A post-1997 graduate from Peking University secured three rounds of financing in half a year.

On May 15th, ChinaVenture exclusively learned that Yanhe Technology, a perovskite solar cell company, has completed hundreds of millions of yuan in Series A2 financing. The financing was led by old shareholder Zhaoxi Capital, co-led by Shunwei Capital and NIO Capital, with Lenovo Capital & Incubator Group, Yutian Guanjia, and Zhongke Tiansuan participating in the investment. Old shareholders Dongfang Jialian and Caixin Capital also increased their investment in this round.

This is already the third round of financing completed by Yanhe Technology within half a year. The shareholders in the previous two rounds include Dongfang Jialian, Sky Works Venture Capital Fund, Xingxiang Capital, Guoke Venture Capital, Xiaochi Capital, Caixin Capital, Guoke Investment, Huixin Investment, etc. More notably, according to the company's disclosure, the subsequent two rounds of financing are also in the final stage and will be announced soon.

Such a dense financing rhythm has undoubtedly pushed this company, which has been established for only two years, to the center of market attention.

In fact, the popularity of the perovskite battery industry has lasted for many years. As early as between 2021 and 2022, the investment in this field was close to 10 billion yuan. And the general perception in the market is that this is a game for "veterans" and "giants."

By this measure, Yanhe Technology is definitely an "outlier." Feng Fan, the founder of the company, was born in 1997. Before starting his business, he was engaged in investment and commercialization in the currently hottest AI track. The double contrast makes his appearance seem a bit abrupt.

Here, I'd like to share a detail: During the communication, the most intuitive impression Feng Fan gave me was "fast - paced speech and strong logic." The originally planned one - and - a - half - hour conversation was completed in just 50 minutes, and the information density was quite high.

This may only be the tip of the iceberg, but it's clear from him that a change is taking place in the venture capital market: When the post - 95s and post - 00s, with their judgment and action ability, break into the battlefields that were once considered the domain of "seniority," the portrait of entrepreneurs is being redrawn.

A 1997 Peking University top student starts a business and completes 5 rounds of financing in two years

The story of Yanhe Technology has to start with its founder, Feng Fan.

At the age of 29, he graduated from Peking University with a bachelor's degree in Materials Chemistry and then went to Columbia University to pursue a master's degree in Management Science and Engineering. After graduation, he worked in the investment and financing and commercialization departments of CITIC Securities and DeepTech respectively.

It was during his time at DeepTech that Feng Fan witnessed how AI drove software iteration crazily, but the corresponding hardware progress seemed slow. Where was the problem? His judgment was: the energy structure. "Whether it's to C, to B, or to G, energy is always an endless topic."

Feng Fan took the currently hottest embodied robots as an example. "Imagine if a robot needs to be charged frequently, and the battery needs to be replaced every half an hour or an hour. This is obviously unsustainable." In his opinion, the next wave will surely come from the combination of a high - efficiency light energy system and new energy storage materials, enabling all hardware to operate perpetually. And Feng Fan's background in materials chemistry made him acutely aware that perovskite batteries are an important entry point in this direction.

Meanwhile, the external conditions were also maturing. In 2023, the perovskite industry entered a critical window: the technology maturity increased significantly, the production line construction cost dropped from hundreds of millions of yuan in the past to about 100 million yuan, and significant breakthroughs were also made in efficiency and stability.

So, in September 2023, Feng Fan decided to start his business and invited his Peking University classmate Peng Zongyang. The latter also graduated from Peking University's Materials Chemistry major. After graduating from undergraduate, he continued his in - depth study and pursued a doctorate at Peking University, focusing on perovskite research. One is good at business, and the other is good at technology. The two changed from classmates to partners with a clear division of labor: Feng Fan is responsible for commercialization and external financing, while Peng Zongyang is in charge of technology and products.

The positioning and team background of Yanhe Technology quickly attracted the favor of investors. Soon after its establishment, the company received angel - round financing from Hunan Caixin Group and Zhongke Guangrong. In December 2024, it received tens of millions of yuan in Angel + round financing exclusively invested by Zhaoxi Capital.

