January: Toward Broader Horizons | 5Y News Monthly
The big news from last month.
5Y News Monthly
"5Y News Monthly" is a regular column from 5Y Capital. At the start of each month, we look back at the past month's news from 5Y and our portfolio companies, sharing it with friends who follow us — we hope it helps you get to know us better.
01 Portfolio Company Highlights
Major news about financing, IPOs, strategic partnerships, breakthroughs, and new product launches from 5Y portfolio companies.
02 5Y Capital Updates
News about 5Y honors, investor interviews, and thought leadership.
Note: Companies are listed in alphabetical order by pinyin.
01
Portfolio Company Highlights
Horizon Robotics and Venucia (Dongfeng Nissan) Collaborate on Intelligent Driving Platform
On December 30, Horizon Robotics announced a new intelligent driving project with Venucia, the passenger vehicle brand under Dongfeng Nissan — one of China's major Japanese joint-venture automakers. Under the plan, Venucia's new intelligent driving platform will be powered by Horizon's Journey 3 chip and Horizon Matrix® Mono 3 monocular vision perception solution, enabling advanced driver-assistance capabilities. The platform will debut on multiple new energy models under the Venucia brand, with the first vehicle expected to launch in 2023. This partnership marks Horizon Robotics' official entry into volume production collaborations with joint-venture automakers. Read more
Kuaishou and NetEase Cloud Music Reach Copyright Partnership
On December 27, NetEase Cloud Music and Kuaishou announced a framework partnership for deep collaboration across copyright licensing, song promotion, and artist development. Under the deal, Kuaishou Music will integrate with NetEase Cloud Music's copyright service platform "Yuncun Exchange," while NetEase Cloud Music will join Kuaishou's "Music Company Distribution Backend," enabling mutual resource sharing. Beyond Kuaishou's main app, the partnership extends to its professional video editing tool KineMaster ("Kuaiying"), karaoke app "Huisen," and multi-function camera app "Yitian Camera," all of which will support authorized tracks from NetEase Cloud Music.
PhiGent Robotics Closes Series A+ Round
On December 1, autonomous driving solutions provider PhiGent Robotics announced it had raised tens of millions of dollars in a Series A+ round led by Xiang He Capital, with existing investor Zhence Capital significantly oversubscribing. The company also announced that Dr. Shan Yi, former AMD corporate vice president, had joined as co-founder and CEO. Since its founding, PhiGent Robotics has attracted continued investment from top-tier institutions and strategic corporate investors, completing five rounds in roughly one year with total funding nearing $100 million. Investors include Atypical Ventures, Zhence Capital, 5Y Capital, Xiang He Capital, GSR Ventures, Shenzhen Capital Group, and Horizon Robotics. Read more
XtalPi Forms Strategic Partnership with Singapore's EDDC
On December 20, XtalPi entered a strategic partnership with Singapore's national drug discovery platform, the Experimental Drug Development Centre (EDDC). The collaboration will target non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) targets selected by EDDC, using an integrated R&D model combining AI, automated experimentation, and expert knowledge to drive drug discovery and deliver novel candidate drugs for precision lung cancer treatment. As Singapore's national drug development platform, EDDC is overseen by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and aims to strengthen Singapore's biomedical R&D capabilities and accelerate translation to clinical applications. Read more
Moore Threads Completes 1.5 Billion Yuan Series B Round
On December 27, Moore Threads announced the completion of its 1.5 billion yuan Series B round, which has been fully settled. The round was led by China Mobile's Digital New Economy Industry Fund and Hexie Health Insurance, with follow-on investment from Dianshi Capital. Proceeds will support rapid iteration of Moore Threads' multi-function GPUs, MUSA architecture innovation, and related IP development. With this round, Moore Threads has completed four financings in just two years since founding, providing important assurance for the company's stable long-term development. 5Y Capital has supported the company from angel round through Series A. Read more
PingCAP Becomes Only Chinese Company Named in Forrester Wave Database Report
On December 6, international research firm Forrester published the "Forrester Wave™: Translytical Data Platforms, Q4 2022" report. Enterprise-grade open-source distributed database company PingCAP became the only Chinese database vendor included in the report, and on its first appearance was rated a "Strong Performer." Forrester noted that TiDB's cloud-native architecture, MySQL compatibility (reducing migration effort), and unified transaction processing and analytics capabilities make it competitive with other vendors in multi-model scalability and performance. Read more
Medbanks Health Technology Lists on Hong Kong Stock Exchange
On December 23, 2022, Medbanks Health Technology Co., Ltd. (stock code: 0314.HK) listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. 5Y Capital first connected with Medbanks in 2020; in our early conversations, the founders' expertise, industry insight, and vision left a deep impression on us. Over eight years of entrepreneurship, Medbanks has continuously broken new ground, building an integrated healthcare, pharmaceutical, and health insurance ecosystem that provides infrastructure for China's pharmaceutical and medical professional services sectors. We are fortunate to witness this new milestone for Medbanks and look forward to the company continuing to advance and create greater social value in its next chapter. Read more
Taimei Health Technology Reaches Major Partnership with Singapore's IHiS
