In the past ten years, Clearstream Capital has captured a number of sub track champions in mainstream industries such as TMT, consumption, hard science and technology, and has also established a fund image of "stable", "accurate" and "refined" investment. In recent years, Clearstream Capital launched an original technology column - "the other side of the coin", which tells the stories of those technology invested enterprises in the current venture capital situation through the dialogue between Clearstream partners and the founders of technology enterprises. Clearstream Capital will continue to focus on emerging technology tracks.
Today, the protagonist of our dialogue is Yang Yong, the founder and CEO of Pavales.
This article contains the following content, which takes 12 minutes to read.
The shipment volume of PV tracking support linear actuator ranks first in the world
The second growth curve has taken shape and may enter the robot field in the future
Three start-ups are close to death, reborn in flames and ended in nirvana
The more financing, the greater the responsibility. Clearing up is always the same to me
Why did Qingliu invest in Pavales
Pavales, founded in 2018, is a high-tech enterprise integrating the R&D, design, production, sales and service of industrial high-precision intelligent actuators and dampers. The founding team, with its decades of experience in leading global enterprises, introduced the world's advanced mechanical and electrical product technology concept, and innovated and launched the intelligent actuator independently developed in China. The products are mainly used in photovoltaic photothermal power generation, medical devices, intelligent equipment, new energy logistics vehicles, robots and other fields. In recent years, Pavales has taken off under the tide of China's Industry 4.0, ranking first in the market share of the global PV tracking bracket linear actuator segment track market.
Headquartered in Ningbo, the company is a provincial "specialized, refined, and new" enterprise in Zhejiang Province, with 30000 square meters of production, research and development, and office space, and 80+patents. As a global enterprise, Pavales has set up subsidiaries in many places around the world, covering the top 10 tracking support manufacturers in about 30 countries around the world, and has implemented and verified hundreds of large projects of nearly 20GW.
Founder Yang Yong has nearly 20 years of experience in precision actuator industry. He first worked in Dongguan Timo Transmission Technology Co., Ltd. as a senior engineer and chief of engineering section of the electric business department, and then served as the deputy general manager of Wuxi Hongba Mechanical and Electrical Equipment Co., Ltd., responsible for project management. He founded Wuxi Linaide Transmission Technology Co., Ltd., and founded Pavales in 2018.
Yang Yong, Founder and CEO of Pavales
PV tracking bracket linear actuator
The world's largest shipping volume
Qingliu: Please briefly introduce Pavales?
Yang Yong: Pavales is a global enterprise dedicated to integrated solutions for high-precision actuators. We are customer-centric and provide better transmission solutions.
At present, about 90% of our turnover is in the application of solar tracking brackets, the main scene is photovoltaic and photothermal. Its application in the field of photovoltaic tracking support is to achieve "chasing the sun", so that photovoltaic modules can rotate with the direction of the sun and maintain a vertical angle in real time. Using our actuators can improve the power generation efficiency by 15% - 20%. Light and heat is to evenly distribute the solar energy on a cylindrical absorber with tens of thousands of mirrors so that it can be heated evenly. Each mirror needs to use one of our actuators.
At present, Pavales has been recognized by many leading major customers for its industry-leading product performance. Its market share in the photovoltaic tracking field has ranked first in the world, and its share in the domestic photovoltaic market has reached 30-40%.
Qingliu: The absolute champion of the sub track! Why choose PV? Does the current downward cycle of the photovoltaic industry have a great impact on the company?
Yang Yong: There is a big gap in the demand for PV tracking bracket products, which is the seller's product market.
In 2019, the market share of PV tracking brackets in North America was only 5%, and by 2023, it will have increased to 70%+. The power market in the United States is mainly based on the rate of return on investment. Therefore, the tracking bracket that can significantly improve the power generation efficiency has developed very fast. Our major customers also completely abandoned the fixed bracket last year and only used the tracking bracket. In addition, China's current market share of tracking brackets is about 6%, and there is still a large space for growth in the next few years.
