HONG KONG, Dec 15, 2021 – (ACN Newswire) – Yinan Li, the Ex-CTO of Baidu and Former Founder of NIU Technologies, enters into the electric automotive industry. As a technology industry heavyweight, Li’s NIUTRON is expected to be one of the most valuable electric automotive startups after NIO, Xpeng and Li Auto. After a long influential career in high-tech industry and venture capital, Li founded NIU Technologies in 2014, created one of the most innovative and stylish electric two wheelers. NIU was later listed on Nasdaq in late 2018. After he departed from NIU technologies, Li started the automotive venture in 2018, namely NIUTRON. The Company has since grown to a team of 1,000 R&D personnel, and has received investments from world-leading investors such as IDG and COATUE, in its US$500 million series A fundraising. NIUTRON has achieved several milestones since its founding, including its unique Gemini Platform and a strong product pipeline with many future models. NIUTRON NV, the Company’s first model, is a mid-large sized premium SUV, with “Urban Exploring” as its design concept, encompassing both BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) and EREV (Extended-Range Electric Vehicle) options to meet the needs of different driving scenarios. NIUTRON NV will be launched and open for pre-order in China in the first half of 2022, and the delivery will start in September of the same year. NIUTRON has already been building a modern manufacturing base of 770,000 square meters, with an annual production capacity of 180,000 units. The manufacturing base will be ready for operation in March 2022.
PALO ALTO & LAGOS, Dec 14, 2020 - (ACN Newswire) - Founder Institute (FI), the world's largest pre-seed startup accelerator, today announces Pacer Ventures as 'Investor in Residence' for the Founder Institute's African Accelerator program. As part of the program, all startups that graduate the Founder Institute in Africa will be reviewed by Pacer Ventures for potential investment in their seed or pre-seed round of funding.This development follows the announcement of Founder Institute as a strategic partner of Pacer Ventures for African early-stage start-ups that are solving some of the most critical problems on the continent. Pacer VC's purpose is aligned with FI's mission to empower communities of talented and motivated people to build impactful, technology-enabled companies worldwide. "FI is quickly becoming the gold standard for pre-seed acceleration in Africa," says Ryan Micheletti, Head of Global Operations for the Founder Institute. "We are excited to strengthen our leadership position by partnering with Pacer Ventures to foster investment in FI Alumni all across the Continent."FI has an Alumni strength of 100+ companies tackling various challenges across the continent and this is bound to grow with FI's expanded footprint in Africa and Pacer's move to increase access to early-stage funding. Managing Partner of Pacer Ventures, Gbemi Akande, sees value in formalizing the partnership with the Silicon Valley based program. "Our partnership is in line with what Pacer VC was set up to accomplish. By partnering with Founder Institute, we at Pacer VC will accelerate our mission of supporting early stage companies. It is a win-win and we look forward to a mutually beneficial collaboration with FI."Pacer Ventures was one of a handful of new funds selected to pitch to a global gathering of limited partners from around the world at the VC Lab Venture Forum, which has also led to increased interest from LPs around the world. Geoffrey Weli-Wosu, General Partner at Pacer Ventures, said, "Founder Institute stands out as one of the top pre-seed accelerators across the African continent. Pacer Ventures is committed to supporting startups coming out of the program who can support the transformation of the continent." Pacer Ventures will continue to leverage its strategic partnership with Founder Institute chapters throughout Africa to identify and recommend winning teams with scalable solutions that meet market needs. Similarly, Pacer Ventures has partnered with techbuild.africa to provide marketing and promotional support for FI portfolio companies across Africa.General Partner at Pacer Ventures and FI Regional Director, Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata stated, "Africa faces many challenges, but within every challenge lies opportunity and young people are leveraging technology to solve these problems across the Continent. It is our duty to inspire and fund the entrepreneurs who are building valuable solutions to our most pressing problems. Africa is the future, and investors and LPs are now becoming aware of this."About Founder InstituteFounder Institute is the world's largest pre-seed startup accelerator. Since 2009, we have helped over 4,500 entrepreneurs get the focus and support needed to build a business that matters. Based in Silicon Valley with chapters across 90 countries, Founder Institute's mission is to empower communities of talented and motivated people to build impactful technology companies worldwide. To learn more, please visit http://fi.co.About Pacer VenturesPacer Ventures has a strategic relationship with Founder Institute, the world's premier pre-seed startup accelerator, to provide investment thesis support, structure, templates, tools, deal flow, potential seed, and mentorship support across all segments of the funding operation for African startups.Pacer email: info@pacer.vcOfficial website: https://pacer.vc/Pacer blog: https://pacer.vc/blog/Twitter: https://twitter.com/pacerventuresLinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/pacerventures/ Copyright 2020 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. www.acnnewswire.com
LAGOS, NIGERIA, Nov 25, 2020 - (ACN Newswire) - Pacer Ventures has announced a $3M fund for early-stage African startups that are solving some of the most critical problems on the continent. The focus will be on verticals expedient to the African continent including healthcare, financial inclusion, education and agriculture.The United Nations has projected that Africa will have a population of 1.68 billion people by 2030, while the GSMA Mobile Economy Report states that 84% of Africa's population will have access to a sim connection by 2025. This high mobile penetration will enable the continent to leapfrog technology consumption, as Africa is expected to account for up to 30% of global consumption of technology and technology-driven solutions within the same period."We see a huge opportunity to support early-stage founders making meaningful contributions to their local economies and communities," said the Managing General Partner at Pacer Ventures, Gbemi Akande. "We are providing much-needed funds to founders leveraging mobile penetration to solve problems at the 'bottom of the pyramid' across the continent."Pacer Ventures has already begun to support early-stage founders by participating in seed rounds, including VPD.Money and others. With an average cheque size of $100k, Pacer VC is positioned to add substantial value to its portfolio companies.According to the Pacer General Partner in charge of Southern Africa, Antoinia Norman, "We won't just write a cheque, we will enable founders to work in and on their business, by supporting them every step of their journey, with technical and financial skills, team building, access to markets, resources, and our networks."The General Partners of Pacer VC have over 40 years of combined experience in consulting, marketing, entrepreneurship, deal flow sourcing and ecosystem development. Pacer VC's differentiator is the funds focus on sourcing high potential early-stage African startups, while leveraging its strategic partnership with Founder Institute chapters all over Africa to identify and recommend winning teams with solutions that meet market needs."Our partnership with Founder Institute gives us an undeniable edge particularly with quality deal-flow at an early stage, which we will leverage to strategically expand Pacer VC's footprint across multiple African Markets," said Chukwuemeka Agbata, Regional Director of Founder Institute in Africa, and Co-founder, techbuild.africa.Speaking on the Pacer VC Investment thesis, Geoffrey Weli-Wosu, a General Partner at Pacer VC and Co-Founder of VoguePay and Domineum, stated, "We are leveraging our in-depth experience in startups, deal flow sourcing and ecosystem development to take advantage of the early-stage funding gap in Africa. Our target is seed-stage founders and companies who are usually under the radar of a lot of investors. We know the markets, have access to the founders and our investment team is well qualified to execute this thesis."About Pacer VenturesPacer Ventures has a strategic relationship with the Founder Institute, the world's premier pre-seed startup accelerator, providing investment thesis support, structure, templates, tools, deal flow, potential seed, and support across all segments of the funding operation. It has a similar partnership with techbuild.africa, providing media support to portfolio companies. For more information, please visit https://pacer.vc, email info@pacer.vc, or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. Copyright 2020 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. www.acnnewswire.com