This may be another milestone for hydrogen energy in China.
Recently, Guangzhou Hypot Technology officially released the world's first forward-developed, highly integrated 1,000-kilometer long-range hydrogen fuel cell trunk heavy truck H49, which is also the world's first forward-developed hydrogen fuel cell trunk logistics heavy truck, the whole life cycle economy of the vehicle is significantly better than that of fuel heavy trucks, marking that hydrogen energy as a key track in the second half of new energy has entered a new stage, and a new era of "hydrogen" is coming.
As a start-up company, how did Hypert Technology create this scene?Retrospectively, this is inseparable from an investor behind it, Shuimu Yide Investment, an early-stage investment institution that originated from the Beijing Tsinghua Industrial Technology Research Institute and all-in hydrogen energy.
This team has been immersed in the hydrogen energy track for ten years, from upstream core materials to midstream production, storage and transportation, and even downstream vehicles, hydrogen refueling stations, and operation platforms, and has completed the layout of the entire hydrogen production chain, green hydrogen chain and transportation chain in 10 years, and invested and incubated a number of leading enterprises in the hydrogen energy industry: Sinohytec, Shenli Technology, REFIRE Technology, Jichong Hydrogen Energy, Tianjin Continental, Guofu Hydrogen Energy, Takin Technology, Hypert, UAC ......The list is long, long.
Born out of Tsinghua Industrial Technology Research Institute
Ten years have passed
Back in 2012, Li Gang, who was still working in a platform-based PE agency at that time, provided post-investment services for a pharmaceutical packaging company he invested in, helping the company seek stable resources for upstream core raw materials. This is a new type of material, which was previously mainly monopolized by multinational companies and is the bottleneck of the industry. After in-depth research, Li Gang traced that an innovative domestic company had successfully achieved a breakthrough in the industrialization of the technology, and the success of this company was due to the technology incubation platform behind it, Beijing Tsinghua Industrial Development Research Institute (hereinafter referred to as "Tsinghua Industrial Development Institute"). The strong technological innovation incubation ability of Tsinghua Industrial Technology Research Institute has aroused Li Gang's great interest.
Founded in August 1998, Tsinghua Industrial Technology Research Institute is jointly established and managed by Beijing ** and Tsinghua University, and is committed to promoting the transformation and industrialization of major scientific and technological achievements. Through more than 20 years of continuous summary and review, Tsinghua Industrial Technology Research Institute has sorted out a set of scientific methods that significantly improve the success rate of scientific and technological transformation, from the original "technology-driven" innovation to a "demand-driven" innovation model, define products from customer value, and then integrate technical resources based on product research and development needs, form an entrepreneurial culture of market-oriented organization of innovation resources, and promote the incubation of hard-core science and technology projects at an average rate of about 10 projects per year in the core frontier science and technology field. After years of development, it has cultivated a number of benchmark projects of China's original research and innovation, such as Sinohuatong, TINAVI, Jiankai Technology, Pinchi Technology, etc., from scratch.
Since 2010, with the rapid development of the e-commerce market, business model innovation supported by basic Internet technology has gradually become a hot spot for entrepreneurship. However, in the field of independent original research and innovation, due to huge R&D investment, long-term industrial chain and market cultivation, highly uncertain business prospects and other factors, domestic enterprises are still in the stage of development in many hard-core science and technology fields, but at that time, some hard-core technology technology companies in the United States have begun to show their heads and have attracted widespread attention in the market. After realizing that the innovation incubation investment around hard-core technology is an entrepreneurial opportunity with clear long-term value, Li Gang expressed his hope to start a business under the platform of Tsinghua Technology Research Institute and form a venture capital team with unique innovation incubation functions in the field of hard-core science and technology.
