Aotu AutoCapital provides a new idea of industrial investment.
@商科星球original
Author丨Yuan Jing
Edit丨Big Rabbit
Times shape individuals, and times will iteratively emerge new investment institutions. The first generation of investors and investment institutions either studied in the United States or worked in investment banks; more and more RMB funds now have second-generation investors with dual backgrounds in industry and investment.
Historically, different times have offered different investment opportunities. As the "snipers" of the times, investors who have seized technological innovation and market dividends have achieved better returns.
Among many investment institutions, Yang Xingtao, managing partner of Aotu AutoCapital, considers himself very lucky; among many investors, he is fortunate to have worked in cross-field companies such as information technology and automobiles for several years, and also has ten years of experience as a veteran in the field of equity investment. Several years of painstaking experience. Ao Tu, a new veteran fund, is also in continuous evolution and hopes to rely on long-termism and the belief of narrow doors and long roads to stand in the forest of the strong. For the majority of emerging investment institutions, perhaps Ao Tu's thinking also has a lot in common .
01
The natural advantages of industrial people investing
In the new year, China's domestic industrial upgrading has achieved remarkable results, and the production and export of high value-added products have increased significantly. It can be said that this will undoubtedly give a boost to future economic growth.
Today, as the competitiveness of Chinese products and Chinese services is gradually increasing, the style of investment institutions has also quietly changed. Digital Planet (ID: digital-planet) sees that today, as Internet investment opportunities are gradually disappearing, the digital economy and industrial technology have become "spicy pastries" in the eyes of investors.
However, objectively speaking, with the switch of the track, how to seize the investment opportunities under the new conditions has become a difficult problem for many institutions. In this regard, Aotu AutoCapital has inserted unique genes into the organization since its establishment. We saw that Yang Xingtao made the following arrangements:
First, most of the Aotu team comes from real enterprises, and has a strong color of engineers. Compared with other institutions, the company has demonstrated unique engineering capabilities and can connect with entrepreneurial groups such as engineers, scientists, and scientific research professors. And Yang Xingtao is well aware that the era of going it alone is over, and the success of emerging investment institutions must rely on the team and the organization. From the early stage of establishment, he has considered enough equity/options, Carry incentives and matching methods to form and retain long-term future partners. core staff of the organization.
Second, in terms of the cornerstone investors of the fund, it is also the preferred entity entrepreneurs and core executives, which makes Aotu have profound research and ecological empowerment capabilities in fields such as automobiles, information technology, and new energy. Link team members, investors, and enterprise parties, and the benefit of the three parties is defined as the company's purpose.
Third, "invest early, invest in small, invest in technological innovation", and the valuation range is set at 50 million to 500 million. The investment in projects in the mid-to-late stage and pre-IPO stage, because of the determination of the size of the fund, must be closely watched by the leading large-scale investment institutions. And "investing in early, small, and technological innovation" is more of a "handicraft", and in the long run there will still be pioneering investment institutions in professional fields.
As a new generation of investment institutions, Aotu's team configuration helps them accurately assess the potential and risks of a project in a short period of time and improve the quality of investment decisions. In addition, because of its extensive network resources, it can also help invested companies establish business partnerships, expand markets or seek opportunities for mergers and acquisitions. This will help the investee company to achieve business growth, thereby improving the return on investment.
02
Digital Economy and Industrial Technology in the New Era
The automobile industry is one of the main battlefields of Aotu.
As a managing partner, Yang Xingtao has worked as an information technology engineer, manager or consultant in companies such as NEC and the German automotive industry consulting company (Staufen.Ag). Therefore, the field where the new generation of information technology and automobiles are combined (also part of the digital economy) has become one of the investment priorities.
Among the investment projects, there are also "Kangzhong Auto Parts", the No. 1 unicorn in the digital intelligent supply chain in the passenger car aftermarket (over 20 billion valuation and exit), and "Xinruili Auto Parts", an Internet unicorn enterprise in the commercial vehicle industry , commercial vehicle low-speed intelligent driving (smart driving domain control) head enterprise "Youkong Zhixing", lithium iron phosphate retired battery resource regeneration enterprise "Shunhua Lithium Industry", the largest trunk logistics service provider, and the supply chain of the automobile or automobile Informatization and electrification of derivative industries are closely related.