On December 19, Taimei Health Technology announced a major partnership with IHiS (Integrated Health Information Systems), an agency under Singapore's Ministry of Health. Under the agreement, the Ethics and Compliance Online System (ECOS) — a clinical trial ethics review platform developed by Taimei for IHiS — will serve 27 hospitals under Singapore's two largest healthcare groups, National Healthcare Group (NHG) and Singapore Health Services (SingHealth), achieving comprehensive coverage of the country's key clinical trial institutions. The collaboration will help digitize and integrate clinical trial ethics review in Singapore, significantly improving review efficiency and regulatory oversight. Read more
Unknown and China Resources Biopharmaceutical Enter Strategic Partnership
On December 26, Shenzhen Unknown Biotechnology Co. and China Resources Biopharmaceutical Co. jointly announced a formal strategic partnership. Leveraging their respective strengths, the two companies will collaborate on microecological drug co-development across a broad range of disease areas. Under the agreement, they will explore and commercialize combination therapies across multiple cancer types and broader disease indications. Drawing on Unknown's leading microbiome analysis platform, they will also conduct in-depth research on gut microbiome samples from patients in biopharmaceutical clinical studies to identify potential biomarkers, discover novel drug targets, and identify promising live biotherapeutic candidates. Additionally, both parties will actively explore and advance collaboration across the full lifecycle of live biotherapeutics and other biologics — from early R&D and manufacturing to clinical development, regulatory filing, and commercialization. Read more
Xiaomi Releases First-Ever Intellectual Property White Paper
On December 14, Xiaomi officially released its first intellectual property white paper, consolidating the company's IP achievements and showcasing its technological innovation capabilities. To date, Xiaomi's R&D spans 12 technology domains, including 5G mobile communications, big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, as well as robotics, unmanned factories, and smart electric vehicles built on intelligent manufacturing — covering 98 sub-sectors in total. Across these fields, Xiaomi has amassed substantial IP assets. According to third-party reports, as of end-September 2021, Xiaomi ranked 13th globally in declared 5G standard-essential patents. As of September 30, 2022, Xiaomi held over 29,000 patents worldwide across more than 60 countries and regions. Read more
Ailurus Biotech Launches Cloud-Based Protein Engineering Service
In December, Ailurus Biotech launched a new cloud-based protein engineering experimental service, which will become a key component of its emerging "biological programming technology platform" to advance the biotech industry. The service integrates protein structure prediction and design, ultra-high-throughput experimental testing, automated machine learning, proprietary protein expression systems, and protein production and purification processes — enabling protein product developers to conduct the full pipeline of novel protein development, performance optimization, and scale-up production from anywhere. Read more
Xinhuazhang Releases High-Performance FPGA Dual-Mode Verification System
On December 2, Xinhuazhang held its ecosystem and product launch event in Shanghai. As a leading domestic provider of system-level verification EDA solutions, Xinhuazhang officially released the HuaPro P2E, a high-performance FPGA dual-mode verification system. Its unique dual-mode design addresses both system debugging and software development needs, solving the long-standing challenge of balancing prototyping verification with hardware emulation — a major breakthrough in hardware verification systems that will significantly accelerate hardware-software co-development and empower innovation in large-scale complex system applications. Read more
Zhongke Guosheng Closes Nearly RMB 100 Million Pre-A Round
On December 7, Zhongke Guosheng announced the completion of a nearly RMB 100 million Pre-A financing round led by Legend Capital, with JunSheng Investment and Eastern Bell Capital participating. The deal closed in early August this year. Proceeds will primarily fund capacity scale-up for core pipeline products 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), and 2,5-tetrahydrofurandimethanol (THFDM), as well as continued development of downstream derivatives. Read more
02
5Y Capital Updates
5Y Capital Wins Multiple Awards from 36Kr, ChinaVenture, Forbes China, and Other Media
On December 8, Jazzyear released its "2022 China Tech Industry Investment Rankings," honoring investors, investment institutions, and organizations with outstanding performance, strong growth momentum, and profound industry influence over the past year. 5Y Capital was named to the "Top 50 Best Hard Tech VC Firms in China 2022," and Qin Liu, 5Y Capital's founding partner, was named to the "Top 50 Best Tech Investors 2022." Read more
On December 12, the 21st Century Venture Capital Research Institute released its "2021–2022 Top 30 VC and PE Firms in Tech and Manufacturing Investment Competitiveness" ranking, compiled through institutional interviews, surveys, CVSource data, and evaluations by an expert panel. 5Y Capital was named to the "2021–2022 Top 30 VC and PE Firms in Tech and Manufacturing Investment Competitiveness." The institute also released its "2021–2022 Most Influential Young Investors (GP/LP)" list, with Yuan Ye, partner at 5Y Capital, named to the "2021–2022 Top 30 Most Influential Young Investors." Read more
On December 14, 36Kr released its "Top Investors and Investment Firms in Ten Innovation Economy Sectors" and "ESG Practice Investors" rankings, evaluating performance across fundraising, investment, portfolio management, and exits. 5Y Capital was honored in six categories: "2022 Top 20 China Healthcare and Life Sciences Investors," "2022 Top 20 China Digital Intelligence Investors," "2022 Top 20 China Consumer and Creative Economy Investors," "2022 Top 20 China Next-Gen Information Technology Investors," "2022 Top 20 China Metaverse Investors," and "2022 Top 30 China Best ESG Practice Investors."