The following story is familiar to everyone: Since October 2025, Yanhe Technology has witnessed a small peak in financing, obtaining three consecutive rounds of financing within half a year.

As for the use of the funds from this Series A2 financing, Yanhe Technology said that it will be mainly used for core technology iteration, expansion of production capacity, construction of space photovoltaic production lines, and industrial ecosystem collaboration to comprehensively accelerate the commercialization of technological achievements.

Aiming at "non - consensus" opportunities, the target revenue in 2026 is to exceed 100 million yuan

It should be noted that in the early days of Yanhe Technology's establishment, the clearest business model in the perovskite market was undoubtedly ground - based power stations, and heavyweight players such as GCL and Jidian had already gathered in this track.

Perhaps Feng Fan's experience as an investor gave him a more rational business judgment. In his view, as a startup, Yanhe Technology was not suitable for a direct confrontation with giants in the ground - based power station field in terms of "ammunition quantity" or talent depth at that time. What they should do was to produce better products at a lower cost, higher quality, and faster speed to quickly run through the business closed - loop.

And consumer - grade photovoltaics in the segmented track was the only direction where the team thought they could gain a first - mover advantage at that time.

Feng Fan told me that there are three logics behind this judgment:

First, perovskite has an advantage that crystalline silicon does not have - it can still generate electricity efficiently in low - light environments, and it can be made into flexible, lightweight, and customizable forms, which are exactly the rigid needs of the consumer electronics market;

Second, with the development of AI, the overall power consumption of consumer - grade devices is increasing. Especially with the improvement of edge computing capabilities, the demand for stable and efficient power supply from devices is growing day by day, and the traditional power supply mode is difficult to meet this demand;

Third, although the power consumption of a single function of all hardware is currently decreasing, the functions of hardware are constantly increasing, resulting in a continuous increase in the overall power consumption frequency and demand.

Based on this, Yanhe Technology's solution is to create "passive products," replacing traditional dry batteries and button batteries with perovskite light - energy batteries to enhance the convenience of using consumer products. In terms of scenarios, it mainly focuses on three major fields: smart home, smart wearables, and 3C digital products.

In terms of results, the company has built the world's first 100MW - level fully automated perovskite mass - production line for the consumer - grade market. Its products cover dozens of categories such as cameras, smart door locks, thermo - hygrometers, electronic photo frames, keyboards, and mice, and have successfully entered the supply chains of more than 100 brands in more than 50 countries and regions around the world, serving customers including Lenovo, Samsung, and the Xiaomi ecosystem.

If choosing the consumer - grade track is being down - to - earth, then as a group of young entrepreneurs, they naturally also have their part of looking up at the stars.

Feng Fan told me that in addition to consumer electronics, another unwavering direction selected by the team is space photovoltaics. However, this choice was "non - consensus" at that time. Feng Fan recalled that in 2024, there were only 100 to 200 satellites launched in China in a year. Even if all of them used perovskite batteries, the market space was extremely limited. "At that time, many investors questioned the significance of what you're doing." But he firmly believed that one day humans will leave the earth, and in space, the sun is the only sustainable energy source.

Fortunately, his judgment is being quickly verified. In January this year, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Elon Musk proposed that SpaceX and Tesla will jointly build a total of 200GW of photovoltaic production capacity within three years, of which 100GW will be used for powering space AI satellites and space data centers. As a "trend - setter" in the venture capital market, Musk's move has ignited the market's enthusiasm for space photovoltaics.

Amid the industry boom, the company has also taken quite rapid actions. From March to April this year, Yanhe Technology reached strategic cooperation with Zhongke Tiansuan and HangSheng Satellite respectively. They jointly tackled the technology of lightweight, high - stowage - ratio, and high - efficiency super - large - power satellite solar wings, and simultaneously promoted on - orbit verification and commercial deployment. According to the plan: no less than 20 experimental satellites equipped with jointly developed solar wings will be launched in 2026, increasing to 50 in 2027, and large - scale application of new - type solar wings will be achieved in 2028. At the same time, the launch and on - orbit verification of large - scale computing satellites will be promoted, which is expected to be implemented next year.