In addition, there are many start-ups in emerging industries such as "Gongbu Smart Manufacturing" and "Tanggu Smart" that integrate digitalization and industrial technology in its investment portfolio. In particular, Gongbu Intelligent Manufacturing, combined with new digital technologies and the demand for replacement of technicians, has achieved annual performance growth doubled even under the influence of the epidemic for three years.
In the iteration of the new energy field, Aotu also discovered new investment opportunities. "If China takes the route of fuel vehicles, it will not be able to surpass foreign countries for decades, but in the field of new energy, it has already been recognized," Yang Xingtao judged. In the first quarter of 2023, domestic new energy vehicles have delivered satisfactory answers to the society. China has already stepped from a big automobile country to a powerful automobile country, and the achievements of the electric vehicle industry have attracted worldwide attention.
He has noticed the electric vehicle market since 2013. During the conversation with Digital Planet (ID: digital-planet), Yang Xingtao was quite pleased with the achievements of domestic automakers. However, although new energy has achieved great success, it is far from the end of the industry. There is still a lot of room for going overseas. Solid-state semi-solid batteries and hydrogen energy have long-term opportunities. It is also worth noting that the current electric track industry chain is not complete. So there's still plenty of opportunity for innovation.
In the new decade, Yang Xingtao judged that the investment logic of this track will further evolve and new investment opportunities will emerge: "Next, I think the investment rhythm of this industry will focus on intensification and efficiency. We will focus on projects in this direction.” New materials used in the new energy battery/automotive industry, photovoltaics, and semiconductor chains, and products with different characteristics/costs expressed by new processes, these emerging opportunities are sprouting and growing.
To expand, in terms of user experience, the electronic applications in the car should become "as easy to use as a mobile phone". Behind the realization of the above ideals, software-defined vehicles, automotive software (middleware), automotive electronic devices (vehicle-level chips), intelligent applications (smart cabins, domain controllers, automatic parking systems, radars), sensors, Joint efforts in lightweight and other aspects.
At the market level, if the above functions can be quickly iterated, it will further enhance the competitiveness of domestic cars in the international and domestic markets. In the direction of automobile intelligence and electronics, there are also opportunities for investment institutions to systematically invest in several listed companies in batches. The leading institutions in the Internet industry may take all, and it is easier to form multiple investments in the automotive field. The agency seized on this historic opportunity.
03
The underlying logic behind industrial transformation
"Behind the new energy upgrade is the overall rise of the manufacturing industry." In Yang Xingtao's observation, the digitization of the new energy supporting industry is the only way for the industry to achieve industrial upgrading in the future.
For a wide range of industries, digitalization can improve the operational efficiency and management level of enterprises, and it can also be used through digital management systems and automation equipment. In the scope of Aotu's involvement, digital investment opportunities have been distributed in automobiles, semiconductors, aerospace, and military industries. and other fields.
Fundamentally, the increase of domestic enterprises' investment in R&D and the expansion of market size are the two foundations for stimulating business innovation.
"As far as the industry is concerned, there are a lot of opportunities in industrial digitalization and industrial technology. Compared with the consumer electronics industry, the digitalization level of equipment manufacturing and aerospace needs to be improved," Yang Xingtao said. In Ao Tu's view, due to the "regardless of cost" investment in R&D in some related domestic fields, the R&D environment has been significantly improved compared with the past. In the long run, this has laid a solid foundation for subsequent product innovation and will release more excellent investment opportunities.
In addition, in terms of market size, the scale of electric vehicles and new energy industries is huge. While different companies compete with each other, the competition between efficiency and cost will become the main theme.
In the past, some readers of Digital Planet (ID: digital-planet) believed that the essence of digitization was to empower existing processes or processes to improve their efficiency and cost. In Yang Xingtao's logic, digitalization and new technology are not contradictory, and the two are even integrated and interdependent. "To put it simply, technological innovations in some industries can be transferred to other traditional industries through digitization, and relevant digital data can also force the progress of technological processes or materials," Yang Xingtao added .
