To accelerate the rapid implementation of NB-IoT chips, CoreWing Information Technology received RMB 200 million in A+ round financing

36Kr learned that the Internet of Things chip company CoreWing Information Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "CoreWing Information Technology") has received nearly 200 million yuan in A+ round financing, led by Heli Capital, followed by Huarui Capital and three old shareholders Frees Capital, Oriental Jiafu, and Septwolves, and Zhiyuan Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor for this round. The company said that this financing is the largest single financing in the domestic NB-IoT industry so far. This round of funds will be mainly used to produce and manufacture existing NB-IoT chip products, research and design the next generation of chip products, and explore downstream market segments to accelerate the implementation of industry applications.

CoreWing Information Technology was founded in Zhangjiang, Shanghai in March 2017. It is currently focused on the research, development, production and sales of narrowband Internet of Things NB-IoT chip products. In the future, it will further develop other IoT terminal technologies and applications including sensing and edge computing, and become a supplier of IoT terminal SoC chips and solutions.

It is understood that the NB-IoT chip XY1100 independently developed and launched by CoreWing Information Technology has the characteristics of high integration, low cost, low power consumption, and high receiving sensitivity. The chip not only integrates PMU/TRX/BB/AP, but also integrates CMOS PA, which can support multiple frequency bands of 690-960MHz and 1.71-2.2GHz; at the same time, its high integration can greatly save customers the cost of peripheral BOM, and there is no need to configure DC-DC and SAW, the number of module components is reduced by 60%, and the module cost is reduced by 30%; its power consumption is low, the current in PSM mode, that is, deep sleep state is 0.7uA, and the current in idle DRX and eDRX state is as low as 0.02mA; the chip single transmission receiving sensitivity can reach -118dBm, and the 128 retransmission receiving sensitivity reaches -137dBm; and the XY1100 chip adopts QFN52 packaging, and the module size can be as small as 10*10mm. In addition, this chip from CoreWing Information Technology adopts SDR architecture, which can support NB-IoT and expand support for other private communication protocols to meet the needs of fragmented markets.

The XY1100 chip has passed the China Telecom warehousing test certification and China Mobile chip certification and GTI test in 2019. On April 9 this year, Gosuncn IoT, which developed the module product GM120 based on XY1100, became the first winner of the second bid for the 2020 NB-IoT Internet of Things module centralized procurement project of Tianyi Telecom Terminal Jiangsu Branch. Core Wing Information Technology also became the sole supplier of the centralized procurement project of 2 million NB-IoT chips XY1100 launched by China Mobile on June 1 this year. The successive winning of Core Wing Information Technology's products shows that it has been recognized by both China Telecom and China Mobile. Core Wing Information Technology has also established cooperative relations with most of the first- and second-tier module manufacturers. 

CoreWing Information Technology XY1100 chip

NB-IoT (Narrow Band Internet of Things) is a narrowband Internet of Things that can support cellular data connections of low-power devices in wide area networks. On May 7, the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially issued the "Notice on Deeply Promoting the Comprehensive Development of Mobile Internet of Things". The notice pointed out that it is necessary to guide new IoT terminals to no longer use 2G/3G networks, promote the migration of existing 2G/3G IoT services to NB-IoT/4G (Cat1)/5G networks, and promote the inclusion of NB-IoT standards in the ITU IMT-2020 5G standards. This means that NB-IoT will become the de facto standard for mMTC in the three application scenarios of 5G, and the withdrawal of 2G networks will help accelerate the deployment of NB-IoT.

In addition to policy support, the decline in NB-IoT module costs will also promote its deployment. As chip costs decrease, module costs have dropped to the same level as 2G modules, and are expected to drop further to less than $2 in the future. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology plans to reach 1.5 million NB-IoT base stations by 2020, with a total number of connections exceeding 600 million.

A wide range of application scenarios is the key for chip companies to achieve scale and profitability. NB-IoT, which has the characteristics of low power consumption, multiple connections, wide coverage, and low cost, will support the low-speed, high-latency market that accounts for 60% of IoT connections. NB-IoT is currently mainly used in public utility application scenarios, such as smart meters and smart smoke sensors. Among smart meters, the penetration rate of smart gas meters and smart water meters still has room for further improvement. For example, the China Metrology Association predicts that the penetration rate of smart gas meters will reach 60% in 2020, which will generate a market demand of nearly 24 million units. In addition, since gas meters have periodic mandatory replacement requirements, there is room for replacement in the existing market.

At the same time, NB-IoT can also be used in asset tracking, smart home, shared bicycles, wearable smart devices and agricultural production. Asset tracking is mainly concentrated in logistics scenarios, such as cold chain logistics.

CoreWing Information Technology will work closely with partners in downstream industries to meet the differentiated needs of different application scenarios. For example, near-field communication technologies such as BLE will be integrated into chip products for indoor environments and shared bicycle scenarios, providing a complete IoT chip solution that can achieve both near-field communication and far-field communication. Customized IoT chips will also be developed for customer needs in areas such as asset tracking.

CoreWing Information Technology received tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing in December 2018, with investors including Bangsheng Capital, Qianhai Fund of Funds, Septwolves, Oriental Fortune, Morningside Venture Capital, etc. It had previously received Pre-A round strategic financing from Jinka Smart, as well as angel round financing from Frees Capital, China Science and Technology Innovation, and Pudu Technology.