*Quan graduated from Tsinghua University with a major in chemical engineering. From 1991 to 1994, he served as the deputy director of the Institute of Biochemical Engineering of Tsinghua University, engaged in research in the fields of energy chemical industry and biochemical industry. In 1995, he began to work in the field of school-run industry, and successively participated in the leadership of Tsinghua Tongfang (600100) and served as vice president. After that, he led the establishment of Chengzhi Co., Ltd. ***000990), and served as president. Since 2000, he has been focusing on the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and has successively established and incubated dozens of leading domestic technology companies in the fields of medical treatment, new materials and hydrogen energy, and has rich and comprehensive practical experience in engineering technology research, enterprise management and transformation of scientific and technological achievements.
After repeated and in-depth communication, Li Gang's entrepreneurial idea was finally recognized by **Quan and other leaders of Tsinghua Industrial Technology Research Institute.
I am shocked by the work done by ITRI in the incubation of China's hard-core technology projects, from technology to products to market to sustainable growth. In particular, the creation of some innovation value from 0 to 1, including technological breakthroughs, product development that meets application needs, business model support, and finally landing in practical applications, the entire process of realizing the value of innovation will bring exponential and even subversive value appreciation. After several years of contact and understanding, I gradually think from the perspective of investment: if the success rate of innovation incubation is improved more systematically through long-term professional incubation investment work, and capital resources are allocated more effectively and on a larger scale to deeply support the innovation process, there are huge opportunities and will be a valuable long-term cause. Li Gang recalled.
As a result, at the end of 2013, Shuimu Yide Investment was officially established. From the first day of its establishment, "hard-core technology" has been written into the genes of Shuimu Yide Investment, and it also shoulders the vision and mission of pursuing long-term value of the "Shuimu" system.
At the beginning of its establishment, Shuimu Yide mainly invested in hydrogen transportation, smart medical care, information technology, new materials and other directions, and invested in a number of excellent projects, including Jiankai Technology, a medical PEG bio-industrialization company, TINAVI, a surgical robot company, and Zhongmao, a leading domestic molecular sieve catalyst company. At present, 4 invested companies have been listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board.
With the continuous exploration on the road of entrepreneurship and based on the experience and rules summarized by ITRI in the incubation work, Shuimu Yide has gradually iteratively formed its own unique approach to investing in hard-core scientific and technological innovation: deeply integrating scientific logic, engineering logic and business logic, forward-looking insight into the trend of technological innovation and application, and grasping the rhythm of industrialization and commercializationBy investing in and incubating enterprises in the core links of the innovation value chain, we will build an innovation industry ecology and place individual enterprises under the collaborative protection of the entire ecosystem. This can significantly improve the success rate and growth rate of scientific and technological innovation enterprises.
It is also based on this first-class system that Shuimu Yide recognizes that only by deeply cultivating a vertical industrial track can it be possible to build an industrial ecology with significant synergistic effects, and whether to focus on the hydrogen energy track has become an important strategic thinking for Shuimu Yide.
As early as 2015, based on the platform vision of Tsinghua Industrial Technology Research Institute, Shuimu Yide saw that hydrogen energy, as an indispensable secondary energy source in the transformation of renewable energy, has a broad application space and will have a great future in the new energy era.
First of all, hydrogen energy has the dual roles of clean secondary energy and efficient energy storage, and is less limited by regional geography, so it is the best solution to realize large-scale cross-seasonal storage and transportation of renewable energy, which can be used as a substitute for fossil energy and change the situation of China's high dependence on foreign energy.
Secondly, hydrogen energy and electric energy are both secondary energy sources, which are easy to couple with electric energy, promote the interconnection between electricity and buildings, transportation and industry, and establish an interconnected modern energy network. Moreover, as an optimal medium for large-scale energy storage to achieve discontinuous production, hydrogen can significantly increase the flexibility of the power network.
In addition, hydrogen fuel cell system technology is close to the large-scale commercial level, and in the context of new energy transformation and deepening electrification of the transportation industry, hydrogen energy vehicles will be more suitable for long-range, heavy-duty, and high-energy consumption application scenarios than pure electric mode.