In addition, according to the proposed guiding ideology of carbon neutrality and carbon peaking, the proportion of thermal power plants in the total energy should be reduced from 67% to 5%. The best energy is solar thermal combined with photovoltaic, so we judge that solar thermal is a market with 50%+growth space. A 50 MW solar thermal power plant needs more than 30000 actuators, which is in great demand. We are also confident that we can quickly become the world's first in the emerging incremental market of solar thermal power.
In fact, the downward cycle of the photovoltaic industry is beneficial to us, because after the price of photovoltaic modules drops, the investment cost for building power stations is less, and the cost recovery is faster, and the demand for our products from manufacturers is also increasing.
Clearing: What are the technical difficulties of linear actuators? Why can Pavales do it?
Yang Yong: First of all, the use scenarios of photovoltaic tracking brackets are very bad. Some are at the seaside, and some are in the desert. At noon, the desert can reach 60 or 70 degrees high temperature, and the dust is very heavy. We also have to face severe weather such as snowstorms. Secondly, the service life of solar energy is 25 years, and we need to stack more than seventy (solar) panels on a row of supports. The requirements for the service life, strength and protection level of the entire product are very high. Previously, other factories used metal materials as household materials, and the service life was only about 3000 cycles, which could not meet the needs of solar scenarios; Others are made of plastic. Their life span can be up to 10000 to 20000 times. However, they break off when the wind blows, which is not safe enough.
I have personally worked in the actuator industry for nearly 20 years, and I have rich practical experience in engineering, design, business and factory management. At the early stage of entrepreneurship, I went to the photovoltaic power station in the United States to do field research. I personally went to every project site from the east to the west, from the south to the north. I took down the screwdriver one by one to look for defects in the designed products. I am confident that I can do better. Therefore, through technical innovation in material upgrading, structural design and lubrication methods, we have achieved a longer service life (10000 round trips), stronger wind resistance, heat resistance, cold resistance, wind resistance, and normal use in extremely harsh environments. Our products are better in quality and cheaper in price than those abroad.
The second growth curve has taken shape
It may enter the robot field in the future
Clearing up: What important milestones has the company experienced so far?
Yang Yong: When the company was founded in 2018, its core goal was to survive. We made our products and sent them to customers with very limited capital investment.
In 2019, the first customer GameChangeSolar's order was obtained. Four products were mass produced, and the factory's output value increased 150 times;
In 2020, five series of products will be launched and mass produced, which has won the strategic cooperation of head customers such as Trina and Convert;
In 2021, the company obtained the first financing, moved to Ningbo, built a plant of 18000 square meters, opened 9 production lines, applied for 60+patents, and became the world's leading manufacturer of core components of photovoltaic tracking brackets;
In 2022, the sales will exceed 200000 sets, the number of patents will reach 85+, and branches and factories will be established in many places;
2023 is the year that our performance has doubled for three consecutive years, with annual income of hundreds of millions of yuan; The second growth curve Photothermal products quickly occupied the market, and also made a major breakthrough in smart medical products.
Clearing up: It has been growing steadily in the past five years. What is your plan for the future of the company?
Yang Yong: The short-term goal is to successfully realize IPO in the next 1-2 years, which should be a natural process. Entering the open capital market can be supervised by more people, so that we can make the company better. (In the office next to the interview room, the IPO preparation team is in full swing.) At the specific business level, we hope to take the second curve solar thermal products to the first place in the global market share on the basis of standing firmly in the first place in photovoltaic industry. Synchronously expand the third and fourth growth curves. The smart medical control system we introduced to the market this year has already started to have orders. The hydraulic cylinder replacement scheme applied to the tailboard of large logistics vehicles will also start to expand the market this year.
The long-term goal of the company is to become the world's first intelligent transmission solution enterprise, which is also my entrepreneurial goal. In the future, we will control all core technologies of the industry in our own hands, gradually improve our industrial capabilities, and provide customers with a completely self-developed system solution. In the future, we may also apply our products to humanoid robots, intelligent agriculture and other fields. At present, a humanoid robot may need more than a dozen electric actuators in its joints, which is suitable for our products in the general direction. We are now thinking about how to make it smaller, and we are also going to find Tsinghua University and Zhejiang University teachers who study motors to cooperate in research and development.
