Byton is seeking at least $500 million in financing, with a valuation of more than $4 billion

On January 8, Reuters reported that two people familiar with the matter said that Byton is seeking to raise at least $500 million to promote the company's development. This financing makes the company, which was founded nearly three years ago, valued at more than $4 billion. Byton's latest round of financing comes at a time when China is promoting new energy vehicles to help reduce air pollution and support high-tech development. New energy vehicles include battery-powered cars and plug-in battery-gasoline hybrid cars.

Byton hopes to attract mainly foreign investors in this financing activity, and the funds raised will be mainly used for the mass production and research and development of its first high-end electric SUV, Byton M-Byte, one of the sources said.

Last October, Byton CEO and co-founder Carsten Breitfeld said the company might conduct an initial public offering (IPO) to finance expansion and would raise a new round of financing from private investors before the IPO.

Early last year, Byton, backed by Suning and Hong Kong-based property developer and healthcare services provider Fullshare Holdings, attracted new investors including state-owned automaker FAW Group and battery supplier Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. to raise $500 million in a Series B funding round.

A Byton spokesman said the company is in the process of raising a Series C round of funding, but he declined to provide further details.

Byton, which has offices in China, the United States and Germany, is one of several mostly Chinese-funded electric vehicle startups betting on the benefits of local production to compete with Tesla and other auto giants.

The company's local rivals include Nasdaq-listed NIO and Alibaba-backed Xpeng Motors.

Future Mobility Corp (FMC), a Chinese electric vehicle joint venture co-founded by former BMW and Nissan executives, named its electric vehicle brand "Byton" in September 2017.

Byton's parent company FMC plans to start selling its electric vehicles in China in 2019, and it will launch them in the United States and Europe shortly thereafter.

Last June, FMC ordered a car paint shop from German supplier Dürr. The shop is located in Nanjing, one of Byton's headquarters, and can produce 150,000 vehicles a year.

In December 2017, Byton also opened its North American headquarters in Silicon Valley. The company announced that it would cooperate with Aurora, an American autonomous driving company.

While China’s overall auto market has cooled, its new energy vehicle market is growing rapidly. This month, China’s largest automobile industry association said sales of new energy vehicles increased 37.6% in November from a year earlier, and surged 68% to 1.03 million vehicles from January to November last year.

Last year, NIO raised $1 billion in one of the largest IPOs by a Chinese company to date in the U.S. Last month, the company said it had delivered 9,726 ES8 SUVs as of Dec. 15, nearly reaching its self-imposed goal of 10,000 deliveries by the end of 2018.

Tesla Inc broke ground on its Shanghai factory on Monday, where it plans to start producing the Model 3 by the end of the year, the first step toward localizing production in the world's largest auto market. Tesla's so-called "Gigafactory" is China's first wholly foreign-owned auto plant.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.