HK$140 billion: The fastest IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is born.
Industry experts.
A new IPO worth over HK$100 billion has emerged on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Today (April 16), Sigen New Energy (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Sigen New Energy") officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the "first stock in AI energy storage". The IPO issue price was HK$324.2, and the stock price soared nearly 80% at the opening, with a market value exceeding HK$140 billion.
During the share offering stage, the company received 1,102 times over - subscription. It has a luxurious lineup of cornerstone investors: they subscribed for a total of about US$280 million, including Temasek, UBS, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Hillhouse Capital, CPE Yuanfeng, Fullgoal Fund, Jinglin Asset and dozens of other top - tier institutions.
Behind it is the founder, Xu Yingtong, a veteran of Huawei. After more than 20 years of hard work and witnessing the booming energy storage market, he chose to start a business. In just a few years, he completed what his peers took 10 years to achieve - from establishment to IPO in less than four years, breaking the fastest record for a Chinese company's IPO on the Hong Kong stock market.
Four years of entrepreneurship: a Huawei veteran rings the bell, creating an IPO worth over HK$100 billion
The story of Sigen New Energy begins with Xu Yingtong.
Born in Sichuan in 1974, Xu Yingtong graduated from Nanjing University of Science and Technology with a bachelor's degree in radio technology. In 1999, he joined Huawei and successively held multiple positions such as PDT manager of wireless products and head of the wireless software platform. Later, he transferred to the new energy field and began to serve as the president of the intelligent photovoltaic business.
In 2011, Huawei set its sights on the photovoltaic industry and entered the inverter market relying on its own communication technology. In just four years, it topped the global photovoltaic inverter market rankings, and it was Xu Yingtong who led this wild team.
Being at the forefront of the industry, it's hard not to be sensitive to the opportunities in the track. At that time, the global household energy storage market was still at a low level, but most players still followed the old path of split - type products and engaged in a price war. Xu Yingtong realized that there were huge opportunities hidden in it.
The idea of starting a business soon emerged. In 2022, Xu Yingtong left Huawei, and Sigen New Energy was born. The president, Zhang Xianmiao, is the former vice - president of Huawei's intelligent photovoltaic business, with 17 years of experience in the photovoltaic industry. The core executives all come from the Huawei system and have been immersed in the photovoltaic energy storage field for more than 10 years.
Sigen New Energy chose to bet on the AI photovoltaic - energy storage all - in - one machine. Due to its plug - and - play feature and relatively convenient installation, it was widely welcomed by downstream installers as soon as it was launched.
It should be noted that most of the products on the market at that time were split - type, that is, the power conversion system (PCS) and the battery were separated, and it took a lot of time to connect and debug them on - site. Due to the high installation cost, during the boom stage of the household energy storage market, there was a shortage of workers overseas, especially in the European market, which even dragged down the growth rate of installed capacity.
Xu Yingtong once talked about an experience: In the early days, Sigen New Energy received a small trial order from a European distributor and launched the AI photovoltaic - energy storage all - in - one machine on the market. Due to its good performance, it quickly became popular by word - of - mouth, and a large number of overseas customers even visited the factory on their own initiative.
The trend is always unexpectedly fast: In 2022, when Sigen New Energy decided to fully bet on the all - in - one machine, the global energy storage market's demand for it was less than 30%. After the first - of - its - kind all - in - one machine was launched, more than 95% of the demand shifted to the photovoltaic - energy storage integration.
In February 2025, Sigen New Energy submitted its prospectus for the first time. Now, it stands on the bell - ringing stage, setting the fastest record for a Chinese company's IPO on the Hong Kong stock market.
VC/PE gather, with revenue increasing 150 times in two years
The financing story unfolds slowly.
Just one month after its establishment, the company completed a seed - round financing of 5 million yuan. By the end of that year, it successively completed rounds A1 to A3 of financing, with a total amount of about 540 million yuan. The investors included Hillhouse Capital, Walden International, Yunhui Capital, Zhongding Capital and so on.
Among them, Hillhouse Capital was the leading investor in the angel round of Sigen New Energy. Li Liang, the founding partner of Hillhouse Capital, said: "In the industrial wave of the global energy structure transformation, Sigen New Energy has solidly started from the underlying R & D and supply chain. The team led by founder Xu Yingtong has demonstrated the profound system engineering capabilities and strong global implementation execution ability of Chinese top - tier manufacturing veterans."
Walden International also bet on the company in the early stage. The core reason behind this is that it is optimistic about the strong global expansion and implementation execution ability of the team led by Xu Yingtong. The company's core competitiveness lies in reconstructing the energy storage system with AI natively, rather than simply empowering it with AI. Relying on more than 20 years of in - depth accumulation in the fields of communication, new energy and AI, the founding team uses the concept of software - defined energy to deeply integrate AI into energy dispatching, realizing true intelligent photovoltaic - energy storage integration.