Our vision is to hope that Pavales platform can make employees, customers, investors and more people. Last year, we introduced a highly experienced human resources director in the industry, hoping to do a good job in employee benefit distribution and other incentive mechanisms, so that everyone's efforts here can be rewarded accordingly.
Qingliu: Do you aspire to be the first in the world when you start a business day one? When did the idea come into being?
Yang Yong: I have been an engineer for more than ten years. Every engineer has a plot about the product. He treats the product as his own child and wants to do his best to do it well. In addition to being very confident about the future of this market, we, as an engineer, have a deep desire to make China's smart manufacturing and self-developed products.
I think that before, Chinese products had no dimension and soul. People simply copied the ideas of foreign products and designers without understanding them. The copied products were far different from those of foreign countries. We have accumulated many years of experience and design thinking in making products for foreign countries in SKF, and are fully capable of making our own good products. But in the past, I was limited to working for others and could not fully realize my own ideas.
At that time, entrepreneurship was relatively simple. I was able to make the product quality better and the price cheaper than foreign products. There should be a demand point. Some high-quality customers also expressed their willingness to try our new products, so I started my first business.
Three Entrepreneurial Activities
Rebirth in flames and end in nirvana
Qingliu: This is not the first time to start a business? Then you are an experienced serial entrepreneur.
Yang Yong: It is my third time to start a business in Pavales in 2018, and it has failed twice before.
Qingliu: What supports you to regroup twice?
Yang Yong: The first time I started my business, I really relied on my enthusiasm. I made a detailed schedule and capital budget for every job, but the actual implementation results were not as expected. The product was produced three months later than planned. No customer is willing to try the product after it comes out. Although some customers have expressed their support before, they are afraid of contacting him after the product is actually made. I can also understand that because customers are also responsible for their own products, they worry about how long a startup can last. So the first venture failed, and without much thought at that time, he immediately invested in the second venture.
Because of my first experience, I found two partners in the traditional parts industry when I started my second business. They were in charge of the internal operation and finance of the company. I was responsible for research and development, production and business operation, and reached 20 million yuan a year. However, since I could not reach an agreement with the two partners on the development concept of the company, I took the initiative to withdraw from the company.
In fact, I have already doubted myself after the failure of my second venture. I was thinking that I might be suitable to focus on design in the enterprise. It was my wife who said to me at that time that she would support me to start a business again, but this time it would not work. She also lent me money as the starting fund. So I called my friends for many years, Mr. Liu and Mr. Lu, and said, "Do you want to do something together?" They quickly replied to me, "Brother, I support you."
Therefore, we established Pavales in 2018 and started my third venture. I am responsible for R&D and production, President Lu is responsible for customer sales and market, and President Liu is responsible for overseas market and capital operation. All three of us are born in the 1980s. We are about the same age, have the same philosophy, and have high communication efficiency. We are really happy to work together.
Qingliu: Are customers willing to try your new products when they start their third business?
Yang Yong: Many people in the industry knew me when we started our third business, and they were willing to support us after seeing our belief and determination. They said to me, "Yang Yong, there is no more than three things, and this time you are sure to succeed!"
At the beginning of 18 years, the fund was limited, so I had to spend a lot of money to make finished products. I drew my own pictures and asked someone outside to help me process them into samples. At that time, the establishment of the company was not completed, and our samples had already been sent to the United States. In April 19, when we got the first order, the company had no money to buy raw materials. I bought some tea to visit our core suppliers one by one, hoping to give us some turnover schedules. Fortunately, I also met partners who were willing to help. Just when it got better, the epidemic came! The core of the company was sealed in Hubei, and everyone thought that we were "dead" again. In the most difficult time, I was answering the supplier's call from morning to night every day. The anxious supplier called me five or six times a day. But at that time, I didn't know when the order would be unsealed. Some customers didn't dare to take the order when it came, because they had to pay a fine if they couldn't deliver it. We survived by taking orders with longer delivery dates and turning them around little by little.
