Jiutian Weixing receives hundreds of millions of strategic investment from China Internet Investment Fund

Recently, Nine Heavens Constellation completed the transfer of a strategic investment in the hundreds of millions from the China Internet Investment Fund (hereinafter referred to as "CIIF"). This marks CIIF's first foray into the private space sector and the seventh round of financing for Nine Heavens Constellation. This round of financing will primarily be used for the research and development and productization of satellite platforms, payloads, and ground terminals, accelerating industry application expansion and further attracting top industry talent.

Nine Heavens Constellation's Tangshan satellite factory (pictured) is scheduled to be completed and put into operation by mid-year.

According to publicly available information, CIIF was jointly initiated by the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Ministry of Finance and established with the approval of the State Council. It is a national-level fund deeply involved in the Internet field. The fund has a planned total scale of 100 billion RMB, with an initial scale of 30 billion RMB. It focuses on key technologies and facilities of Internet infrastructure, network security, artificial intelligence, Internet+, big data, cloud computing, network information services and other key areas, selecting growth-oriented enterprises and high-quality Internet projects that meet national strategies and have promising prospects, and helping to promote the development of the digital economy.

With satellite internet officially included in China's "new infrastructure" category, low-Earth orbit satellites have ushered in a significant development opportunity. According to relevant research calculations by Guotai Junan Securities, the number of domestic low-Earth orbit satellites is expected to reach 3,000-6,000 in the next 10 years. By 2030, the total market size of China's satellite internet could reach hundreds of billions.

Xie Tao, founder and CEO of Nine Heavens Constellation, said that satellite internet, as an important part of the "new infrastructure," is an emerging industry with national strategic significance, with clear market prospects and entering a stage of rapid growth. Currently, Nine Heavens Constellation pays more attention to the introduction of strategic capital and industrial resources. The company has made forward-looking layouts in satellite manufacturing, communication systems, ground terminal R&D, and industry solutions, which is highly consistent with CIIF's strategic direction.

"Whether in the narrow sense of satellite internet, namely, high-speed communication networks in space, or in the broad sense of satellite internet, namely, providing industry solutions based on communication, navigation, and remote sensing technologies, Nine Heavens Constellation is actively carrying out market layout." According to Xie Tao, the company has overcome the adverse impact of the epidemic on market operations and has developed industry customers and partners in environmental protection, land and resources, smart agriculture, transportation and logistics, smart government affairs, and scientific research and education, and currently has multiple satellites under development. At the same time, it deeply participates in the construction of national new infrastructure, establishing a satellite internet R&D center in Shanghai, and will launch a satellite internet test satellite. The satellite factory has been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission and started construction on schedule, and will be able to achieve mass production capacity this year. The satellite payload factory has completed its project approval, and is expected to start construction in Yibin, Sichuan in mid-2021.

"The development of the satellite internet industry will benefit from China's complete industrial chain and key technological advantages in aerospace, and will also provide huge market opportunities and space for private sector participants. Nine Heavens Constellation is one of the outstanding companies in the private satellite field. We hope to provide multi-dimensional support to improve its technological innovation capabilities and international competitiveness from aspects such as funds and resources, and jointly support and participate in the construction of new infrastructure." CIIF said.

Since its establishment, Nine Heavens Constellation has won the favor of many capitals, including CAS Star, the State Intellectual Property Office, CITIC Securities, Three Gorges Corporation, Far East Capital, the fund under the Beijing Municipal Industry-Finance Platform, AVIC Industry Investment, and Guofu Capital. China Zhongji Investment completed its equity investment in Nine Heavens Constellation in October 2018.