Localization of 'chips' attracts more attention, and investment in the industry heats up
As the world’s largest semiconductor consumer market, China’s localization of chips is imminent. Capital at all levels is optimistic about the “big cake” of the chip market. A recent investment case is that on April 20, Alibaba.com acquired a wholly-owned chip company Zhongtian Micro. System Co., Ltd.
In addition, according to the data of Zero2IPO of QingGuan, there have been many cases of investment in the semiconductor industry this year. The National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund has invested 680 million shares in Jingfang Technology, and The Link Capital participates in the A round of financing of semiconductor companies and silicon microwave lasers. , The investment in the chip industry is heating up.
Xu Haizhong, founding partner of Beijing ECO Capital, believes that localization of semiconductor materials will accelerate under the trend of localization of the chips. The company's joint venture with ICMTIA, the domestic industry alliance, has invested in new materials. Hefei Shiya indicated that it participated in the wholly-owned acquisition of the EMC division of Henkel Group in Germany. The funds raised will continue to focus on wafer processing materials, post-package materials, 5G core materials, and OLED pan-semiconductor materials.
'China's demand for chips accounts for the first place in the world, and 80% of them rely on imports. If we have the ability to make import substitution, the market space is very broad.' Kong Lingguo, executive partner of Yuan Zhen, said that the company has maintained for a long time. The attention paid to the chip industry has yielded good results in the investment of chip companies such as the Cambrian Technology. At present, the valuation of the Cambrian technology is already at 14 billion yuan.
Chip investment exists 'technical threshold'
In fact, in the past, the semiconductor industry did not have a high degree of interest in the equity investment market. According to data from the Zero2IPO Research Center, in the equity investment market in 2017, there were a total of 66 investment cases in the semiconductor industry (including early investments, VC, PE), and investments. The amount was RMB 6.15 billion. At the same time, the number of Internet industry investment with the largest number of investments was 1883, and the amount of investment was as high as 145.509 billion yuan.
Zhou Zhiming, managing director of Bain Consulting, stated that in past historical data, it has been found that investment in the chip industry is not very popular because the chip industry is an industry with high input costs, high technical thresholds, moderate risks, and relatively long payback periods. Said that the chip industry is vulnerable to the trend of policy macro trends. With policy orientation and emphasis, it will be easier to attract investors. The expected return on investment in the industry may also go up slightly.
In terms of policy, the state has successively issued encouragement documents such as the “Outline for Promoting the Development of the National IC Industry”. Recently, some media reported that the second phase of the “large fund” has also been in full swing. The estimated funding size is between 150 billion yuan and 200 billion yuan. Yuan, will instigate more funds to invest in integrated circuit industry.
In terms of investment operations, Kong Lingguo told reporters that it is necessary to grasp the general direction first, to know where the product market is, and whether there is room for growth. Semiconductor itself is a very high threshold and requires more investment from investors. Most investment decisions are made. Relying on the judgment of the team's technical capabilities, it is very important to understand the past experience of team members, such as what kind of chip products have been done, whether there is mass production, how the market competitiveness of products, etc.