Haiyin Capital's Portfolio Companies Take Tech on the Road in Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Beijing

by Haiyin Capital

In a tightly-organized and high-energy road show, about a dozen futuristic U.S. tech companies toured China's economic hubs and drew attention from government officials, national media and well-known Chinese businesses.

The trip represents the vision of Haiyin Capital, a small venture capital firm based in Beijing and eyeing team expansion to the U.S..  Haiyin's founding partner, Yuquan Wang, sees an opportunity to identify investable U.S. tech companies and connect them to manufacturing and distribution partners in China, helping the companies grow and penetrate the largest market in the world.

"The trip showed our companies what we know to be true:  China is the ideal partner if you want explosive growth," Wang said.  

The trip started in Hangzhou, home to automaker Geely Automotive (parent company of Volvo) and global tech giant Alibaba.  Haiyin portfolio companies including LightSail Energy (energy storage, based in the Bay Area), WiTricity (wireless charging, based near Boston), Terrafugia (flying cars, based near Boston), and 1366Tech (silicon solar wafers, based near Boston), met with rising entrepreneurial stars at Lakeside University, founded by Alibaba CEO Jack Ma, and presented their companies at Hangzhou Normal University near Alibaba's headquarters.

In Guangzhou, home to 16 million and a manufacturing powerhouse, Chinese companies heard presentations from each of Haiyin's tech companies and waited for up to two hours to meet with them about potential partnerships.  The city's mayor welcomed the companies and hosted them for dinner. 

On the third stop of the tour, Qinghua University hosted a taping of the CCTV show "Dialogue," featuring Silicon Valley investors Reid Hoffman and Peter Thiel, and spotlighting four of the Haiyin Companies: Wicab, Hanson Robotics, LightSail Energy and WiTricity.

Haiyin companies showcased their products before a standing room-only crowd at the T-Edge Summit, sponsored in part by Titanium Media.  The event was held at the Park Hyatt hotel in Beijing, and drew dozens of reporters from the capital city and beyond. 

On the companies' final day in China, Beijing University hosted senior economists and Haiyin Capital at an event highlighting the importance of intellectual property protection, and leveraging the strengths of U.S. and China in growing technical innovations on both sides of the Pacific.

钛媒体注：在钛媒体联合《商业价值》举办的首届钛媒体边缘创新夏季峰会上，专注于无线充电底层技术的公司Witricity CEO Alex Gruzen作为嘉宾发表了演讲，他提到公司创立的过程，无线充电技术的应用原理，并且对无线充电技术未来适用的领域做了深入的分析，此前钛媒体也首次完整整理无线充电技术的来龙去脉，查看文章《下一商业爆点：关于无线充电的一切》。

Witricity 是由MIT一位非常知名教授创立，已经公司已经拥有100多项专利。Alex Gruzen 提到目前包括手机、平板等电子设备都需要电池，但很多时候受限于电缆和插线板的局限，于是想到我们可以隔离这些电子波来传输电力，之后可以在充电端进行传输，Witricity 的目标就是解除插线板的附属，实现真正的无线充电。事实上，无线充电还可以促进物联网的发展，因为在未来家里从床头柜到厨房一直到电子设备是无处不在。

Click here to read the full article.

Danielle Fong

Energy and health are closely related, if we can achieve renewable energy storage, can supply energy to the world that intermittent, reduce its cost and make it popular.

Danielle Fong founded LightSail company, the core technology is how to use the method more economical compressed air, stored energy. LightSail mist injection machines use compressed air tank needed to collect and release energy, it is not only a smaller battery, it can store solar or wind power. Do not use fossil fuels, but the use of renewable energy sources such as solar or wind energy to compressed air, the piston and the metal of the energy use for storage.

Imagine you compress air, the energy can go into a jar, when you need the energy, the compressed air out from the storage tank. This allows the mechanical energy into electrical energy, as one of the engine to generate electricity.

Click here to read the full article.

Someday soon, plug-in cars may no longer need plugging in.

Electric cars and plug-in hybrids won’t recharge their batteries through a bulky cord. Instead, a small pad placed on the garage floor — or maybe embedded in it — will transmit energy to a receiver on the car’s undercarriage, no wires needed. Just drive over the pad, park and forget about it.

That’s the vision of WiTricity, a Boston-area startup backed by Toyota and Intel. Its technology resembles the cordless charging pads already available for smartphones and tablets, but it can transmit more power over greater distance.

Spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2007, WiTricity isn’t the only company chasing this particular vision, with Qualcomm, Bosch and Evatran rolling out their own versions. WiTricity CEO Alex Gruzen argues that wireless recharging will soon become the norm, for personal electronics, medical devices and, yes, cars. The power cord’s days may be numbered.

