- Ernie Diaz
Geely Willikers - $300 million
China’s top domestic brand Geely is all-in on EV and other forms of “future mobility”. SK Holdings “pursues continuous happiness through deep change.” Together, they will chip in $60m for a new transport tech fund, open to both foreign investors and foreign investments.
“The fund is expected to reach USD $300 million,” says Edward Lehman. “The fund will be based in Hong Kong, a sign of its global approach to both raising and investing.”
Companies into AI, autonomous vehicles, and EV battery tech, especially, are advised to get their decks translated into Mandarin & Hangul, judging by the two companies’ recent partnership and investments: Baidu & Tencent; Foxconn, who figures if you can assemble iPhones, why not iCars?; and most interestingly PlugPower, which is invested in developing hydrogen as an alternative form of energy in Asia.
“Besides its volatility and thus potential for disaster, hydrogen makes a compelling case for alternative energy,” says Jimmie Jeremejev. “It will be intriguing to see if the use case can be made.”