"For example, in the field of power transmission, as the power transmission pressure of the power grid is getting higher and higher, there will be a new round of explosions in inspection robots, intelligent or unmanned equipment, and sensors," he said to Digital Planet ( ID :digital-planet) said so. In the field of industrial robots that have been widely used, the opportunities for digital upgrading are also obvious. For this type of industry, digitalization has become an effective means to achieve industrial upgrading and differentiated competition.
04
The road to breaking through for emerging funds
2023 is an opportunity and a challenge for RMB funds.
The opportunity lies in the rapid development of domestic emerging industries and the formation of industrial clusters. The government and the industry have reached a consensus that mass innovation and technological breakthroughs are done. An effective way to break through.
At this point, Ao Tu's model has a certain reference value. Fundamentally, the fund uses years of hard work in the industry to focus on high-quality investment strategies. Compared with the previous "shotgun approach" in the industry , this strategy is more effective at present.
Yang Xingtao compared himself to "going up to the hall and down to the kitchen" . He himself is familiar with the first-line process technology, rooted in the electronic information factory, and has deep accumulation in the fields of domestic funds and automobiles. In Ao Tu's team, financial and technical process judgments and industry research have formed a resonance effect, which has improved the grasp of the project and the probability of project success.
Generally speaking, Aotu’s investment model is not the “top-down” or “Bottom Up” commonly used by US dollar funds. The industrial map and network of contacts are naturally formed in the circle of related relationships among funds, fund investors, and invested project parties. Inside, Ao Tu spent more time on empowerment and communication. From the perspective of Digital Planet (ID: digital-planet), this investment style has obvious benefits, shortening the psychological distance between the project party and the capital, eliminating the embarrassment of "relying on others" when encountering capital, and highlighting the This has strengthened the competitiveness of the new generation of RMB funds.
On the other hand, the investors headed by Yang Xingtao maintain a strong learning ability and are constantly dredging the past "cognitive barrier lake". For the fund industry, this kind of thinking mode has extremely high requirements on people. However, compared with the previous investment mode of "finding out by the picture" and flocking to the crowd, it has many advantages, so that this fund can often see hidden funds hidden in the water. investment opportunities below.
As far as Aotu's research strategy is concerned, it is open. Its internal research team will consider industrial processes and processes, digitalization, chip sensors, and specific industries such as new energy and automobiles. "I didn't set limits on the thinking of myself and the team", is the summary given by Yang Xingtao. In terms of fund investment model, Aotu's special feature is that it breaks the "barriers" of industry research and allows innovation to fully flow in the fields involved.
Conclusion: In recent years, the industry and the capital circle have changed significantly. In new energy and electric vehicles, many domestic companies have taken the lead in the world, and semiconductors have also achieved great improvement and consensus under the national system. Many companies have grown or are growing into well-deserved original technology manufacturers; The rapid development of the industry, the digital economy, industrial technology, and the increasing demand for intra-corporate innovation & overseas development force investment institutions to continue to evolve and seize the opportunities that belong to the next 10 years.
If we say that in the past few decades, many domestic industries have been "crossing the river by feeling the stones", then, in the future, the world's leading digital economy, technological breakthroughs, original innovation, and going overseas will become the mainstream of emerging industries. From the perspective of the development of industries such as photovoltaics, semiconductors, new energy and electric vehicles, the future room for imagination will be huge and amazing.
Historically, the domestic Internet wave has achieved great success in the past 20 years, proving that the American model can be replicated in China and benefiting traditional US dollar funds. As a result, a large number of investment banks or brokerage practitioners have settled in the PE/VC industry. Today, the domestic capital industry is also at a crossroads, copying homework or original "engineer bonuses" are spreading in different industries. Investment institutions that break through and innovate in the fund industry will have more room to display.
Presumably in the near future, just like the rebirth of many domestic industries, the capital industry will also try to achieve investment differentiation and higher returns through focus and innovation. "Curve overtaking" instead of following and copying Inward scrolling continues.