“I’ll have it in my kitchen counter, my bedside table, probably my coffee table,” Gruzen said. “And throughout my day, I’ll be casually topping off my devices with this quick ‘energy snacking.’ The same thing will happen in the automotive space, because when you park, it’ll just charge, and you won’t be thinking about it.”

Toyota was an early investor in the company, which has raised $45 million. The world’s largest automaker plans to offer WiTricity’s technology as an option on its plug-in hybrid Prius, Gruzen said. A Toyota spokeswoman declined to confirm any specific plans to outfit the Prius with WiTricity’s gear. But the automaker announced a licensing agreement with WiTricity in 2013 and has field-tested the equipment.

Honda uses WiTricity to recharge a Fit EV at one of the auto company’s showcase “smart homes” near Tokyo. And several of the world’s largest auto-industry suppliers, including Delphi Corp. and IHI Corp., have licensed WiTricity’s technology.

To read the full article, click here.

钛媒体注：在钛媒体联合《商业价值》举办的首届钛边缘夏季峰会上，XCOR CEO Andrew Nielson、XCOR 首席试飞员 Richard Hogle 和 Gina Smith 进行了一场高层对话即“T-EDGE巅峰对话”，在对话中，Andrew Nielson分享了一些他建立公司的过程，投资策略，以及对天空飞行的未来展望，并且回答了钛媒体读者的一些问题：

【宋长乐/钛媒编辑】Andrew Nielson 是一位电子工程师，但梦想是成为一个企业家有足够的钱飞上天空，一次偶然的机会结识到一位投资人，想研发出不同的高科技产品和服务，加上有些剩余的钱，于是成立了XCOR这家公司。

Click here to read the full article.

钛媒体注：飞行汽车公司 Terrafugia 的创始人 Carl Dietrich 从小便对航空航天技术着迷，于是便诞生了研发飞行汽车的想法。在创始人 Carl Dietrich 的描述展示中，这种飞行汽车将具备两个“翅膀”，你可以把它停在车车库里，可以加油。当你需要飞行的时候，只需要开启引擎按钮，飞行汽车就可以在40秒之内把机翼打开，像科幻电影当中的场景一样，在飞机场或者高速公路上进行起降。

在现有的道路交通体系中，我们难免遇到堵车的情况，尤其是中国北京和巴西圣巴罗这些有名的“堵城”，我们会花费非常多宝贵的时间在路上，而飞行汽车能完美的解决这一窘境。未来的飞行汽车价格一定是平民的，而且不一定需要飞行员，依靠汽车内置的自动驾驶就能带你去任何地方。

Click here to read the full article.

By LINGLING WEI, Wall Street Journal

BEIJING—China’s campaign to turn the tightly controlled yuan into a global currency is crossing a new threshold, as the government plans to make it easier for individuals and companies to invest overseas.

The latest initiative, expected to be announced in the next few weeks by the State Council, China’s cabinet, will allow individual Chinese and businesses to directly purchase stocks, bonds and real estate in foreign markets, removing limits on such transactions, according to Chinese officials with knowledge of the matter. Though initially limited to people and businesses in certain designated free-trade zones, the proposal can be scaled up over time, the officials said.

The step-by-step approach is typical of the leadership’s strategy to keep a firm grip and minimize risks as the economy decelerates, while still pushing forward economic reforms.

Efforts to relax capital controls have gained urgency as Beijing is gunning for the yuan, also known as the renminbi, or people’s currency, to be declared an official reserve currency by the International Monetary Fund later this year. Taken together, the actions—including currency-swap deals with other countries and opening stock-trading channels with Hong Kong—advance China’s long-stated national goal of allowing investors and businesses to move money in and out of the country freely.

“This is a breakthrough,” Hans Shen, a senior executive at Hony Capital Ltd., one of China’s largest private-equity firms, said of the new plan. “But it will be implemented with great caution as the government wants to control risks.”

A press official at the State Council referred questions to China’s central bank, which is spearheading the new initiative. The press office at People’s Bank of China didn’t respond to a request to comment.

Freeing up what’s known as the capital account, or cross-border money flows for financial transactions, creates sizable risks. The government wants to avoid a surge of money moving offshore, further weakening the economy, according to the officials. Rapid inflows, too, would put pressure on the yuan to appreciate even more, making it harder for Chinese exporters to compete in foreign markets.

But relaxing capital controls ultimately should give Chinese people greater opportunities in managing their wealth, open up new businesses for financial-services firms and help China’s transition to an economy driven more by consumption and services.

Ordinary Chinese currently have few options for investing their money. Bank deposits frequently pay less than the rate of inflation. A result is a flood of Chinese savings into stocks and property that has fed boom-and-bust cycles in local stock markets and puffed up real estate bubbles in many cities.

