On February 4, SES, a battery Unicorn company, was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, which is the world’s first listed supplier of hybrid lithium metal batteries. As of the closing, the market value of SES was US $2428 million.
SES, founded in 2012, is one of the earliest technology enterprises targeting lithium metal batteries in the world. It is also the only lithium metal battery enterprise in the world that has signed a sample joint development agreement with automobile enterprises. In March last year, SES and GM signed the cooperation of the world’s first lithium metal battery a sample for vehicles. In May, it signed the world’s second A-Sample cooperation agreement with Hyundai. At the beginning of this year, it won the joint development agreement of Honda’s a sample.
In mid July last year, SES announced that it had reached a final merger agreement with Ivanhoe capital acquisition company. Ivanhoe is a comprehensive mining company with sufficient reserves of nickel and copper in many regions of the world, including about 4.1 billion pounds of nickel in the platreef project in South Africa. After SES and its merger, in addition to obtaining nearly US $500 million in cash to support the follow-up R & D and commercialization of products, it can also cope with the “nickel shortage” of the battery industry in the future and consider the longer-term strategy.
High performance is the core competitiveness of SES lithium metal battery. Unlike mainstream lithium-ion batteries, SES replaces the cathode material with lithium metal. While improving the energy density, it is expected to reduce the cost by about 18% by 2028. At battery world last year, SES announced the first vehicle standard lithium metal battery with a capacity of 107 ah, which is the largest lithium metal battery in the world.
Founder Hu Qichao graduated from MIT and Harvard University. SES is the project he participated in the business competition during his PhD. In 2009, when he was a doctor at Harvard, jobs style entrepreneurial stories swept the campus, and entrepreneurship became a trend. At the same time, the US Department of energy has increased investment in the clean energy industry. Hu Qichao took his doctoral research project to participate in many competitions. He not only won the runner up of the national clean energy business plan competition, but also obtained Angel round financing from MIT incubator.
Hu Qichao’s entrepreneurial road is thus launched, but the development process of SES is full of challenges. At the end of 2012, American lithium battery manufacturer A123 announced bankruptcy, and the battery industry entered a trough. From 2013 to 2016, SES began to establish a team, but there was no great breakthrough in the research and development of all solid state batteries due to the difficulties of basic chemistry. Until 2019, SES decided to target electric vehicles and convert from all solid state to mixed lithium metal.
In addition to technical issues, financing is also something that founders need to consider. In 2015, the industry entered a trough again, and dozens of American battery companies closed down one after another. Hu Qichao, who has been unable to find round C financing for a long time, is also in danger of being replaced by the board of directors. He took out his own money to subsidize the company and kept meeting with investors. After that, he overcame the difficulties with the help of Zheng Juncong, the manager of Xiangfeng China, the first round investor, and another director.
At the end of 2019, with the global upsurge of clean energy, SES attracted the attention of industry and capital. According to reports, SES has completed five rounds of financing within six years. In addition to GM, Hyundai, Kia and SAIC, the investors also include Korean battery giant SK, China’s Tianqi Lithium Corporation(002466) , American applied materials company and Xiangfeng China.
At present, SES carries out business simultaneously in Boston, Shanghai and Seoul, and plans to realize mass production and commercial realization of battery products in 2025.
SES’s strategy is more than that. Hu Qichao defined the company as a vertically integrated lithium metal battery company. In the upstream, SES is looking for a suitable lithium mine for privatization, so as to ensure the stable supply of raw materials; In the downstream, a super intelligent battery safety system should be established to realize the health monitoring of the whole battery life cycle through AI technology. He believes that the requirements for battery energy consumption of electric vehicles only increase but not decrease. It is impossible to be 100% safe only by the battery itself, and the supporting software is very necessary. Hu Qichao hopes that at least 10% of electric vehicles in the world can use SES batteries and software systems in the future.
Dialogue with Hu Qichao, founder of SES
interface news: you were expelled from the professor twice during your PhD. Why?
Hu Qichao: some professors in academic circles prefer theoretical research and attach importance to publishing articles, but I prefer to make specific products, so they are different from previous professors in concept.
interface news: why do you choose to study for a doctor?
Hu Qichao: I had the idea of starting a new energy business around 2008, but only if the idea is not enough, I have to make something. I regard the doctor as a platform for early research and development, similar to an incubator for entrepreneurship.
interface news: what is the original intention of entrepreneurship?
Hu Qichao: just think this new battery technology is the future.
interface news: when did the battery industry begin to receive capital attention?
Hu Qichao: from 2002 to 2004, capital began to pay attention, but large-scale capital attention began when Tesla became the world’s most valued auto enterprise. Tesla has proved that electric vehicles are the trend of the future.
interface news: what was your goal last year?
Hu Qichao: last year’s focus was on listing, hoping to make it happen.
interface news: do you think you have succeeded?
Hu Qichao: if more than 10% of the world’s electric vehicles can use our batteries and software systems, I think it will be a success.
interface news: what does listing mean for SES?
Hu Qichao: after listing, there will be a larger development platform to cooperate with more companies in the industrial chain and establish a larger ecosystem.
interface news: who do you want to thank most since starting a business?
Hu Qichao: there are three people who want to thank most. The first is the teacher of MIT business competition incubator, who helped me a lot in specific affairs; The second is my doctoral supervisor Donald sadoway, who has always supported me. I first studied physics and made Cecep Solar Energy Co.Ltd(000591) batteries. Joining his study group, I was exposed to lithium batteries for the first time; The third is a member of the board of directors. When I was questioned by the board of directors in 2017, he chose to support me.
interface news: lithium metal batteries are still questioned. Why do you think?
Hu Qichao: any technology will be questioned before it is applied. From the 1990s to the present, all commercialized batteries in the whole battery industry, whether mobile phones, computers or automobiles, are lithium-ion batteries, and lithium metal has never been commercialized. It was thought that lithium metal batteries might take 10 or 20 years, but the actual speed is much faster.
The question is mainly about security. The battery cannot be 100% safe. The higher the energy density, the greater the risk. The security problem can not be solved only by hardware. Only by combining hardware and software can we better predict risks and ensure safety.
interface news: when can SES batteries be mass produced?
Hu Qichao: it will be faster to develop samples with auto enterprises, but it will take longer to truly commercialize. The current plan is 2025.
