as Tencent, Hillhouse Capital, IDG, Temasek, and Sequoia have all entered the market.

Recently, Yanhe Technology, a perovskite battery enterprise, completed over 100 million yuan in Series A financing. The lead investor was Dongfang Jiacheng, and institutions such as Zhuichuang Venture Capital, Xingxiang Capital, Guoke Venture Capital, and Xiaochi Capital participated in the follow - on investment. The old shareholder Caixin Capital also made a follow - on investment.

Yanhe Technology was founded in 2024. The founders are Feng Fan and Peng Zongyang, two classmates majoring in materials chemistry from Peking University. Traditional photovoltaic enterprises mainly produce large - scale crystalline silicon solar panels for power generation in photovoltaic power stations. In contrast, Yanhe Technology provides lightweight, small, and thin perovskite photovoltaic cell components for consumer electronics, smart home, and other products.

Feng Fan was born in 1997 in Zibo, Shandong. He graduated from the Department of Materials Chemistry at Peking University with a bachelor's degree and obtained a master's degree in Management Science and Engineering from Columbia University in the United States. After graduation, he worked in the investment and strategic departments of CITIC Securities and Shenshi Technology successively.

He witnessed that with the promotion of AI, software was booming while hardware was relatively stagnant. He believes that the bottleneck of hardware innovation in the AI era lies in the energy structure, and the characteristics of perovskite can exactly fill this gap - from the light - powered remote control without batteries to AR glasses with a battery life increased by more than 30%, this "passive power supply" can truly solve the pain points of hardware.

In September 2023, Feng Fan decided to take action. In December of the same year, he launched angel financing. Yanhe Technology was established in early 2024. Subsequently, it built a core pilot - scale and R & D platform in Beijing and planned a large - scale production base in Changde, Hunan. It successfully launched the first fully automated production line for consumer - grade perovskite batteries in China.

Yanhe Technology has successively established in - depth strategic partnerships with enterprises such as Lenovo, Aqara, and Signify to jointly develop products such as keyboards, sensors, and smart glasses equipped with perovskite photovoltaic cells. Currently, Yanhe Technology has reached cooperation agreements with nearly a hundred well - known brands in more than 50 countries and regions around the world.

In Feng Fan's view, the first scenario where perovskite batteries will explode is to replace the "territory" of traditional AA/AAA/button batteries, such as various remote controls, electronic price tags, and passive sensors, which will bring about a shipment volume in the tens of billions.

Recently, Pencil News had an exchange with Feng Fan on topics such as perovskite business opportunities. The following is Feng Fan's oral account.

Statement: The interviewee has confirmed that the information in the article is true and accurate. Pencil News is willing to provide a trust endorsement for its content. The following is Feng Fan's oral account.

- 01 -

My experience at Shenshi Technology convinced me that AI will drive the emergence of revolutionary products in software and hardware, and hardware cannot do without electricity. In the field of hardware, energy is the most worthy direction for investment.

Our company was founded in February 2024. At that time, we judged that the perovskite industry had entered a mature stage.

First, the technological maturity has improved. The production process of perovskite has become relatively mature, the way of building production lines is clearer, and the cost has also been significantly reduced. For example, the cost of building a 100 - megawatt production line has dropped from several hundred million yuan in the past to about 100 million yuan.

Second, there have been relatively significant breakthroughs in both the efficiency and stability of perovskite.

Third, a very crucial judgment: Perovskite is not suitable for use in photovoltaic power stations at this stage. On the contrary, its advantages lie precisely in areas where crystalline silicon cannot perform well, such as power generation in low - light conditions, flexible forms, and light weight. And these are exactly what the 3C consumer goods and user energy storage markets need.

Feng Fan, the founder of Yanhe Technology, graduated from the Department of Materials Chemistry at Peking University

So we focus on the consumer - grade track rather than the traditional energy direction. Several opportunities are emerging in the consumer track:

First, environmental protection regulations are becoming increasingly strict. Traditional dry batteries pose significant environmental hazards, and the heavy reliance of a large number of consumer - grade devices such as remote controls on dry batteries goes against the global environmental protection trend. This contradiction has directly given rise to an urgent need for a clean and sustainable new energy supply method.

Second, with the development of AI, the power consumption of consumer - grade devices is increasing. Especially with the higher requirements for edge computing, the demand for stable and efficient power supply from devices is growing day by day, and the traditional power supply mode can no longer meet the needs.

Third, the power consumption of a single function - a certain chip or component - in devices is constantly decreasing, while the overall performance is improving. This technological feature of "low power consumption and high performance" forms a good coupling relationship with light - powered energy supply, truly facilitating a revolutionary change in the consumer - grade energy supply mode.

The problem we solve is to create a portable core power - supply device by miniaturizing and thinning photovoltaic technology to the extreme. The advantages of perovskite itself provide crucial support for this goal, enabling the utilization of light energy to break through scene limitations and truly achieve "everything can generate electricity." For example, the perovskite light - powered remote control doesn't require batteries or a charging USB port. As long as there is light, there is electricity, achieving perpetual power supply in the true sense.

For medium - and high - power - consumption devices such as smart watches and AR glasses, adding a perovskite battery can increase the battery life by more than 30%. Considering that the improvement of the energy density of lithium - ion batteries in the future is also limited, this increase in battery life is of great significance.

Of course, from 2023 to early 2024, the commercialization path of perovskite was still unclear, but the market window period was good. Leading photovoltaic power generation giants also saw this trend and increased their layout in the perovskite photovoltaic field, but their core focus still remained on the traditional power station power generation track. Applying perovskite technology to consumer - grade scenarios was an absolute non - consensus in the industry in early 2024.

From disposable batteries to lithium - ion batteries, human life has improved, but this system has been solidified for more than a decade without revolutionary changes. The market needs a new energy paradigm.

