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A new Chinese fuel cell unicorn is born in Foshan, valued at 7billion RMB


Guohong Hydrogen Energy(Sinosynergy), which focuses on the industrialization of hydrogen fuel cells, is opening a new round of financing, and its pre-investment valuation has reached 7 billion RMB.



Founded in 2015, Guohong Hydrogen Energy is an industrial assistance project jointly built by Foshan and Yunfu in Guangdong Province and settled in Yunfu. In the year of its establishment, the first hydrogen fuel cell bus that the company participated in research and development was officially unveiled, and it also received orders for 300 hydrogen energy vehicles; from 2017 to 2020, Guohong Hydrogen Energy ranked first in fuel cell stack shipments for four consecutive years one.


So far, Guohong Hydrogen Energy has assembled a group of VC/PE and industrial capital behind it, and has raised a total of 2 billion yuan. It is no accident that it was born in Foshan - compared with manufacturing, another industry in Foshan is less well-known - hydrogen energy. With the strong support of the local government, there are more than 100 hydrogen energy companies, research institutes and related institutions gathered here, accounting for about one third of the total in Guangdong Province. "China's hydrogen energy looks at Foshan" is not an exaggeration. Today, the hydrogen energy industry has entered the stage of history, and VC/PE has taken action.



The entrepreneurial story of Guohong Hydrogen Energy should be told from its founder- Ma Dongsheng.


Ma Dongsheng is the first college student after the resumption of the college entrance examination and one of the founders of Guohong Hydrogen Energy. In 1977, Ma Dongsheng entered the Central South Institute of Mining and Metallurgy to major in metal materials. After graduation, he entered the steel industry. For more than ten years, he went from worker to management.


By chance, he came into contact with hydrogen energy, and was keenly aware that this globally recognized "ultimate clean energy" would have a profound impact on the fuel cell industry in the future, and began to have the idea of ​​​​starting a business.


In 2013, Ma Dongsheng started his first hydrogen energy business, and established Bikong Hydrogen Energy in Nantong, Jiangsu Province. This is an enterprise engaged in the research and development, production and sales of hydrogen fuel cells and system control equipment. The technology mainly relies on Ballard in Canada. Power Company. At first, Ma Dongsheng "stumbling on" the technology patent authorization. Although he obtained Ballard's only "exclusive technology authorization", he obtained the previous generation technology, which is difficult to achieve high-power automotive applications.


Foreign giants held patents, and Chinese companies were "led by the nose", which was not uncommon at that time. Ma Dongsheng decided to go south - taking the market to find technology. At that time, when the Guangdong Provincial Government issued the counterpart assistance plan, Foshan and Yunfu decided to focus on the development of the hydrogen energy industry, which just catered to Ma Dongsheng's wishes.


In May 2015, Ma Dongsheng and Foshan Auto Transport jointly invested and established Guangdong Hongyun Hydrogen Energy Technology Co., Ltd. The following month, the company joined hands with Guangdong Foshan (Yunfu) Industrial Transfer Industrial Park Investment and Development Co., Ltd. to jointly invest in the establishment of Guangdong Guohong Hydrogen Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as Guohong Hydrogen Energy), with a registered capital of 200 million yuan, of which Hongyun Hydrogen Energy holds 41% of the shares and is the largest shareholder.


Soon after its establishment, the company received an order for 300 hydrogen vehicles from the government. This time, Ma Dongsheng sat at the negotiating table with Ballard again. With this fuel cell order, he successfully won Ballard's most advanced technology, the 9SSL stack, and obtained Ballard's annual production capacity of 20,000 units. Line construction technical support. In less than a year, the factory was completed and put into operation. Since then, Guohong Hydrogen has rapidly expanded its market in Yunfu, Foshan, Shanghai and other places, and its domestic fuel cell market share once exceeded 80%.



Since its establishment, Guohong Hydrogen Energy has been invincible in the field of fuel cells: from building the world's largest commercial fuel cell stack production line and system production line, taking the lead in realizing the mass production of low-cost flexible expanded graphite bipolar plates, and self-developed Hongxin GI ElectricThe stack and Hongtu G110 system have helped the first batch of domestic fuel cell buses to be exported to foreign countries, and the automotive stack products have ranked first in the domestic market for four consecutive years.


Since 2021, Guohong Hydrogen Energy once reported that it plans to go public on the STAR Board in China. Just last month, Guohong Hydrogen Energy announced the completion of the shareholding system reform, changed its name to "Guangdong Guohong Hydrogen Energy Co., Ltd.", and officially entered the IPO preparation stage. The investment community has exclusively learned that Guohong Hydrogen Energy is now undergoing a new round of financing, and its pre-investment valuation has reached 7 billion RMB. An investor close to Guohong Hydrogen Energy in Beijing revealed that the company expects to apply for a Hong Kong stock market listing in the fourth quarter of 2022.


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