From artificial intelligence to biomedicine, to metauniverse, new consumption, great health, upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, many leading real estate enterprises are looking for new opportunities outside their main business with enterprise venture capital (CVC) as their tentacles.
These venture capital institutions of real estate enterprises naturally have a certain orientation in the investment direction. On the one hand, they will consider the interaction with the main business of the parent company to produce synergy, in which there is also incremental space; On the other hand, it will also conduct comprehensive investment analysis and value judgment on other emerging tracks and industries.
Of course, different venture capital institutions of real estate enterprises have certain differences in both positioning and investment style. In a recent interview with the reporter of the daily economic news, country garden venture capital said that as an industrial capital, country garden venture capital naturally bears the brand of country garden group. With the advantage of long-term capital, country garden venture capital can go to the battle easily and realize multi line layout. The burden is light, there is no burden of hard exit, and the data indicators of short-term income will not be deliberately pursued. It will be held for a long time for well-developed enterprises.
“The company is also continuously discovering and linking external high-tech and new economic models to interact with the main business of the parent company and produce synergy.”
Tap new space upstream and downstream of the industrial chain
As the equity investment division directly under country garden group, country garden venture capital was established in January 2019, mainly focusing on four themes, including scientific and technological innovation, great health, new consumption and upstream and downstream of the group’s industrial chain.
Since its establishment, country garden venture capital has invested in more than 90 enterprises, of which 10 have successfully IPO, 26 unicorns and 13 have completed the next round of fund-raising. Up to now, about 52% of the investment amount is distributed in advanced manufacturing, semiconductor, carbon neutralization and other hard science and technology fields
country garden venture capital’s investment in new consumption source: Kerui
“The company’s investment is divided into strategic investment and financial investment. Strategic investment considers the strategic coordination with the group, and the requirements for financial data will not be particularly strict; financial investment converges with the judgment standards of financial investment of market-oriented institutions, and will conduct comprehensive investment analysis and value judgment within a certain total investment budget.” Country garden venture capital pointed out to the reporter of daily economic news.
It is worth mentioning that in terms of investment in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, country garden venture capital was the most well-known action in the industry before that. In 2020, it and poly capital, a subsidiary of Poly Developments And Holdings Group Co.Ltd(600048) holdings, jointly initiated and established the “real estate industrial chain enabling fund”.
This is an industrial fund that has raised 2 billion yuan in the first phase, which mainly focuses on the upstream and downstream of the real estate industry chain and promotes the new technological innovation of the whole real estate industry chain. The enterprises invested include “Wanhua Hexiang board industry”, a manufacturer of formaldehyde free board, “Weike data”, a digital customer service provider, and “yunjianxin”, a 4dbim technical service provider.
Compared with country garden venture capital, poly capital’s “real estate color” is more obvious and thick. Poly capital itself is positioned as a financial platform of “real estate + industry”. In its investment strategy, the core is the real estate industry chain, science and technology fly together with consumption, and integrate the real estate industry and emerging science and technology industries.
“At this stage, the real estate industry still has a lot of opportunities and space for industrial innovation. In the innovation iteration of internal and external technology and business model, the real estate industry has the opportunity to be deeply reconstructed.” Country garden venture capital said that in terms of industrial coordination, Qinhuai data, an operator of large-scale data center of invested enterprises, and Country Garden Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement to jointly create a new smart industry city.
Main business collaboration under the new economic model
The upstream and downstream of the real estate industry chain can be regarded as an ecosystem system formed under the real estate scenario. In the scenario with the community as the core, it can radiate many new economic ecosystems such as new consumption, great health and even new energy.
Dai Yongbo, managing partner of country garden venture capital, once said, “there are tens of millions of owners in the whole industry background of country garden. We need to think about what consumers need and choose the appropriate investment direction around their living needs. We hope that through equity investment, we can also enrich and meet their high-quality life and service needs to a certain extent.”
In the field of new consumption, country garden venture capital pays attention to the high-quality domestic consumer brands under the rising trend of national tide, and has invested in Sichuan style noodle restaurant “meet Xiaomian”, tea bag tea leading brand “Chali”, domestic high-end skin care brand “Lin Qingxuan”, etc.
This is precisely because, in the community ecology, many major health projects and consumption projects invested by country garden can actively interact with the main real estate industry scenes, such as “xinruipeng pet”, a pet medical leader.
Country garden venture capital also said that the company continued to discover and link external high-tech and new economic models, and interacted with the main business of the parent company to produce synergy. In addition, as a docking hub, the company has contributed to the joint research and development of smart restaurant by “meet Xiaomian” and country garden’s catering Siasun Robot&Automation Co.Ltd(300024) .
As the industrial capital of a real estate industry, country garden venture capital was also questioned by the outside world at the beginning of its establishment, believing that it may not be professional. Before 2019, country garden has no special venture capital team.
By January 2022, country garden venture capital ushered in its third anniversary, and it had undertaken 26 Unicorn projects valued at more than US $1 billion.
In terms of investment direction, in 2019, country garden venture capital invested in the first hard science and technology project – Blue Arrow aerospace, a leading Chinese commercial aerospace enterprise. Since 2020, country garden venture capital has comprehensively gone deep into hard science and technology investment, such as semiconductor chips, new energy, new materials, advanced manufacturing and other strong technical barriers. In the direction of carbon neutralization, in 2021, country garden venture capital invested in key star projects such as honeycomb energy, polar light energy, blue crystal microorganism, Wanhua Hexiang and murui technology.
Now, regardless of the real estate industry chain investment, country garden venture capital is now a mature and professional investment institution, and most of the industries covered are pure hard technology enterprises that are not closely related to country garden group. Obviously, their goal is “not limited to the real estate track, hoping to deepen the hard technology quality of industrial CVC”.
Hard technology, great health, new consumption, etc. Shenzhen New Industries Biomedical Engineering Co.Ltd(300832) and new economy are not only the general trend, but also industries with certain threshold. For the head real estate companies with strong financial strength, CVC’s playing method and its own “asset light” attribute may be the best way to cut into the new track.