The process was painful. From the laboratory to the pilot - scale line and from the pilot - scale stage to the mass - production stage, we experienced the unknown and fear - the team worked in shifts in the factory, often getting up in the middle of the night to deal with machine shutdowns. At that time, we weren't sure if we could achieve mass production, if the effect would be good enough, and if the market would really come. Even investors would ask when looking at the progress: Is it really going to work? I admire Elon Musk because he has the dream of going to Mars but can also sleep in the workshop to monitor the progress.

The first - generation products were very ugly, but after continuous iteration and upgrading, they are now both aesthetically pleasing and practical, and have been successfully applied to products such as thermo - hygrometers and the already - shipped remote controls. Early customers provided a lot of valuable feedback and tolerated various problems from the prototype to mass production, which provided crucial support for technology refinement and experience improvement.

Lenovo explored light - powered keyboards very early and in - depth. It developed the first - generation products, covering multiple core domestic and international technology routes such as amorphous silicon and dye - sensitized solar cells. However, in order to achieve a more revolutionary experience upgrade, it had been looking for a breakthrough solution that was both innovative and could be mass - produced. Eventually, it chose to establish in - depth cooperation with us.

From battery design and reliability testing, to transforming the laboratory DEMO into an actual product, and finally to the large - scale mass - production and commercialization, Lenovo's partners participated in the joint R & D throughout the process. Its core requirement - an in - built high - power - density light - powered battery - guided our product R & D direction and gave us enough time for iteration. In the past, mechanical keyboards had to be powered by cables, but in the future, they may completely get rid of cables and can be charged by light. This explores new ideas for the wireless and low - carbon development of peripheral products.

In the future, we and Lenovo will also jointly explore the application possibilities of perovskite technology in more smart hardware scenarios.

- 02 -

In the past more than a decade, the transition from removable batteries to lithium - ion batteries has brought about huge changes in the entire intelligent terminal industry. However, in recent years, there has been a standstill in the energy and intelligent hardware sectors.

The next wave may come from the combination of a high - efficiency light - energy system and new energy - storage materials, which may reshape the form of terminal devices, just like lithium - ion batteries did back then.

When perovskite light - powered batteries are widely used in consumer electronics such as mobile phones, earphones, and smart watches, the anxiety about battery life may become a thing of the past. If robots are equipped with "perovskite vests", they can replenish their power autonomously just by being exposed to sunlight. By installing flexible perovskite on the surface of satellites, spaceships, or car windows, the battery life and service life can be significantly extended.

In the consumer - grade market, the opportunities that will truly generate stable and large - scale cash flow in the short term are roughly concentrated in four types of products.

The first type is remote controls, with a very large volume. China produces about one or two billion various remote controls every year. The demand in this direction is stable, and it is a relatively typical battery - free power supply model.

The second type is electronic price tags, where perovskite batteries replace button batteries. The global market scale is huge. Several leading enterprises in the electronic paper field have become our core customers.

The third type is passive sensors, such as thermo - hygrometers. Almost every household has them, not to mention in industrial scenarios, where a factory may need tens of thousands of such sensors.

The last type is door and window controllers, such as smart locks, window controllers, and curtain controllers.

Smart glasses, smart watches, mobile phones, smart rings, passive locators, etc., will also be the large - scale application terminals for perovskite batteries, but the volume will not increase as early.

There is a consensus within our company - the things we do must be able to reach a shipment volume in the billions, otherwise it won't make sense. The directions mentioned above are all aiming for this scale.

The factory of Yanhe Technology in Changde, Hunan supplies products to well - known enterprises such as Lenovo, Aqara, and Signify

In terms of the business model, we are still a typical B2B company, positioning ourselves as a "provider of new energy solutions for AI hardware". We don't directly sell perovskite batteries to end - consumers but supply them to downstream customers. The customers integrate them into various terminal products and then push them to the market, ultimately allowing consumers to enjoy the experience of "no need to charge".

The cost of small - sized products may be just a few cents, and the gross profit is also good. However, in the short term, the most crucial problem we face is cost reduction. The goal is to make the cost of a light - powered power supply solution close to that of a button battery, so that consumers can purchase and use it without a second thought.

We are also cooperating with automobile manufacturers to develop solar roof glass to see if we can alleviate the anxiety about vehicle battery life. The direction we want to promote is similar to the logic of the transition from wired networks to Wi - Fi - promoting the upgrade of smart hardware from "wired charging" to "light - powered passive power supply".

When people outside mention perovskite, they always habitually associate it with ground - based power stations, thinking that it is in homogeneous competition with crystalline silicon. This is actually a cognitive limitation of this technology. If you look at the long - term, you will find that the core endowment of perovskite is far more than just "high efficiency". Its advantages are comprehensive: lightweight, flexible, strong power generation in low - light conditions, and miniaturization, etc. These characteristics determine that it should not be limited to the traditional energy track, and we should not underestimate the fundamental changes it can bring to human life.

Many people think that the current annual production capacity of 50GW of ground - based power stations is amazing, but in essence, this is still an extension of the traditional energy supply mode. What we are aiming at is the consumer - grade scenarios closer to daily life. In the future, perhaps just selling 50 million small perovskite light - powered batteries can enable 50 million families to completely get rid of their dependence on dry batteries and wired charging. Everyone has to charge their mobile phones before going to bed every night now, but one day in the future, they may no longer need to do so.

The changes that penetrate into the details of life are far more valuable than the production - capacity competition in a single track and can better reflect the unique charm of perovskite technology.

This article only represents the independent views of the narrator, does not represent the position of Pencil News, and does not constitute any investment advice.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Pencil News" (ID: pencilnews), author: Song Ge, published by 36Kr with authorization.