Just now, Zeekr has completed a Series A financing round of $750 million, surpas

On February 13th, Zeekr announced the completion of a $750 million Series A financing round, with a post-investment valuation of $13 billion.

According to the introduction, this round of financing was invested by Professor Amnon Shashua, founder and CEO of the electric driving technology company Mobieye, CATL (300750.SZ), Yuexiu Industrial Fund, Tongshang Fund, and Quzhou Xin'an Manufacturing Fund, five ecological partners.

That is to say, since its establishment for more than a year, Zeekr has completed two rounds of financing. Moreover, compared with the previous round, Zeekr's valuation has increased from $8.9 billion to $13 billion!

So, how to view this valuation?

Firstly, from the pre-Series A to Series A financing, the valuation has increased by nearly 50%, indicating the capital's strong optimism about Zeekr's development prospects; secondly, similar to the previous round, the investors participating in this Series A financing round are all Zeekr's ecological partners, which are the capital closest to and most familiar with Zeekr; in addition, the background of Zeekr's Series A financing this time is Geely's acceleration towards new energy transformation, and it plans to release the "Geely Brand New Energy Strategy" at the end of the month. From this perspective, the independently operated Zeekr brand plays the role of the vanguard in Geely's acceleration towards new energy transformation.

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It needs to be particularly pointed out that the valuation of $13 billion is already very close to the market value of Geely Automobile (0175.HK). Among the "new forces in car manufacturing," Zeekr's valuation has also far exceeded that of XPeng Motors (9868.HK) and is slightly lower than NIO (9866.HK).

In a word, Zeekr's valuation is very high. But at the same time, it also means that behind the high valuation, it includes the market's beautiful expectations for Zeekr!

Focus on the company's sales.

In the whole year of 2022, Zeekr delivered a total of 72,000 vehicles; by the end of January 2023, the cumulative delivery volume of the Zeekr brand exceeded 80,000, setting a new record for the fastest delivery among new forces in car manufacturing.

However, Zeekr's challenges are also very great.In January of this year, including the Zeekr 001 and Zeekr 009, Zeekr's delivery volume was 3,116 units, a year-on-year decrease of 12%. Of course, Zeekr also provided an explanation that the decline in January's delivery data was mainly affected by the suspension of production for upgrades at the Zeekr factory.

However, it is an undeniable fact that market competition is becoming increasingly fierce.

On one hand, the Model Y has triggered a new round of "price wars," with competing models such as the AITO M5, Xiaopeng P7, and BYD Han experiencing varying degrees of price reductions. On the other hand, with models like the NIO ET5, AITO 11, Li Auto L7, and IM Motors SL7 as representatives, there is a noticeable increase in the number of models in the 300,000 yuan market segment.

So, how does Zeekr plan to respond?

In addition to continuing to enhance the product power of the Zeekr 001 through iterations, Zeekr plans to launch two new models in 2023. One of them is the Zeekr X, which has already been exposed and is about to be released.

The greatest competitive advantage of this car lies in the brand influence established by the Zeekr 001 and Zeekr 009. Zeekr will also wield the price knife and participate in the "involution" of new energy vehicles.

According to the introduction, the starting price of this car may be below 200,000 yuan, and it will go head-to-head with the BYD Song EV!

Overall, with an annual sales target of 140,000 units, the average monthly sales volume is roughly around 12,000 units. With the support of the current two models and the two upcoming new models, there is still confidence.

Of course, the reason why industrial capital is optimistic about Zeekr is not primarily due to sales volume.

Regarding the Series A financing, Zeekr introduced it as follows:"Zeekr is committed to building a globally influential luxury smart electric brand. We are very pleased to have the support of leading investors from various industries. 'Co-creation and co-investment' is Zeekr's business philosophy. Zeekr insists on co-creating with users and global high-quality ecological partners, jointly promoting innovative exploration in the field of luxury smart electric vehicles, and creating an ultimate experience in travel life for users."

In 2023, Zeekr will take the lead in implementing its European strategy and accelerating its global pace. By 2025, Zeekr aims to achieve sales of 650,000 units, ranking among the top three in the global high-end electric vehicle market share.

From this perspective, Zeekr has ambitious aspirations, and industrial capital is also very aggressive.