In summary, Yanhe Technology's business strategy is very clear: on the one hand, quickly penetrate the market through consumer - grade photovoltaics to generate stable cash flow, and then use the earned funds to continuously support the R & D and implementation of space photovoltaics.

As for the commercialization progress, Feng Fan told me that in 2026, Yanhe Technology aims to achieve a revenue of over 100 million yuan and strive to achieve break - even in the first half of 2027.

"Youth is never a disadvantage"

As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, in the perovskite manufacturing industry, which is asset - heavy and has high thresholds, the age structure of Yanhe Technology's founding team is a bit eye - catching. Different from the frequent appearance of post - 95s and post - 00s in the AI startup boom, the manufacturing industry has always placed more emphasis on experience, seniority, and connections. Here, veteran professors with profound R & D backgrounds are still the mainstream objects pursued by the market.

Therefore, when these two young men in their early twenties brought a perovskite project into the sight of investors, doubts were almost inevitable.

Feng Fan admitted that during the early financing stage of the company, the most frequently asked question by investors was: "Can you young guys really figure this out?" He half - joked and self - mocked that he and Peng Zongyang "fortunately look older, so people have a slightly higher degree of trust in us."

But in his view, the explosion of AI technology is redefining the logic of productivity and also putting forward brand - new requirements for entrepreneurs - they must keep up with the times and learn quickly, which is precisely the advantage of young people. "When doing consumer electronics, you need to have a strong market sensitivity, know what the market wants, what customers want, and where the next - generation trend is, and then turn in time and fully release your potential." He believes that the ability to learn can make this happen faster and more simply.

Of course, he doesn't avoid the real - world challenges either. "We're still suffering from the disadvantages of the manufacturing industry and are constantly learning painfully." Feng Fan said, "No one is born with the ability, but I hope to make this path work step by step with my learning ability."

Perhaps it's this kind of enthusiasm and tenacity unique to young people that makes some investors see different possibilities.

The early investor of Yanhe Technology, Sky Works Venture Capital Fund, mentioned when evaluating Feng Fan that he "is almost always looking for business opportunities," especially when explaining the product and its application potential, he is extremely enthusiastic.

More importantly, this state has been transformed into verifiable capabilities. "Currently, Yanhe Technology has built a mass - production line and has strong mass - production capabilities. The key in the future lies in the efficiency of large - scale production and the product iteration ability. In the former, the company already has a reserve of experienced management; as for the latter, we tend to believe in the sensitivity and innovation ability of the young team." The above - mentioned investor said.

Wang Bin, a partner of Zhaoxi Capital and a director of Yanhe Technology, who led this round of investment, shared two more interesting observations with me: One is that when the company was deploying in the global consumer electronics market last year, he met Feng Fan several times and found that he was wearing different AR glasses each time. Only after asking did he know that - he was personally experiencing the usability and power supply requirements of different products to optimize his battery solutions in reverse. Another detail is that Feng Fan's backpack full of trendy toys is like "Doraemon's pocket," always able to take out suitable perovskite battery samples on different occasions.

The portrait pieced together by these details made him see the ability of the Yanhe Technology team to not stick to the rules, not limit their imagination, and execute and iterate efficiently. "Looking at the long history of human development, we can find that it's actually these most enterprising young entrepreneurs who drive technological progress. They not only dare to think and act but also often have more strategic foresight and can consider things for the next fifty years of human development. We also believe that this enthusiasm will become the long - term driving force for Yanhe Technology."

In an interview, Feng Fan once said: "The people I admire the most are Lei Jun, Elon Musk, and Steve Jobs. I hope to become like them in the future and contribute a little to the progress of Chinese science and technology." Now, he is moving towards this goal.

It's not hard to foresee that when the younger generation like Feng Fan, with their understanding of technology, intuition for the market, and obsession with iteration, step onto the center of the stage, they will gradually penetrate into every battlefield - including those fields that were once considered the domain of "experience" and "seniority."

This article is from the WeChat official account "ChinaVenture," written by Wang Manhua and edited by Wang Qingwu. It is republished by 36Kr with authorization.