The Nio Capital and SB Energy-backed EV battery exchange platform’s latest round was co-led by Sinopec Capital’s Enze Fund and brought its valuation to over $1bn.

China-based battery-swapping network operator Aulton secured RMB1.5bn ($232m) yesterday in a series B round co-led by Sinopec Capital, a subsidiary of oil and gas supplier Sinopec, through its Enze Fund.

Government-backed Guangzhou Finance Holdings and Guangzhou GET Investment Holdings co-led the round, which included Guangdong Merchant Venture Capital, CY Capital and Korea Investment Partners’ China-based vehicle.

Aulton has built an electric vehicle (EV) battery management platform for electric vehicles that includes a network of battery exchange stations across some 20 cities in China and other countries including Germany and Poland.

The round took the company’s total funding to about $541m since it was founded in 2016 and helped it achieve unicorn status, meaning its valuation is above $1bn.

SB Energy, the renewable energy subsidiary of telecommunications and internet conglomerate SoftBank, provided funding for Aulton in August 2020, which came two years after a series A round of similarly undisclosed size featuring Nio Capital, the VC firm set up by electric vehicle manufacturer Nio.

Edison Fu

Edison Fu is head of Asia development at Global Corporate Venturing.