Produced | Tiger Sniffing Technology Team
Author | Zhang Xue
Cover | CFP
Currently, the Industrial Internet is helping the boring and complex manufacturing industry to give birth to a new year.
We have noticed that in many reports and reports, we always focus our attention on large-scale industrial Internet platforms such as Haier, Root Internet, and Sany. They may have a deep industry background or a strong foundation. platform.
But in the final analysis, these big companies always have to do big business first. In the huge manufacturing industry, there is no situation where any company can eat together.
So, in this blue ocean, not only are there large platform vendors fiercely fighting at the poker table, there are also a group of undercurrent start-ups waiting for an opportunity to jump out of the water.
So what kind of industrial Internet startups does China need? Where are their opportunities? In order to find this answer, we will start from the following three aspects:
The status quo and pain points of the domestic industrial Internet
The capital flow of investment institutions
Analysis of investment targets
Difficult to collect data, pain points of personality
If you pay a little attention to the industrial field, then you will know that the industrial Internet is not a new term.
Public information shows that 2018-2020 is the three-year initial stage of the development of my country’s industrial Internet. At present, the industrial Internet has basically completed the development process from concept popularization to practice taking root.
But before this year, itThe degree of attention received is not high. On the one hand, compared with the easy-to-understand consumer field, the industry itself has a certain threshold. On the other hand, the industrial Internet without 5G network support is somewhat like a castle in the sky.
2020, as the year of 5G commercial popularization, has also become a key node for the continued development of my country’s industrial Internet. After all, the market is still worried about the policy strength and continuity of the industrial Internet after this year.
However, with the rapid increase in the number of base stations, the coverage of 5G networks has also increased significantly. Accordingly, as a 5G accessory, the Industrial Internet has a possible foundation.
In addition, at the macro level, Xinjicheng has become a hot spot. The “Government Work Report” also pointed out that it is necessary to promote the upgrading of manufacturing and the development of emerging industries, including the development of the industrial Internet and the promotion of intelligent manufacturing.
Industrial Internet began to enter the deep water area.
In simple terms, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology divides the Industrial Internet into three dimensions: network, data, and security. The network is the foundation, the platform is the core, and the security is the guarantee. From the perspective of the industrial chain, it is divided into six parts: equipment layer, network layer, platform layer, software layer, application layer and security layer.
Therefore, the Industrial Internet is a process of “soft and hard” integration. Cloud computing, analysis, and storage are the brains, and the automated intelligent equipment is the arm to execute the results of cloud computing and realize intelligent production.
In the above-mentioned industry chain, general-purpose platforms have become a battleground for large enterprises, and they have taken a place in the market by virtue of their own advantages. There are only a few startups on this track. Although there is no obvious Matthew effect yet, it is still a bit difficult for startups to build common platforms.
So more entrepreneurs choose vertical industry platforms and solutions.
In the industrial field, there are many types of sub-industries, and industry needs are individualized. The establishment of platforms and solutions with obvious industry characteristics will help start-ups to find differences and footholds. This includes solutions for vertical segments such as chemicals, energy, and clothing, as well as vertical applications such as asset management, operation optimization, and energy efficiency management. This part needs to go deep into the industry. The key is to find the general pain points of a certain industry and effectively solve the problems of industrial enterprises.
In addition, with the increasing acceptance of the Industrial Internet by the manufacturing industry, some new pain points and demands have also emerged. The most obvious are the collection and analysis of industrial data, and the development of industrial software.
Different from the consumer Internet, the industrial Internet scene data requirements are stricter, and the industrial chain data involved is also more complicated. In addition, many previous industrial scenes are based on manual operations, and the data is also prone to bias.Poor, so the collection of industrial data has become the core pain point of many manufacturing companies, and it is also their first step towards the industrial Internet.
Capital boom in the first half of the year
Demand drives growth and also determines the direction of funds.
In terms of investment and financing support, the National Development and Reform Commission and the People’s Bank of China will take the lead to “increase the investment of government-sponsored asset industry investment funds and venture capital companies, and support bond financing”, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission will be responsible for “supporting industrial Internet companies to list domestically and overseas Financing, promote the normalization of new share issuance, and steadily promote the pilot registration system for the science and technology innovation board”.
And keen investment institutions also started a large-scale capture action two years ago, trying to find the next giant whale in the industrial Internet field.