In the end, Mizuki made a challenging strategic decision to focus on investing in the hydrogen energy industry. "Since we invested in Sinohytec in 2015, we have successively invested in a number of hydrogen energy projects. Through close communication with the project, continuous research on hydrogen energy scenarios, and continuous tracking of performance indicators, we deeply feel that the opportunity for hydrogen energy industrialization has come. At that time, there was no organization to systematically lay out, and we had to seize the opportunity to be the 'first person to eat crabs'. Wang Haibin, a research partner of Shuimu Yide, recalled.
With the deepening of the hydrogen energy industry, SMEC set up a hydrogen energy USD** and a hydrogen energy RMB** in 2019 and 2020 respectively, and at the same time carried out the layout and in-depth incubation of the industry overseas and in China.
Today, the hydrogen energy industry has come to the eve of a full-scale outbreak and is about to enter a new stage of rapid industrial growth. "Looking at global hydrogen investment, we have not seen any other institution that has systematically invested and cultivated in the field of hydrogen energy like us. Although the industry still needs to develop, the investment results we have achieved so far and the ecosystem we have established have verified that the original adjustment was wise, and we have embarked on a differentiated path of hard technology investment. Wang Haibin said with emotion.
26 hydrogen projects
Invested in a whole industrial chain at home and abroad
At present, the hydrogen energy investment map of Shuimu Yide has also been expanded.
At present, Mizuki Yide manages a total of four**, of which Hydrogen Energy Dollar** is jointly managed with Hyundai Motor Group, an early innovation giant in the global hydrogen energy industry, and mainly lays out the core technology of the global hydrogen energy industry chainHydrogen Energy RMB** "Mizuki Hydrogen Source" is funded by **, a number of original LPs and industrial enterprises.
The total scale of Shuimu Yide is small and beautiful, with more than 2 billion AUM has sold more than 40 projects, and hydrogen energy and related projects account for more than half, reaching 26, completing the layout of the entire hydrogen production chain, green hydrogen chain and transportation chain. The subdivisions cover upstream core materials, midstream stacks, hydrogen production plants, hydrogen storage and transportation, and downstream vehicles, hydrogen refueling stations, and operation platforms.
With the in-depth entry into the hydrogen energy industry, Shuimu Yide has gradually formed a methodology system of "precision investment & in-depth incubation & innovation ecological empowerment".
Tsinghua Industrial Technology Research Institute has repeatedly connected SinoHytec with Tsinghua University's technical and financial support, and SinoHytec has also successfully realized the purchase order of 100 hydrogen fuel cell engines in 2015, which opened the prelude to China's hydrogen fuel cell industrialization.
At that time, under the introduction of Tsinghua Industrial Technology Research Institute, Shuimu Yide came into contact with Sinohytec, "I clearly remember how Mr. Quan used scientific logic to evaluate the potential value of Sinohytec project, first of all, he saw that SinoHytec's 40 kilowatt hydrogen fuel power system has achieved a service life of 5,000 hours, at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour, that is, 300,000 kilometers, and has achieved the same life as a car, so the engineering ability of fuel cell power technology can basically meet the needs of customers in application scenarios." Then Mr. Zhu asked Sinohytec to disassemble and analyze the 40 kilowatt stack of its standardized product, evaluate the proportion of steel, plastic and aluminum in its raw materials, and then multiply the weight by the cost of the material, and the result was that 1 kilowatt is less than 300 yuan, and lithium batteries can never achieve this (cost-effective) level, so Mr. Zhu preliminarily concluded that this was a project with commercial prospects. ”
Based on this, Shuimu Yide made a decisive investment in 2015, and the following year, Sinohytec was listed*** and then in 2020, SinoHytec applied for the Science and Technology Innovation Board, and Shuimu Yide also participated in the auxiliary application for listing.
An important factor in the success of this investment is the long-term cultivation of the Shuimu Yide team in the field of hydrogen energy, closely tracking the progress of hydrogen energy technology and the trend of declining costs within the industry, and judging that the value generated by hydrogen fuel cells for users is sustainable, but if you only see the current financial data of the company, I am afraid it is difficult for any institution to dare to make a move.