Additionally, 5Y Capital partner Zhang Fei was named to the "2022 Top 20 China Next-Gen Information Technology Investors," partner Yuan Ye to the "2022 Top 20 China Consumer and Creative Economy Investors," partner Liu Kai to the "2022 Top 20 China Digital Intelligence Investors," and Peter, managing director at 5Y Capital, to the "2022 Top 20 China Hard Tech and Intelligent Manufacturing Investors." Read more
On December 16, PEDaily, the venture capital and investment information platform under Zero2IPO, released its 2022 "F40 China Young Investors" list — the fifth annual edition. F stands for Fancy, representing boundless imagination, and Future, representing forward-looking vision. Yuan Ye, partner at 5Y Capital, was named to the list. Read more
On December 19, Jiemian News released its "China Top Venture Capital Firms" ranking for the sixth time. The list aims to give entrepreneurs, FOFs, and LPs an unvarnished picture of the VC industry, identifying those investors and firms most adept at seizing opportunities amid China's economic shifts, with the deepest judgment and leadership in innovative sectors, and the greatest impact on founders. 5Y Capital ranked #4 on the "2022 China Top Venture Capital Firms."
On December 22, TMTpost Venture Capital released its 2022 annual Pioneer list, drawing on data from January 1 to November 30, 2022, sourced from TMTpost's Kegubao and TMTBase databases, direct institutional submissions, and public records. The rankings evaluated fundraising, investment, portfolio management, and exits through a composite scoring system. 5Y Capital was named to the "2022 Top 20 Fundraising Pioneer VC Firms," "2022 Top 20 Investment Pioneer VC Firms," "2022 Top 20 Exit Pioneer VC Firms," and "2022 Top 20 Healthcare Investment Pioneer Firms." Read more
On December 22, Lieyunwang released its 2022 annual venture capital rankings, summarizing the year's achievements across 13 enterprise lists and 6 investment firm lists. Qin Liu, founding partner at 5Y Capital, was named "2022 Most Influential Investor," and 5Y Capital was named to the "2022 Top 50 Best Venture Capital Firms." Read more
On December 28, ChinaVenture — for the 16th consecutive year as an independent third-party organization — released the "ChinaVenture LP Awards," selecting data from participating LPs covering January 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022. Through questionnaire surveys, interviews, data verification, and aggregation processes, the data was standardized and ranked by overall score. 5Y Capital was named to the "2022 Top 30 Most LP-Focused Venture Capital Firms." Read more
On December 29, Forbes China conducted its 16th annual independent survey of venture capital professionals active in mainland China, evaluating 100 investors with strong track records over the past five years from a pool of more than 200 VC firms' nominations. 5Y Capital's founding partner Qin Liu, partner Zhang Fei, and Yuan Ye were named to the list. Read more
Qin Liu: Flaws, Animal Spirits, and Miracles | 5Y View
At the 2022 CEIBS MBA Annual Investment Forum held in December, CEIBS MBA Class of 1998 alumnus and 5Y Capital founding partner Qin Liu delivered a keynote speech. Liu used three keywords — "flaws," "animal spirits," and "miracles" — to interpret his own journey and that of the entrepreneurs he has backed. Both investors and entrepreneurs use their cognition and imagination of the future to call out to and find kindred spirits; pain is the norm, while passion and sense of mission are the precious qualities that carry us through cycles. Read more
5Y Capital Partner Liu Kai Participates in China Entrepreneur Magazine Tech Forum
On December 10–11, the "20th Annual China Enterprise Leaders Summit and 22nd Annual Future Stars Summit," hosted by China Entrepreneur magazine, was held in Beijing. At the tech forum themed "Witnessing the Era of Hardcore Innovation," 5Y Capital partner Liu Kai served as forum moderator, engaging in a lively dialogue with five guests: UCloud founder and CEO Benny Ji, XSKY CEO Yao Xin, Airdoc founder Ray Zhang, Hai Robotics co-founder Fang Bing, and NIU Technologies CEO Yan Li. Read more
Books Remind Us That Tiny Pages Can Hold the Entire Universe | 5Y New Year Reading List
This past year, many of us experienced some turbulence to varying degrees, but reading still offered us wonder and imagination. This reading list comes from recommendations by 5Y colleagues; the selections are wonderfully diverse and deeply personal, much like reading itself. There are no fixed standards, but it often acts as a compass, pointing the way toward unknown worlds. These reading experiences from others may offer you some inspiration. A new year means a fresh start. May you discover a larger universe through reading in the year ahead. Read more
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