According to the data released by the Industrial Internet Conference, in the first half of 2020, a total of 193 financing incidents from 186 companies have been tracked. Among them, 83 incidents involving investment amounts have been announced, accounting for 43% of all events. The amount is 19 billion RMB.
It needs to be pointed out that compared with 2019, the number of investment and financing in the industrial Internet sector in the first half of this year has declined significantly. Except for March, the number of other months has fallen by more than 30%. The month was even less than 30% of the same period last year.
According to the statistics of industrial Internet financing in the first half of the year released by the CCW Research Institute, it can be seen that the number of financing projects in the industrial Internet field in my country in the first half of the year was the largest before and after the A round, followed by the B round. It can be seen that the projects that received investment are mainly concentrated At early stages.
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Picture source: 2020 Industrial Internet Conference
And perhaps due to financial constraints, the large-scaleThe financing actions of leading investment institutions are relatively active.
For example, as of the third quarter, Sequoia China has invested in more than a dozen companies in industrial intelligent equipment and related fields, with an amount of more than 1 billion yuan. Similarly, most of the investment targets are in the A and B rounds.
In addition, there are investment institutions that are good at industrial Internet, such as Chenshan Capital, Gaorong Capital, Yuanjing Capital, etc.
For the current capital enthusiasm, an investor told Hu Xiu, “Strictly speaking, the industrial Internet is far from the time to talk about competition and pattern. Based on the huge industrial clusters, downstream customers and different industrial categories We think there are still many opportunities for segmentation. Especially for companies that focus on certain points and focus on development, In the long run, some of this group of companies have high capital value attributes.”< /strong>
Why are they?
It is undeniable that after experiencing extensive growth, the role of the Industrial Internet is mainly reflected in the need for more refined management and growth of enterprises, and the need for intelligent and digital reforms to enhance the role of software within the company.
A fact is that, according to the “Industrial Internet APP Development White Paper (2018)” released by the China Industrial APP Alliance, the development status of domestic industrial APPs has a small number (not more than 10,000) and low quality (there are few intelligent decision-making industrial APPs). ), slow development (blank industrial APP open source community, poor developer scale ability).
In addition, at the edge acquisition level, 95% of the mid-to-high-end PLC market and more than 50% of the DCS market are monopolized by multinational companies; domestically produced industrial control automation core components only account for 35% of the market share. At the industrial SaaS layer, high-end industrial software mainly relies on imports; there is a lack of relevant developer communities.
Now that the domestic substitution trend is flourishing, some software-related and developer ecosystem start-ups are also recognized by the capital market. In interviews with Tiger Sniff, many leading investment institutions have more or less mentioned the layout of developer applications and their recognition of their prospects.
Similar to other fields, start-ups in the industrial Internet field will be able to gain a foothold in the market because they focus on a certain technology or industry at the beginning, and achieve detailed problems that are difficult to meet with general-purpose platforms.
Specifically, start-up companies have concentrated dozens of people or even hundreds of people to solve a certain segmentation scenario, compared with the possibility of large companiesFor a team of less than twenty people, this is undoubtedly a partial annihilation advantage.
But this also requires the leaders of startups to choose hilltops and look for hilltops. Especially in the field of data, if the data can produce a closed loop, it will form feedback. Then combine business + data, there will be a multiplier effect.
Although some startup companies can also generate data or analyze data, if they cannot be coupled to the business and naturally generated, collected, analyzed, and optimized, then the current entry point needs to be reviewed.
As for the value of these startups, industry observers pointed out that at this stage, it actually provides a beneficial tool for lean management of enterprises. Decades ago, the core business of business owners was to get more orders. However, quality control, cost, supply chain management, and factory manufacturing are still extensive. Now that external demand is affected, how to grasp the quality, yield, cost, and efficiency internally requires digital management tools. This is not about eating a meal, opening an exhibition, making a few calls, and publishing something. Things that advertising can do.
It is undeniable that China has the most complete categories of industrial products and the most extensive land provides enough application scenarios for startups. How to combine new technologies and new models to satisfy or empower existing or new scenarios will become challenges and opportunities for startups.
#Author有话说#This article is the third article in the “Big Whale List” series.
What? Is there anyone who doesn’t know the big whale list? This is the list of high-growth companies in the industrial Internet field launched by Huxiu. Those who have not signed up yet, hurry up, clickhereunderstand More.
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I’m Zhang Xue, the author of this article, I am concerned about 5G, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, WeChat: zhangxue-0929, industry professionals are welcome to chat and break the news (add WeChat to remark the identity )