Behind Midea's low-key "car-building": the investment map of the primary market shows the layout of chips, lithium batteries and new materials.

Last weekend, Midea invested in the establishment of an auto parts company, marking another step forward in this field. Compared with Gree and Xiaomi, Midea's car building is so low-key that the company even declares that it only makes car parts.

On January 13th, IFI Claims Patent Services, a provider of patent database, released a research report. According to the data, Midea ranks more than Huawei in the number of patents in the world.

On January 10, a reporter from Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily learned from the relevant person in charge of Midea that Midea aims to ship 80 million chips in 2022, including MCU chips.

A related background is that there is a serious shortage of cores in the world in 2021, and the MCU chip is the king of automotive electronics. Midea plans to ship 80 million chips, including MCU, without saying a word. It is not difficult to see that Mei has a lot of ambition.

The capital of beauty surfaced

As a leading household appliance company, Midea wants to do industrial extension, which is still realized through foreign investment.

Inquiry found that Midea's Venture Capital Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Midea Capital") was established in June 2018, is Midea's CVC Capital.

The registered capital of the capital is 50 million yuan, the paid-in capital is 20 million yuan, and the legal representative is Li Feide. From the point of view of its establishment, Midea announced in the second half of 2018 that it would enter the chip field and invest in MCU control chips.

At the same time, the CVC Capital also manages nine funds, including American Intelligence Phase I (Guangdong) Venture Capital Partnership (Limited Partnership), Zhitong Zhiyuan (Guangdong) Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) and so on.

After its establishment, Midea Capital launched a series of investments.

In November 2018, the capital made its first investment, investing exclusively in Sanji Seiki Angel Wheel financing, which manufactures automation equipment and systems related to dyeing and finishing.

A few months later, Midea's capital invested in equity financing, neither of which was disclosed.

On August 29, 2019, the capital investment of the United States was invested by robots, involving hundreds of millions of yuan. Since then, Jingxun software, Bozhong Seiko, Haitong Anheng, ape-man technology, Invat Vortex, and so on, have all been embraced by the capital of the United States.

Among these companies, the reporter saw that there were not only nearly 100 million yuan of round B investment, but also equity investment, with a higher frequency of equity investment.

So far, in the inquiry of public investment events, Midea's capital has accumulated more than 20 investments.

The pace of beauty is dense around the "core components".

But the industrial and commercial registration shows that Midea's capital's investment is much more than that.

Especially around the "core parts of the car", Midea's capital pace is intensive. The reporter saw that from 2020 to 2021, Midea Capital successively invested in integrated circuit developer Ruili Integration, new materials company Ruxing Technology, new energy automobile core components company Juyi Technology, lithium ion battery and power supply company Haopeng Technology, and semiconductor company Core Energy Semiconductor.

In September 2021, Ruili integrated completed 500 million RMB C round financing, which not only attracted Midea's capital, but also another CVC capital, country Garden Venture Capital. Previously, in December 2020, Ruili Integration was also favored by Xiaomi Yangtze River Industrial Fund and participated in a round of financing of 15.65 billion yuan.

Although Ru Xing Technology has only two rounds of financing, its main product crystal silicon solar cell aluminum paste has a very high domestic market share. Similarly, Juyi Technology has also won Midea's capital blessing because it is mainly engaged in the core components of new energy vehicles.

The other two companies, Haopeng Technology and Core Energy Semiconductor, know that they are closely related to "auto parts" only from the point of view of their business composition.

Since then, Midea has acquired the key technologies of core components such as lithium batteries, chips, core components and new materials through foreign investment.

Zhao Zhanxiang, partner and chief technology officer of Yunxing Capital, told Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily: "in traditional cars, chips are mainly concentrated in areas such as MCU control."

"in 2021, there is a serious shortage of cores in cars around the world, which makes many MCU startups with production capacity and technical strength achieve explosive growth. Once it enters the supply chain of SAIC and other top car factories, it can be mass-produced in one year, which is a great opportunity for the excellent domestic MCU company. "

The semi-annual report of 2021 shows that Midea's MCU master chip has achieved mass production, with a cumulative production of more than 800000 pieces in the first half of the year, while accelerating the expansion of internal and external customers.

An Guangyong, an expert of the Credit Management Special Committee of the all-Union mergers and acquisitions Association, said in an interview with Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that Midea shipped MCU control chips not only to cut into the track, but also to meet its own business.

In addition to the field of automotive electronics, the MCU is also a necessary component (remote control) in air conditioners. This means that there is synergy between the two. "

In an Guangyong's view, Midea's investment is not just to catch up with the tuyere. If it is to catch up with the tuyere, it will enter new energy vehicles and other fields earlier. The outward investment of Midea's capital is arranged step by step according to its own strategy.

"this layout can not only avoid the irreversible consequences of radicalization, such as semiconductor companies such as Ziguang Group and Wuhan Hongxin, as well as Evergrande Automobile, but Midea also has sufficient business volume and capacity to digest the chips produced."

However, in the intelligent era, power safety domain, gateway domain, communication domain, autopilot domain and intelligent cockpit domain have been added in the automobile field. The self-driving rating will also rise from L1 to L5, and the value of semiconductors on bicycles will rise from US $100 to more than US $1000, making it a market of hundreds of billions of US dollars.

Under the trend, Midea's only layout of MCU chips does not seem to be enough.

In the investment, Midea's capital has declared at least 10 IPO

Since there is an investment, Midea Capital has declared 10 IPO in a short period of more than 3 years.

The reporter saw that after Juyi Technology was exclusively invested by Midea's capital in December 2020, it was successfully listed on the Kechuang board in November 2021.

In March 2019, another company invested in Qida, which is also one of the IPO companies that Midea's capital successfully declared and harvested.

It is worth mentioning that the company has also emerged as a Hillhouse. On July 23, 2021, 301029.SZ landed on the gem, and Hillhouse held exactly 15.941667 million shares and 12.354333 million shares, respectively, through Zhuhai Hillhouse and Zhuhai Lanying, with a combined stake of 7.86 per cent.

The inquiry found that Mei's capital happens to be the LP, stake of Zhuhai Hillhouse Zhizhen Equity Investment Partnership (limited partnership), which is 13.5%, which is an indirect bet.

Up to now, companies such as Fang Technology, Bozhong Seiko, Ruide Intelligence, Biyi Micro, Haopeng Technology, Acer Laser, Invat and other companies have all declared IPO.

Midea Capital expects 14 projects to declare IPO, accounting for 50% of invested projects by 2021, and 25 projects are expected to declare IPO by the end of 2022.

Major General Ding, a senior industrial and economic analyst, said in an interview with Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that the chip is an industry with heavy capital, long cycle and slow return, and the help of capital plays an irreplaceable role in the development of the industry.

"for giants, there is nothing wrong with self-research chips and foreign equity investment. This is the common practice of many technology giants. Equity investment can not only obtain the return of the capital market, but also establish a good business collaborative relationship with chip enterprises, which plays a positive role in the stability of the supply chain. "