To read the full article, click here.

by Alex Knapp of Forbes

Chinese venture capital firm Haiyin Capital has announced investments into a number of high-tech U.S. firms, many of whom are currently on a trip to China to make presentations and visit with investors and businesses there. One such firm is XCOR Aerospace, a commercial space company which aims to take tourists and payloads on suborbital trips into space.

A person with knowledge of the deal has told FORBES that Haiyin’s total investment in the company is $5 million at a valuation of $140 million. When contacted, XCOR declined to comment on this figure or investment.

Haiyin Capital makes an attractive offer to its investment partners, founding partner Yuquan Wang told me: the ability to leverage Chinese manufacturing to help them get their products to market faster, and the opportunity to make inroads into the growing Chinese market while they pursue the U.S. market was well. Things are different for XCOR, though. The company won’t be doing any manufacturing in China, but Wang says that the reason for investing in them is much simpler than that.

“XCOR is a different story. We just like the team. They’re dedicated to something that’s really cool,” he said.

Andrew Nelson, XCOR’s former COO who still works with the company on a consulting basis, told me that the influx of money will be helpful for XCOR as it gears up to conduct test flights of its Lynx spacecraft later this year.

“This round allows us to finish Lynx and build out a bigger marketing and sales program,” he told me. “It will also let us get through our test program and allow our wing design to mature. It’s a challenging wing to build. Six years ago we couldn’t build it, but now we can thanks to 3D printing of titanium parts and advances in composite materials.”

Col. Rick Searfoss, a former NASA astronaut who now is now the Chief Test Pilot for XCOR, is among those participating in Haiyin’s event in Beijing. He’s very positive about the new investment into the company.

“I’m glad our technology is being accepted worldwide,” he told me. “VC isn’t always a good fit with aerospace investment – it’s not like an app that you can get out in 8 months for a huge return. But China’s historically known for taking a long range view of things.”

China is also an attractive target for commercial space. XCOR has so far already sold over 300 tickets for its suborbital flights, over 10% of which have been sold to people in mainland China – including some notable celebrities. During this trip, Searfoss will be presenting some of the excitement about flying a ship in space and what it will be like to fly XCOR’s Lynx.

“As Chinese people are getting richer, they want to do something really cool,” Wang told me. “The meaning of life can’t just be making money.”

That said, Wang hasn’t yet bought a ticket for his flight.

“I take the risk doing investments,” he said. “In my personal life, I’m not a risk taker. But I’ll buy a ticket after a few people have safely gone into space and come back!”

On a more serious note, he added, “Yes, I really would like to try it. But that’s not why I’m investing. Mostly I want to show respect. I love these guys. They’re my heroes. And if it lets me go into space, that’d be fun!”

To read the full article click here.

by Katie Fehrenbacher

Combining the best in Chinese manufacturing with the best in U.S. high tech R&D. At least that’s the idea.

Dozens of some of the most promising high tech entrepreneurs in the U.S. are headed to Beijing over the next day or two for a weeklong trip that could represent the future of U.S.-China technology cooperation.

The trip is organized by Chinese venture capital firm Haiyin Capital, which just finished dispersing its third fund of $50 million into mostly U.S. tech startups like energy storage startup LightSail Energy, based in the Bay Area, solar tech startup 1366 technologies, located just outside of Boston, private space flight company XCOR Aerospace, in Mojave, Calif., and crowdfunding companyAngelList (distributed offices).

The attendees on the trip are mostly entrepreneurs that Haiyin Capital has funded. LightSail Energy‘s co-founder and chief scientist Danielle Fong is already on her way there; LightSail co-founder and CEO Steve Crane leaves today. Frank van Mierlo, the CEO of 1366, is also en route.

The group will start in Beijing, and tour through the manufacturing regions of Hangzhou and Guangzhou, meeting with local businessmen and government officials along the way. They’ll also attend entrepreneur-focused events that Haiyin has organized, some of them giving talks to Haiyin’s network like one next week in Beijing by a test pilot of XCOR’s private space tech.

To read the full article, click here.

The plan comes amid weak demand for China-made products
by Liyan Qi for The Wall Street Journal

BEIJING—China unveiled an ambitious plan to enhance the competitiveness of its manufacturing sector by encouraging innovation and raising efficiency in an effort to boost economic growth.

The blueprint, titled “Made in China 2025,” comes as China’s factories are struggling with sluggish demand, increasing competition from other developing economies and a slowing domestic economy.

The manufacturing sector is facing new challenges: bigger constraints from the environment and resources, rising labor costs and a notable slowdown in investment and exports, the State Council, or cabinet, said on the main government website Tuesday.

“The key to creating a new driver of economic growth…lies in the manufacturing sector,” it said.

The government vowed to boost 10 high-technology industrial sectors including robotics, aerospace, new-energy vehicles and advanced transport.

Click here for the full article.