The delivery of the new car is also a representative work of Shuimu Yide's incubation. Founded in December 2021, Hypert is a fuel cell vehicle design enterprise built from scratch on top of a pure electric commercial vehicle enterprise with chassis qualifications in bankruptcy and reorganization, and is jointly invested and founded by Tsinghua Industrial Technology Research Institute, Beijing Huaxia Shunze Investment Group and Guangdong Guangwu Group, and is the first commercial vehicle company in China to make positive design for fuel cell vehicles based on user needs and scenario needs. Mizuki Hydrogen Source, a hydrogen energy RMB managed by Mizuki Yide, participated in the investment in Hypert.
In addition to investing in existing industry-leading enterprises, the "precision investment" emphasized by Shuimu Yide contains another meaning, that is, "to fill the position in the layout of the hydrogen energy ecological chain, if there is a lack of innovative enterprises in the key ecological niche, Shuimu Yide will carry out incubation work with the Industrial Technology Research Institute, find technical resources, form a team, set up enterprises, and promote the development of industrial ecology".
Taking heavy-duty trucks as an example, refer to Scania's latest generation electric truck, the 45R, with a maximum gross vehicle weight of 64 tons, a lithium-ion battery charged 624kWh, and a maximum range of 250 kilometers. After calculation, the weight of the battery is about 208 tons, the volume is about 0945m3, 375kW 500A DC charging time is less than 90 minutes.
And if the liquid hydrogen scheme is used, the hydrogen bottle + hydrogen weighs about 026 tons, with a volume of about 032m3, hydrogen refueling time within 5 minutes. In contrast, hydrogen energy has obvious advantages, which is why we want to deploy hydrogen commercial vehicles. Wang Haibin explained.
It is worth mentioning that the hydrogen energy investment industry chain of Shuimu Yide also has a global vision, which also provides additional technical and commercial supplements for the development of the domestic hydrogen energy industry. Umoe Advanced Composites AS (UAC), based in Norway, specializes in the development and manufacture of pressure tanks made of fiberglass materials. In 2021, Mizuki Yide came into contact with UAC and found that glass fiber has a higher cost advantage over materials such as carbon fiber, and can also transport two to three times more hydrogen than steel tanks of the same size.
Not only that, UAC's largest supplier of raw materials is precisely in China, and the first chain can be completely localized, with obvious cost advantages, which can further reduce material costs and enhance the advantages of gas cylinders. "More importantly, the strategic layout is of great significance. China's hydrogen transportation shortcomings are obvious, and the market has an urgent need for transformation, and with the subsidy policy tilted towards hydrogen refueling stations with large filling capacity, the demand for hydrogen will grow rapidly. ”
Therefore, Shuimu Yide made a decisive move, and after investing in UAC in its hydrogen energy dollar, it quickly established a Sino-foreign joint venture subsidiary Youmu Technology in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province with domestic ecological enterprises, which further guaranteed the low-cost ** chain and supplemented its global production capacity**Also made an equity investment as one of the sponsors of the joint venture.
At present, post-investment empowerment is also a common topic for investment institutions. In order to promote the development of an industry such as hydrogen energy, which is still in the introduction period, Shuimu Yide started the "deep incubation" early, using scientific logic, engineering logic and business logic to help enterprises sort out the path and strategic direction of technology industrialization, and carry out different empowerment and services for enterprises in the three stages of enterprise growth, namely product value stage, company value stage and capital value stage.
In addition to building the early core team, the key work of Shuimu Yide includes the definition of fuel cell models. In order to have an accurate product definition of fuel cell vehicles, Miki EDC has conducted detailed and in-depth research on various logistics scenarios and economics in different regions of China.
Our post-investment team is led by a dedicated partner with rich experience in corporate management, and the scale of the post-investment team even exceeds that of the investment team, which will give enterprises different resource support to help them adjust their strategies, connect with the market, tap talents, and connect with financing. In a nutshell, it is a process of continuously creating value for the enterprise. ”
Hydrogen investment is coming
The stage of real commercialization of hydrogen energy has not yet arrived, and Shuimuyide will continue to work hard.
