- The electric car market is no stranger to unicorns, private startups valued at $1 billion or more.
- PitchBook data provided to Insider indicates there are at least 15 EV unicorns across the globe.
- Here’s a look at the industry’s unicorns and which could make good on their massive valuations.
More startups are hitting unicorn status faster than ever, and the electric car business is no different. Privately-held EV outfits around the globe and backed by venture capital have rapidly hit valuations of well over $1 billion — some even with few vehicles on the road to show for it.
Chinese companies make up more than half of today's 15 top EV industry unicorns, which include EV manufacturers, battery companies, and charging ventures. The numbers show that startups out of China have led the charge in the global race to EVs.
One reason China is home to so many unicorns is the rise of VC money within China. "Venture capital has come a long way in China in the last five to seven years," said Michael Dunne, the CEO of automotive consultancy ZoZo Go. "Those are companies that venture capitalists and banks and everyone else feels are good horses to bet on now."
But China also has substantial government backing for the transition away from gas-powered cars. "There's an accelerator factor in the form of government blessing," Dunne said.
A number of other EV startups made unicorn status in recent years, but have since gone public. EV manufacturers Rivian, Nikola, Faraday Future, Arrival, Proterra, Li Auto, Xpeng, and NIO all hit valuations of over $1 billion before going public either through traditional IPOs or SPACs. Electric car charging company ChargePoint and battery company QuantumScape did the same.
Even still, just because a company hit unicorn status doesn't mean its success is inevitable. "It's a dynamic arena where the fortunes and fates of companies can turn quite abruptly," Dunne said.
Here's 15 of the EV industry unicorns across the globe, and which could be built to last.
(The data, provided by PitchBook, is as of February 7.)
Redwood Materials
Unicorn date: August 18, 2021
Current valuation: $3.8 billion
Headquarters: Carson City, Nevada
This battery-recycling startup is headed up by former Tesla Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel. It's working to extract raw materials from spent EV batteries, process them, and return them to production, including precious metals such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel. Mining these materials is costly, technologically complex, and often done in unethical and unsustainable ways, so recycling has been gaining more attention as automakers make their product lines all-electric.
Redwood brought in $700 million in funding last July, and recently received an infusion of $50 million from Ford.
SVOLT
Unicorn date: April 30, 2020
Current valuation: $7.21 billion
Headquarters: Changzhou, China
SVOLT develops lithium-ion batteries, battery systems, and energy storage technologies. It's a spin-off from Chinese automaker Great Wall Motors.
SVOLT revealed in December a strategy to substantially increase its battery production capacity to 600 gigawatt hours by 2025 — a supply that, if met, would surpass the capacity of China's current largest battery supplier, CATL, which reached 96.7 gigawatt hours in 2021. It raised three major funding rounds in 2021.
Newlink Group
Unicorn date: March 22, 2021
Current valuation: $1 billion
Headquarters: Beijing, China
Founded in 2016, Newlink is a fueling app that connects drivers in China with the best gas and charging stations.
One of the trickiest parts of EV charging can be incompatible and unstandardized apps and payment processes consumers have to navigate for different charging station providers.
Newlink's working to streamline the hassle drivers experience fueling up, no matter the power type. It has backing from Bain Capital and NIO Capital, among others.
Northvolt
Unicorn date: June 12, 2019
Current valuation: $11.75 billion
Headquarters: Stockholm, Sweden
Founded by former VP of Tesla's supply chain Peter Carlsson in 2016, Northvolt has backing from Volkswagen, Goldman, BMW, and Spotify's founder Daniel Ek, among others.
The company optimizes EV battery chemistry and makes lithium-ion batteries in a more environmentally sustainable way. It expects to make its first commercial deliveries this year.
Northvolt is working out of its own factory in Europe and has hopes of reducing its customers' reliance on battery capacity from Asia.
ProLogium
Unicorn date: April 8, 2020
Current valuation: $2.5 billion
Headquarters: Taoyuan, Taiwan
Sixteen-year-old ProLogium is mass-producing solid-state lithium ceramic batteries, a chemistry which could give batteries increased energy retention.
With a $326 million infusion of cash last October from investors like SoftBank, Primavera Capital Group, and more, ProLogium plans to expand production in Asia, Europe, and the US between 2023 and 2025.
The company just received buy-in from Mercedes-Benz to co-develop solid state batteries. It also has agreements with NIO and Enovate.
Star Charge
Unicorn date: September 24, 2020
Current valuation: $2.4 billion
Headquarters: Changzhou, China
Star Charge is a Chinese EV charging company that supplies equipment, data services, and platform operations for automaker customers. It's considered one of the largest EV charging infrastructure providers in China, given it has thousands of charging units in operation, according to its site.
The company has attracted the attention of major automakers, including BYD and BAIC in China, and others across the globe, like BMW, Porsche, Jaguar Land Rover, and Volkswagen.