This situation lasted until the first round of financing was obtained in 21 years. At that time, the investor's LP had a request for reinvestment, so we moved to Ningbo. When I first moved to Ningbo, I slept in the factory office for six months.
Qingliu: Why sleep in the office?
Yang Yong: Since we moved to Ningbo, we began to recruit people. However, due to our remote location, only one person was recruited in two months. I wondered if it was over? At that time, I thought that the R&D personnel could not stay here. I thought it was no good. If I came here only once every two weeks, they would all be gone. I decided to stay here by myself, so that they could feel there was a backbone, so I slept in the office upstairs of the factory every day. (Pointing out of the window) At that time, this area was full of weeds. It was very dark at night. Look at the swords and bullets (models) in my office, which were used to embolden me at that time.
Qingliu: What a tortuous entrepreneurial process! It's not easy!
Yang Yong: Entrepreneurship is really a near death. It's really hard to look back now. I clearly remember the agony of making samples in 18 years and receiving the first order in 19 years. The company has no money to pay, so I will communicate with everyone to postpone. There are only six or seven people in the team. My wife cooks at home every night and asks everyone to eat together to improve their lives. I seldom wear mousse on my hair, but I used to wear mousse every day during that time to cheer myself up and make people below feel that I am energetic. I was very excited when I was in the company, but I almost collapsed when I went home. It's true that I can't sleep all night long, and the mental pressure is especially great. (Speaking of the emotional part, Mr. Yang's eyes are full of tears.)
But now it's also a kind of harvest. If we didn't have the painful experience of falling to the lowest point of life at that time, we might also feel that success was too easy. Instead, we don't know how to cherish the present and can't lead the company to a better direction.
The more financing, the more responsibility
Qingliu is always the same to me
Qingliu: When do you think you have the most sense of achievement since you started your business?
Yang Yong: Some small daily sense of achievement exists every day. For example, I overcame this product problem today. That sense of achievement is immediate, but may disappear one day. In fact, one of the most interesting things about entrepreneurship is that it faces different problems every day. Today's problems are different from yesterday's, and many problems will suddenly appear and make people unprepared, but you have to deal with them successfully.
However, to be honest, we haven't felt the sense of "achievement" so far. I have seen some entrepreneurs make tens of millions of profits before, and we have no such feeling. This may have something to do with the value orientation of some of our post-80s founders. We have never considered ourselves successful now. What kind of way we used to treat people is still the same way, and will not change in the future. Even the rapid growth of the company's performance and financing will make me a little anxious.
Clearing up: Both performance growth and financing are good, why worry?
Yang Yong. I want to build my team well, sort out the process of each link, and ensure that I can live up to the expectations of customers. This is my most anxious thing now.
The anxiety of financing is that after I get the money, I will feel that this responsibility is particularly great. When the company raised money for the first time, I was under a lot of pressure. One day, I called our investors and said that I had lost sleep since I received your investment. I felt very responsible. He would enlighten me every few days, saying that I should not be so pressured, do things well conscientiously, and let me not have so many burdens.
Qingliu: Your sense of responsibility has reassured investors. Why are you willing to accept Qingliu's investment?
Yang Yong: I didn't really want to raise money for a while last year. We really think that the more money we raised, the more responsibility we had. It was a big burden to raise so much money. So we paused the financing rhythm for a while to reconsider the capital planning and whether we really need to take so much money. At that time, there were dozens of investors following up, and some people would think why you stopped financing again. Is there something wrong with the company? Qingliu, as always, has no doubt and is determined to vote for us.
