Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker XPeng Motors on Thursday said it fronted the bulk of the investment into Rockets Capital, a $200 million USD fund that will back players in the electric vehicle (EV) industry and “frontier technology areas” — reports CNBC.
Rockets Capital will focus on “venture and growth stage investments in Smart EV industry value chain, clean energy, and frontier technology areas.”
Neither XPeng nor Rockets Capital elaborated on what “frontier technology” entails, but China’s government uses the term to describe a number of growing industries, including artificial intelligence and semiconductors.
Apart from XPeng, the investors behind Rockets Capital also include veteran Chinese venture capitalists 5Y Capital, eGarden, GGV Capital, IDG Capital, and Sequoia China.
XPeng Motors is an EV maker in its own right — one of the largest in Mainland China. XPeng usually hovers around no. 7 in China by volume shipped, and the company celebrated its 100,000th car rolling off the production line in October 2021.
Bing Yuan, the managing partner of Rockets Capital, said the closing of the fund is a “testimony that in the constantly evolving investment industry, the low carbon economy and technology-driven development are the consensus investment trends.”
XPeng said that Rockets Capital will operate independently from the EV maker, but will leverage its “industry expertise and resources” and “incubate technological innovation.”
The automaker said the fund has already “entered into agreements” to invest in several companies, but the automaker did not name any names.