WM Motor
Unicorn date: December 1, 2021
Current valuation: $4.7 billion
Headquarters: Shanghai, China
Weltmeister is a brand of Chinese EV manufacturer WM Motors. It was founded by CEO Freeman Shen in 2015. The company competes with major Chinese names NIO and Xpeng, and also Tesla.
It's known for the EX5, its first production car, which it launched at the Beijing Auto Show in 2018. The battery-electric compact crossover SUV started at $45,000. Weltmeister later renamed it the EX5-Z. The company's second mass-production vehicle was the EX6 midsize crossover SUV, with the W6 SUV is next on the automaker's list.
Youxia Motors
Unicorn date: March 31, 2018
Current valuation: $3.35 billion
Headquarters: Shanghai, China
The company specializes in low-speed and sport EVs. It launched its first production vehicle, the Youxia X electric sedan, in July 2015.
It was one of the first companies in China's EV startup boom, and was founded in 2014 by Huang Xiuyan. Successful Chinese EV giants NIO and Xpeng Motors were founded the same year; both have since gone public.
Despite being an early player in the space in China, recent reports suggest the company's future may be in doubt after its chairman's majority stake was frozen for the next 3 years.
TELD New Energy
Unicorn date: March 5, 2020
Current valuation: $2.12 billion
Headquarters: Qingdao, China
The company is a major EV charging operator in China. It offers charging reservation, energy consumption data, and historical charging records for users.
The company is backed by Chinese asset management firm CDH Investments, Venus Growth, and others. It was founded in 2014 by Guo Yongguang.
Ample
Unicorn date: November 10, 2021
Current valuation: $1 billion
Headquarters: San Francisco, California
Ample was cofounded by Khaled Hassounah and John de Souza in 2014 to try to figure out battery swapping in cars.
Battery swapping historically hasn't been successful, but Ample hopes to overcome the challenges associated with it by starting with fleets. Its automated technology means fleet drivers, like ridehailing operators, can pull up to a station and leave with a fully charged battery in a matter of minutes. The downside: This requires Ample's architecture to be incorporated in vehicles, which means automakers need to buy-in to the technology.
Ample received $50 million in funding from private equity giant The Blackstone Group in 2021, alongside other investments.
AiWAYS
Unicorn date: April 15, 2018
Current valuation: $1.59 billion
Headquarters: Shanghai, China
AiWAYS was founded in 2017 by former China sales chief of Volvo Cars Fu Qiang. AiWAYS presented its first vehicle, the U5 at the Geneva Motors Show in 2019. The vehicle, with a 250-mile range, launched in China that year, but saw more success in 2020 being sold as an export in countries around the world, especially in Europe. Still, the company has only sold a few thousand cars total, according to sales data.
The company is also in the process of launching its second vehicle, the U6, and has other concepts in the works.
Enovate Motors
Unicorn date: July 23, 2018
Current valuation: $3.66 billion
Headquarters: Shanghai, China
The EV manufacturer was founded in 2015 and has developed models including the Dearcc EV10, ME5, ME7, and ME-S concept.
Its first all-electric mid-size SUV, the ME7, was unveiled at the 2019 Shanghai Auto Show and went on sale the following year with a range of up to 310 miles, and established it as a competitor to popular Chinese automaker NIO.
The company is led by Hailiang Zhang, once an executive at SAIC Volkswagen.
Sila Nanotechnologies
Unicorn date: January 7, 2021
Current valuation: $3.3 billion
Headquarters: Alameda, California
Sila is a silicon-based lithium-ion battery technology company. Founded in 2011, it began production in Alameda in 2017. At the helm is Gene Berdichevsky, a former battery system architect at Tesla.
Its battery materials, which the company says can increase a cell's capacity by 20%, are currently being piloted in Whoop 4.0 fitness bands. It signed a partnership with Daimler in 2019, and closed on $600 million in funding in 2021. The company has backing from T. Rowe Price, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Sutter Hill Partners, among others.
Nanotech Energy
Unicorn date: September 2, 2021
Current valuation: $1.66 billion
Headquarters: Los Angeles
CEO Jack Kavanaugh co-founded the company with UCLA scientists Richard Kaner and Maher El-Kad in 2014.
Nanotech is currently developing non-flammable graphene-based batteries and technologies. The company says this technology can hold more charge and enable a new generation of lithium-ion based formulas used in traditional batteries.
Leapmotor
Unicorn date: August 3, 2019
Current valuation: $2.49 billion
Headquarters: Hangzhou, China
The EV startup is backed by venture firm Sequoia Capital China and the state-owned Shanghai Electric Group Corp. It was founded in 2015 by Liquan Fu and Zhu Jiangming. It's been mulling what would be a blockbuster IPO in Hong Kong.
Leapmotor is currently developing its flagship C11, T03, and S01 EVs, and touts the strength of its intelligent driving chip technology and all-in-one electric drive system, coined "Heracle." The company had received more than 44,400 orders last year as of November. It has slowly been ramping up deliveries over the past two years, and delivered about 4,000 cars per month by mid-2021.
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