What impressed me most was that when I met your partner Nancy at the PV exhibition, she said she would vote for us no matter how clean she was. I am still very grateful now. In addition, the colleagues of the Clean Deal Team are really professional. In my previous understanding, there are not many projects invested in pure manufacturing. The meeting time was originally very short that day, and a little time was squeezed out between the two meetings. But the problem that the Clean Deal Team asked me was very detailed, and I can feel that you are very professional. Finally, we talked for more than an hour before we ended. Later, Nancy also told us that after the clean-up investment, we would not interfere in our development and business, which was very impressive, because we were afraid that some investors might not understand the industry, but there were some strange requirements, so we would not do it well.
Another thing that impressed us about Clearstream is that it has invested excellent logistics enterprises to pull goods. In the future, our logistics tailboard business can also be connected through Clearstream.
Qingliu: After the investment, did Qingliu help you?
Yang Yong: I like the Qingliu CEO closed door meeting very much! On a platform like Clearstream, investors share some of the industry's growth and trends professionally, and CEOs of peers introduce some cooperation opportunities to each other. I think this is very good. It not only allows people to fully communicate, but also has no other tedious links, which brings me great personal gains!
In addition, the clearing deal team will often help us connect with some customer resources, and will also provide some help in human resources and other aspects after investment. These are real help.
Clearing up: Looking back, did you make the right decision to choose clearing up as an investor?
Yang Yong: I think it's right.
First, in fact, the investors we selected are basically young teams, because we are also afraid of dealing with people with a large age gap, and communication may not be so smooth, and communication efficiency with such a young team as Qingliu is relatively high.
Second, the CEO you worked in Shanghai last year will make me feel very pragmatic. It's not the kind of meeting that is grandiose but has no real content. I think it's very good, because our team is also very practical. In essence, everyone is the same kind of person.
Why did Qingliu invest in Pavales
Qingliu Capital continues to pay attention to the investment opportunities in the upstream and downstream of new energy, and dig deeply into the hidden champion enterprises in the subdivided track with unique technical barriers in the industrial chain. We are optimistic that there are several continuous driving forces for the future growth of Pavales:
Compared with the traditional fixed support, the PV tracking support has the attributes of intelligence, high power generation gain, and low power consumption cost, and the tracking support is the second largest main material in the value of the power station, second only to the battery module. Therefore, the tracking support category has the characteristics of both high performance and high value. It is estimated that the global shipment volume in 2025 will reach 140GW, the market size will reach 70 billion, and the category CAGR will be 17%.
The PV tracking bracket industry is dominated by overseas developed markets, with a global penetration rate of 50% and a penetration rate of nearly 80% in North America. The pattern of global tracking bracket manufacturers presents a situation of multi oligarchy overseas, with CR5/8=70%/90%. We believe that Chinese core parts enterprises have strong competitiveness in performance and cost when going overseas; The market penetration rate of China's domestic tracking bracket is still at an early stage, which is less than 10%. Considering that China currently accounts for more than 40% of the world's new PV installations every year, there is huge demand for industry upgrading in the future trend of China's PV power stations from quantity to quality.
The electric actuator that Pavales is engaged in is the core component of the photovoltaic tracking bracket. The BOM cost of the tracking bracket accounts for 15-20%, the value of a single GW is up to tens of millions, and the market space is up to 10 billion; In addition, electric actuators have high comprehensive requirements for product load performance, cost control, and life stability. The certification period of overseas leading customers is up to 2 years, with high barriers; At the same time, in terms of tracking the choice of bracket customers in the actuator route, we believe that the linear actuator scheme is expected to continue to gain more share by virtue of cost advantages and operation and maintenance advantages, and gain Davis Double Click in the dividend market.
President Yang, the founder of Pavales, has adhered to the linear actuator industry for 20 years, has a strong spirit of engineer and entrepreneur, has overcome many stability difficulties in the application of photovoltaic industry, and has become an invisible champion in the subdivided fields. We are optimistic that the company will have more business in the fields of light and heat, new energy logistics vehicles, medicine, robots and so on in the future.
(The article is an independent opinion of the author, which does not represent the position of iResearch. com)
(This article is submitted by Pavales, which does not represent our views and positions. The content of this article is for reference only. If it involves infringement, please contact us in time. The image is authorized to be published, and the copyright belongs to the original author.)
