NaaS (NAAS) – one of the largest and fastest-growing electric vehicle charging service providers in China – announced that the company has appointed Alex Wu as its CFO and President, effective January 15, 2023. And Wu will join the Board of Directors of NaaS.
Previously as Managing Director of Bain Capital Private Equity, Wu accumulated rich experience in finance, technology, and management. And during his tenure at Bain Capital, he also served as a board director of several portfolio companies. After joining NaaS, Wu will be fully in charge of the company’s daily business management, financial management, and capital operation, and help the company with medium and long-term strategic development.
Wu is a versatile talent with an international vision and rich management experience. And he is supposed to help NaaS better implement the new strategy and serve the fast-growing Chinese new energy vehicle market.
As of September 30, 2022, NaaS’ charging solutions had served 1,282 charging station operators and connected over 45,000 charging stations with over 434,000 chargers on NaaS’ network. And in the first three quarters of 2022, charging volume transacted through the Company’s network reached 1,892 GWh, and gross transaction value reached CNY 1.861 billion, representing 2.29 times and 2.35 times that of the same period of 2021, respectively.
The company also established strategic cooperation partnerships with Chevron, Li Auto, NEWRIZON, Ohways, On Time, DianYue Travel, Tunghsu Group, and other industry partners during the third quarter of 2022.
With a focus on new power systems, yard and station operation and maintenance, and other fields, NaaS will develop new businesses such as virtual power plants, PV + energy storage + charging integration, intelligent operation and maintenance, and advanced innovative business models.
NaaS is a subsidiary of Newlinks Technology Limited, and Bain Capital has close ties with them. Bain Capital invested $200 million in Newlinks in March 2021 as the lead investor, and was also involved in the pre-IPO funding of NaaS in January 2022.
China’s new energy vehicle and charging service market has maintained a rapid growth rate. In November 2022, China’s new energy vehicle penetration rate surged to a record high of 33.8%. And from January to November 2022, the charging infrastructure increment in China was 2.332 million units, and the public charging pile increment was up 105.4% year on year. And as of November 2022, there had been 4.949 million units of charging infrastructure in China, up 107.5% year on year.
KEY QUOTES:
“This is an exciting moment for us. Alex will bring in a wealth of experience and skills in both business and finance to help us develop better. And we are confident that this appointment will create more new value for NaaS and our shareholders.”
- Wang Yang, Founder and CEO of NaaS
“China’s transportation energy is entering an era of oil and electricity drive, NaaS is a leading electric vehicle charging solution provider in China, and what it is doing is of huge commercial and social value. China has the largest new energy market in the world, which will bring huge opportunities to leading digital enterprises in the industry.”
- Jonathan Zhu, Managing Director at Bain Capital and Co-head of Asia Private Equity
