A dark horse in Chongqing's solid-state battery industry raises another 400 million yuan.

Near the end of the year, a financing deal for solid-state batteries emerged.

According to investment circles, Chongqing Tailan New Energy Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Tailan New Energy") has completed over 400 million yuan in Series B+ financing. This round of financing was jointly participated by Liangjiang Fund, Junan Huitian, Bank of Communications Investment, and Qianjiang Lingdu. Zero2IPO Capital continued to serve as the financial advisor.

It is reported that the funds from this round will be used to accelerate the industrialization process of the company's vehicle-grade solid-state battery products, increase investment in the research and development of key solid-state battery technologies, promote the construction of the company's first mass production line for all-solid-state batteries, strengthen the talent system construction in the new stage, and continuously consolidate the company's first-mover advantage in the application of solid-state batteries in multiple scenarios and dimensions.

Based in Chongqing, the person at the helm of Tailan New Energy is a returnee postdoctoral fellow - Gao Xiang. He studied in Japan and the United States for many years in his early years. With the idea of serving the country through science and technology, he returned to China in 2018 to found Tailan New Energy and has since emerged as a dark horse in the solid-state battery industry.

Rising in Chongqing, Led by a Returnee Postdoctoral Fellow

The story of Tailan New Energy begins with a scientist.

Gao Xiang obtained his doctorate from the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2011, he participated in Toyota's solid-state battery industrialization development project as a postdoctoral fellow. In 2015, he joined the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States to conduct research on thin-film all-solid-state batteries. These top-notch research experiences enabled him to gain in-depth insights into the global development trends and industrialization pain points of solid-state battery technology, laying the groundwork for his future entrepreneurship.

The starting point of industrialization practice was in 2018 when Gao Xiang returned to China to found Tailan New Energy, focusing on the technological innovation and industrial application of solid-state batteries. He has mentioned many times that the current power battery industry is facing a severe challenge, namely the "impossible triangle" among performance, cost, and safety. Solid-state battery technology will be the key to breaking this deadlock.

Today, Tailan New Energy has made substantial breakthroughs in the industrialization process of solid-state batteries. Based on the oxygen-polymer composite route and relying on core self-developed technologies such as ISFD, it has launched the "Safe+" solid-state battery solution and a full range of products for multiple scenarios, simultaneously improving all comprehensive performance indicators of the batteries.

What the outside world may not know is that Tailan New Energy's products have passed the testing and verification of leading downstream customers in large-scale markets such as new energy vehicles, two-wheelers, and energy storage, and have entered the stage of mass delivery. At the same time, it is actively deploying in emerging fields such as low-altitude economy and embodied intelligence, and has developed solid-state battery products with safety performance as the foundation, covering characteristics such as high power and high specific energy. The first batch of special battery packs for robots has been delivered to partner enterprises for actual scenario testing.

In 2025, a project participated by Tailan New Energy was selected into the national key research and development plan for disruptive technologies. It also established strategic partnerships with listed companies such as Narada Power Source and Huitian New Materials, and built an industrial ecological closed-loop of "core technology - key materials - high-end manufacturing - scenario application". Meanwhile, Tailan New Energy has continuously strengthened technological innovation and key breakthroughs, and its compound annual growth rate of patents ranks among the top in the industry.

Currently, Tailan New Energy is moving towards the goal it envisioned at the beginning of its entrepreneurial journey - "to be a popularizer of solid-state batteries and serve society with advanced energy technologies".

Gathering of VC/PE, the Second Half of China's Solid-State Battery Industry

As a dark horse in the solid-state battery industry, Tailan New Energy caught the attention of investors early on.

Business registration information shows that in 2021, Tailan New Energy received Pre-Series A investment from Legend Capital. That year, while the industry was still focused on the incremental improvement of liquid batteries, investors could clearly see the future of solid-state batteries reshaping the energy landscape.

In 2022, Tailan New Energy completed multiple rounds of financing, including Series A, Series A+, and Series A++, within six months. It successively introduced institutions such as Liangjiang Capital, CICC Capital, and China Merchants Group Venture Capital. Legend Capital continued to increase its investment. At that time, the investment team said that in addition to electric vehicles, the superior performance of solid-state batteries can also provide stronger power reserves for new infrastructure and new intelligent terminals. Over the past decade, the world has been looking forward to fundamental technological innovation in the lithium battery industry. They are very pleased to see the hope of the industry taking a big step forward in Tailan New Energy.

In 2023, Tailan New Energy completed Pre-Series B financing. CICC Capital and Zhengqi Holdings continued to lead the investment, and Legend Capital continued to increase its investment.

In August 2024, Tailan New Energy completed a strategic Series B financing of hundreds of millions of yuan, jointly funded by Anhe Fund under Changan Automobile and multiple funds under China South Industries Group. This officially kicked off a multi-dimensional strategic cooperation with the vehicle group, ranging from joint technology research to industrial application and capital empowerment.

This Series B+ financing is more of a sign - it further confirms that hard-tech enterprises with core technologies and large-scale delivery capabilities are gaining wider recognition for their value in the current industrial cycle.

Looking around, although the industrialization of solid-state batteries is still in its early stage in terms of the imagination of industrial space, it has great potential. Data shows that in 2024, the global solid-state battery shipments were approximately 5.3 GWh, a year-on-year increase of 430%. It is expected to reach 614 GWh by 2030. During the same period, the market size of solid-state batteries in China was 1.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 70%. It is expected to reach 20 billion yuan by 2030.

With the continuous progress of technology, the application scope of solid-state batteries is expanding from automotive power batteries to multiple fields such as low-altitude economy, humanoid robots, consumer electronics, and energy storage, opening up new growth space.

In February this year, eight departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China issued the "Action Plan for the High - quality Development of the New Energy Storage Manufacturing Industry", which clearly listed solid-state batteries as a key research and development direction, supported the development of lithium batteries and sodium batteries towards solid-state, and proposed to build 3 - 5 global leading enterprises by 2027.

Undoubtedly, any breakthrough in cutting - edge technology usually requires a complete process from laboratory research and development, pilot - scale expansion to large - scale mass production. However, investors firmly believe that the day for solid - state batteries will eventually come.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Investment Circle" (ID: pedaily2012), written by Liu Bo and published by 36Kr with authorization.