EV is one of those few industries that continue to excite investors at a time when VC financing is declining in China. Geely, China’s largest private automaker, stated Monday that investors had committed to investing $750 million in Zeekr, the luxury EV brand under its umbrella. It now has a $13 billion post-valuation.
The information was released two months after Zeekr claimed to have applied in secret for a U.S. IPO. The electric car manufacturer was reportedly asking for over $1 billion in revenues at a valuation of more than $10 billion at the time, according to Reuters.
Amnon Shashua, the founder and CEO of Mobileye, Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd., a Chinese battery giant and supplier to Tesla, the Yuexiu Industrial Fund, Tongshang Fund, and Xin’an Intelligent Manufacturing Fund, three state-owned investment vehicles in China, are among the notable investors who have agreed to support Zeekr in its Series A round.
Daniel Donghui Li, CEO of Geely Holding Group said: “The Series-A fundraising is a vote of confidence in the growth prospects and strong future of Zeekr, which becomes the latest brand in the Geely Holding portfolio to secure a strong valuation. Geely Holding will continue to explore ways to unlock value across our portfolio as we pioneer new services and mobility solutions to meet customer demand across the world.”
The money raised will help Zeekr with its global expansion and technological research. In fact, the company has been aggressively expanding its global presence. In January, the company had about 3,000 unfilled positions in more than 30 cities around the globe, including at its R&D headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden, and Ningbo and Shanghai in China. Additionally, the budding automaker was setting up shop in Silicon Valley.
Zeekr was established on April 15th, 2021 as a global luxury EV brand with R&D capacity in Gothenburg, Sweden and Hangzhou, China. Zeekr began deliveries of its flagship Zeekr 001 in October 2021, delivering over 80,000 units to date. In January 2023, Zeekr started shipment of its Zeekr 009 full-size EV MPV to users.