Zhongding Capital believes that in the wave of new energy going global, Sigen New Energy is a pioneer. The decision to invest in Sigen New Energy is precisely because it values the team's in - depth insight into the underlying logic of the "energy Internet". It is not only manufacturing energy storage equipment, but also redefining the energy interaction between households and businesses with AI and digitalization.
Xiong Yanpin, the co - founding partner of Yunhui Capital, once recalled that at that time, Sigen New Energy had no revenue and no customers, and the pre - investment valuation of 2.5 billion yuan was not conservative for a start - up company. However, after due diligence, the confidence in betting on this energy storage company became firm - it is the most fundamental infrastructure in the AI era.
Later, Sigen New Energy completed a Series B financing of 140 million yuan, and soon after, a Series B1 financing of 30 million yuan was completed. Investors such as Tiantang Guigu, Guoke Dongfang and Guoke Investment participated in the two rounds, and the post - investment valuation reached 4.17 billion yuan.
Tiantang Guigu saw the value of this team: The technical route and product definition ability of Sigen New Energy were described by competitors as "generational leadership", and suppliers also gave extremely high evaluations of the team's supply chain management ability and business reputation.
This just confirms the saying: "When the industry is booming, it is much more difficult to judge the competitive landscape, valuations are generally high, and due diligence is more difficult. However, the periodic downturn is precisely the best sowing window for value investment."
This consensus was soon verified. According to the Frost & Sullivan report, in terms of product shipments, Sigen New Energy has become the world's number one provider of stackable distributed photovoltaic - energy storage all - in - one machine solutions in 2024, with a market share of 28.6%. Among them, the company's revenue was 58.3 million yuan in 2023, reached 1.33 billion yuan in 2024, and last year this figure was 9 billion yuan, increasing more than 150 times in two years.
The vast majority of the revenue comes from the core product, SigenStor - the "five - in - one" stackable photovoltaic - energy storage all - in - one machine. This is a device that integrates a photovoltaic inverter, a DC charging module, a PCS, an energy storage battery and an EMS. Its structure is not fixed. Through simple stacking or module replacement, users can customize the capacity to meet a series of energy needs for household and commercial use.
Before the IPO, Xu Yingtong controlled about 49.28% of the voting rights of the company in total. Among the external shareholders, Hillhouse Capital indirectly holds 14.89% of the shares through Zhuhai Meiheng, Walden International holds 8.18%, and Zhongding Capital and Yunhui Capital each hold 2.88%. In this way, the investors behind have reaped a super return.
The Huawei - affiliated entrepreneurs
One can't help but sigh that the ranks of Huawei - affiliated founders are getting longer.
Not long ago, Kaisi Times submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It is a digital - intelligent platform empowering China's automotive aftermarket. Along the way, it has gathered well - known institutions such as Sequoia China, Source Code Capital, Shunwei Capital and Fosun. The founder is Jiang Yongxing, who has many years of industrial experience.
He is an old Huawei employee. He joined Huawei right after graduating from university and stayed there for 15 years, serving as the general manager of Huawei's mobile transmission product line. During his work in Germany, he felt the chaos in China's automobile repair market. After returning to China, he led his team to engage in high - end auto parts business and is now on the verge of an IPO.
At the beginning of this year, the super unicorn from Henan, Super Fusion, submitted its listing counseling record and officially launched a sprint for an IPO. Although the latest valuation has not been publicly disclosed, many market institutions predict that "it may have reached 80 to 100 billion yuan", making it a giant in the global computing power field.
It also has the blood of Huawei behind it. In 2021, affected by international events, Huawei divested its X86 server business as a whole, and Super Fusion came into being. After being taken over by Henan state - owned assets, in just four years, its computing power business has jumped to the second place in the Chinese server market.
Looking further afield, more and more Huawei - affiliated founders are active in the technology circle -
Such as Zhi Yuan Robotics' Zhihui Jun, Tashi Zhihang's former Huawei "genius youth" Ding Wenchao, and the founder of Fourth Paradigm, Dai Wenyuan... Countless young talents joined Huawei and then plunged into the wave of independent entrepreneurship.
There has never been a shortage of "factions" in China's technology circle. Founders from BAT can form an army, and the newly - emerged star "DJI - affiliated" also attracts investors. In contrast, Huawei's entrepreneurs are relatively low - key and have a stronger hard - technology gene.
An investor targeting Huawei - affiliated entrepreneurs once commented: "They have received years of strict training and have the experience of large - scale operations. Therefore, they are particularly qualified to lead a company to become a unicorn or a great enterprise." In their hands, the next batch of super companies in China is rising.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Tian Tian IPO", author: Yu Mengying. Republished by 36Kr with permission.