In the booming field of space photovoltaics, a “dark horse” from Beijing has emerged.
A friend who is an investor told me that a company called Shuowei Optoelectronics, led by Qifu Capital, is about to complete a nearly 100 million yuan financing round, and its valuation has reached hundreds of millions of yuan. “The shares are in high demand. There aren’t enough for all the investors who want to get in. Some even can’t get a quota after passing the review.”
Due to the “high R & D difficulty and small market space,” the space scenario had rarely attracted attention before. It wasn’t until the end of 2025, when commercial space became a market hot – spot, that many people started to notice the niche scenario of space photovoltaics. By that time, Shuowei Optoelectronics had been quietly working on it for several years.
Shuowei Optoelectronics was founded in 2023, but its team began researching the space application technology of perovskite as early as 2018. Eventually, it became one of the first domestic enterprises to layout the new – generation perovskite space photovoltaic technology.
After three years of dedicated development, under the leadership of Ye Fengjun, an alumnus of Peking University, Shuowei Optoelectronics continued to tackle key problems in perovskite space photovoltaic technology and launched the first solar wing product made of rigid, low – cost perovskite battery chips, which finally attracted more and more attention from the market.
From obscurity to being sought after by capital, what kind of company is Shuowei Optoelectronics?
Back in April 2023, founded by young experts in the field of perovskite photovoltaic technology with master’s and doctoral degrees from Peking University, Shuowei Optoelectronics became one of the first domestic enterprises to layout the new – generation perovskite space photovoltaic technology.
According to them, the team targeted the space environment to conduct research on the technology and application of perovskite battery performance around 2018 and participated in publishing the first domestic research paper on the near – space. In addition, the company’s chief scientist has also served as a review expert for NASA’s research results on sending perovskite into space.
As I understand it, the founder of Shuowei Optoelectronics is Ye Fengjun, whose main research direction during his postgraduate studies at Peking University was in the field of perovskite optoelectronic functional materials and batteries. As the company’s chief scientist, Tu Yongguang is also a tenured associate professor and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Flexible Electronics of Northwestern Polytechnical University.
Northwestern Polytechnical University describes Tu Yongguang as a researcher whose work focuses on energy technology in the aerospace field. He conducts research on long – term service and electronic regulation of space photovoltaic energy in aspects such as lightweight device construction, semiconductor radiation effects, device reinforcement in extreme environments, and aerospace application verification around basic scientific issues related to advanced space photovoltaics.
The team’s previous research on perovskite space photovoltaic technology laid a solid foundation for the development of Shuowei Optoelectronics. Eventually, they chose to start their entrepreneurial journey in the Beijing Economic – Technological Development Area (Yizhuang, Beijing). Two months after its establishment, the company completed its seed – round financing and began to accelerate team optimization, technology upgrading, and the construction of the R & D headquarters.
It’s worth noting that as the country promotes the R & D and industrialization of perovskite, Beijing began to systematically incorporate cutting – edge technologies including perovskite into the development blueprint of “future industries” in the same year when the company was founded. Later, the Beijing Economic – Technological Development Area also introduced special industrial measures to provide systematic support for the development of perovskite.
Since the early days of entrepreneurship, Shuowei Optoelectronics has been exploring the application scenarios of perovskite batteries in commercial space. When asked about this choice, Ye Fengjun once said in a media interview that cost – reduction and efficiency – improvement of commercial satellites are an inevitable trend in the future. As the power supply system is the second – largest cost unit of the satellite platform, using perovskite to replace expensive gallium arsenide as the energy source for satellite solar wings can significantly reduce the cost of commercial space.
Therefore, the company focused on the R & D of perovskite’s space applications. It has not only accumulated more than 50 core patents but also established in – depth cooperation with the Shanghai Institute of Space Power Sources, the national team in the field of space power. At the same time, it is the only enterprise participating in the construction of the first high – standard laboratory in China for the combination of industry, academia, and research on the new lightweight and flexible photovoltaic technology for space – the Joint Laboratory of Flexible Photovoltaic Technology under the National Key Laboratory of Space Power.
Based on its long – term accumulation, Shuowei Optoelectronics publicly announced three in – development aerospace – grade perovskite battery chips in early 2026 and launched the first system – level solar wing product, Yuxi · Tianyuan, made of rigid perovskite battery chips in March 2026.
In their plan, they will speed up the ground testing and satellite – carried iteration progress of “Yuxi · Tianyuan” and strive to complete the on – orbit verification of the battery chips and solar wing system in 2026 to form a replicable and promotable system – level solution.
Behind the popularity of Shuowei Optoelectronics is the fact that perovskite has become a market hot – spot.
In fact, this is not the first time perovskite has entered the public eye. As early as 2013, perovskite was named one of the top ten scientific breakthroughs of the year by the American magazine “Science” and was labeled as the “new – generation solar cell material.”
Compared with crystalline silicon, perovskite has been proven to have a higher theoretical conversion efficiency. It also has the characteristics of being lightweight, flexible, easy to stack, having low raw material costs, and strong weak – light conversion ability. This means that the application scenarios and imagination space of solar cells will become even larger.
Although perovskite has become a rising star in the academic community and its power – generation efficiency records have been continuously refreshed, due to the immature technology and the very early stage of industrialization, this type of solar cell didn’t attract much attention in the market for a long time.
Over time, against the background of the dual – carbon strategy, the “technology for the preparation and industrial production of high – efficiency perovskite batteries” was included in the “14th Five – Year Plan for Scientific and Technological Innovation in the Energy Field” in 2021, and soon a wave of optimism about perovskite emerged.
According to incomplete statistics, from 2021 to 2022, the investment in the perovskite field was nearly 10 billion yuan. At that time, well – known investment institutions such as Sequoia China, Hillhouse, IDG Capital, Zhongke Chuangxing, Xianfeng Changqing, Yunqi Capital, and Source Code Capital all made investments, which also attracted more investors to enter the field.
However, after moving from the laboratory to the mass – production line, the performance of perovskite materials did not meet the market’s expectations. Due to the extremely high efficiency loss in large – area preparation, as well as the disadvantages of low stability, sensitivity to water and oxygen environments, and short lifespan, and the lack of price competitiveness, the perovskite field entered a dormant state.
The capital’s enthusiasm for perovskite has decreased, but industrial players are still continuously and deeply deploying. After the GW – scale production lines of some enterprises have been put into operation or are under construction, 2025 is regarded as the “year of mass production” for perovskite at the GW level. At the same time, the perovskite field has started to heat up rapidly.
When Elon Musk put forward the concept of space computing power, it not only brought the imagination of a trillion – yuan market scale to space photovoltaics but also made perovskite, regarded as one of the next – generation core photovoltaic routes by the industry, highly concerned. Musk’s team’s frequent visits to several Chinese photovoltaic enterprises have ignited the capital’s enthusiasm for domestic players, causing the stocks of perovskite battery concept to rise.
In this process, start – up companies like Shuowei Optoelectronics have also become the targets of frequent contact by investors. According to the data from CVSource of Touzhong Jiachuan, in the first four months of 2026, there have been seven financing events in the perovskite field, and many enterprises related to the perovskite industrial chain have received financing.
From commercial space to space computing power, solar energy will be the main form of energy source, and perovskite, which is well – suited to space application scenarios, is highly expected. For investors who have not made many investments or have not invested at all, now may be a suitable time to “buy a ticket and get on the train.”
This article is from the WeChat official account “Touzhongwang”. Author: Lu Zhigao, Editor: Wang Qingwu. Republished by 36Kr with permission.
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