1The 0 era revolves around the production and development of hydrogen, and the large-scale application focuses on the field of transportation. With the iteration of technology and the improvement of efficiency, there are new investment opportunities in upstream core materials and components, such as proton exchange membranes and catalysts.
Today, hydrogen energy is moving towards 20 times. As we all know, China has abundant wind and solar renewable energy, mainly distributed in low-load areas such as the west and north, where there are also large-scale wind and solar bases, and there are always problems with consumption, such as insufficient peak regulation capacity on the power side required by wind and solar power sources, and the inability of the power grid to reach it in a timely manner.
In this regard, Shuimuyide believes that large-scale off-grid hydrogen production can provide large-scale load for large-scale wind and solar bases, and the hydrogen and oxygen produced can be consumed in nearby industrial and chemical parks, transported through pipelines or liquefaction, and can also be stored to meet long-term energy demand, which has a role in promoting the local economy. "The energy system of the future must have a complementary power grid and hydrogen grid, where electricity is suitable for electricity, hydrogen is suitable for hydrogen, and efficient conversion. ”
In addition, hydrogen has a wide range of applications in industrial fields including chemicals, steel, cement, etc., with the help of its dual properties of industrial raw materials and energy products. At the same time, ammonia is very easy to liquefy and store, making it an ideal hydrogen-rich carrier. According to the China Nitrogen Fertilizer Industry Association, the annual output of China's synthetic ammonia industry is about 58 million tons. Assuming that the hydrogen used in synthetic ammonia is fully hydrogenated, the annual demand for green hydrogen in China's synthetic ammonia industry will reach 10 million tons. It can be further inferred that the demand for green hydrogen substitution of gray hydrogen in China's industrial sector will reach 34 million tons, which has great potential.
A faint outbreak of the wind will naturally attract a group of entrepreneurs. "Chinese entrepreneurs are very diligent, and when an industrial opportunity is discovered, there is a lot of influx, but there will also be a mixed number of start-ups. "However, in the current challenging and uncertain environment, entrepreneurs need to consider the long-term development of their enterprises, and move up the ladder step by step according to the expected goals through solid products and services and flexible business models.
It is not only entrepreneurs who are pouring into the hydrogen energy track, but also groups of investors. According to incomplete statistics from the investment community, since January this year alone, more than 30 financing events have been born in hydrogen-related fields, including many large-scale financings of more than 100 million yuan, and the valuation of hydrogen energy startups has risen.
Although there are no more institutions in the market like Mizuki EDC in the hydrogen energy sector, there are still many investors who have invested a lot of money in hydrogen energy projects in the past few years. Behind this is also inseparable from the support of national policies. In March 2022, the National Energy Administration jointly issued the "Medium and Long-term Plan for the Development of Hydrogen Energy Industry (2021-2035)", which clarified that hydrogen energy is an important part of the future national energy system, and encouraged industrial investment**, venture capital**, etc. to support innovative hydrogen energy enterprises in accordance with market-oriented principles.
In the next ten years, we will continue to enrich and iterate the methodology of "in-depth incubation & precision investment & innovation ecological empowerment": integrate scientific logic, engineering logic and business logic to study and judge the track and enterprise, and achieve a balance between the expected return level and the rhythm of capital return through portfolio allocationThrough precise investment and in-depth incubation, we help enterprises achieve product value, company value and capital value growthBy building an ecosystem, we support the in-depth collaboration between enterprises in business and R&D innovation in the value chain, and help them achieve breakthroughs in business value faster and achieve rapid growth.
It's a path of potentially great long-term value, and it's a difficult one that no one has taken. The road is long and resistant, and the line is coming;The future is promising. After ten years of exploration and practice, the team has shown initial results, and will choose to go on firmly in the future, looking forward to finally exploring an innovative and successful model in line with the underlying value law in the field of hard-core technology investment, and continue to create greater value for investors and society.