As Fierce as August | 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 news from the past month about 5Y Capital itself 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 our portfolio companies' funding, IPOs, strategic partnerships, breakthroughs, and product launches.
02 5Y Updates
News about 5Y Capital's honors, investor interviews, and thought leadership.
Note: Companies are listed in alphabetical order by pinyin.
01
Portfolio Company Highlights
Horizon Robotics Unveils Strategy for High-Performance, Large-Scale Vehicle Intelligence Computing Platform
On July 29, Horizon Robotics held its "Journey Together, All the Way" launch event in Shanghai for its high-performance, large-scale vehicle intelligence computing platform and strategy. Horizon Robotics believes that intelligent vehicles are inevitably moving toward human-machine co-driving — the ultimate goal — by integrating intelligent driving with in-vehicle intelligent interaction to continuously improve the driving and riding experience. To accelerate this future, the company announced an open ecosystem strategy built on its chip technology, adopting a "fully altruistic" approach to unleash fresh momentum for the intelligent vehicle industry and support its collaborative development. Read more
Bota Biosciences Raises Over $100 Million
On July 29, industrial synthetic biology company Bota Biosciences announced the completion of its Series B round exceeding $100 million. The round was led by HSG, with participation from CMB International Capital and existing investors Matrix Partners China, Sherpa Healthcare Partners, Source Code Capital, 5Y Capital, and Meituan. Bota Bio's total funding has now surpassed $145 million, setting records in Asia for both speed and scale in synthetic biology financing. Read more
Vastai Technologies Releases Cloud AI Inference Chip
High-performance AI and video processing chip solutions provider Vastai Technologies unveiled its first cloud general-purpose AI inference chip, the SV100 series, and VA1 general-purpose inference accelerator card on the opening day of the 2021 World Artificial Intelligence Conference. The products deliver ultra-high performance and ultra-low latency for deep learning inference applications, significantly reducing deployment costs for data centers and edge intelligence applications. The SV100 series and VA1 accelerator card are expected to enter mass production in Q4 this year. Read more
Huami Launches Next-Gen Smart Wearable Chip Huangshan 2S
On July 14, at the Next Beat 2021 conference, Huami Technology unveiled its next-generation smart wearable chip "Huangshan 2S," the health-focused native smartwatch operating system Zepp OS, the Pump Beats blood pressure engine enabling 30-second one-touch monitoring, and portable MRI technology. Huang Wang, Huami's founder, chairman, and CEO, noted that these technological achievements in chips, operating systems, blood pressure, and MRI are the result of years of sustained R&D investment. Read more
Mokuai Technology Enables Full-Spectrum Live E-Commerce Empowerment
Mokuai Technology was selected as a case study in the 2021 China E-Commerce SaaS Industry Research Report. The company focuses on infrastructure services for influencers and live e-commerce, continuously iterating its SaaS tools to empower influencers and merchants while extending the live e-commerce value chain through full-lifecycle services. Its S2B2C service model provides personalized, full-chain services to influencer merchants, creating differentiated advantages and competitive moats. Read more
PingCAP and CAICT Jointly Release Open Source Community Maturity White Paper
In July, at the PingCAP DevCon 2021 conference, He Baohong, director of the Cloud Computing and Big Data Research Institute at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), and Dongxu Huang, co-founder and CTO of PingCAP, jointly released the Open Source Community Maturity White Paper. The white paper systematically examines the evolution and development trends of global open source communities, proposing for the first time an open source community maturity model and measurement framework. Drawing on the operational and governance practices of the TiDB community, it explores healthy and sustainable approaches to open source community development. Read more
ShareChat Completes $145 Million Financing Round
Indian social media platform ShareChat announced in July the completion of a $145 million financing round led by Temasek, Moore Strategic Ventures, and Mirae-Naver Asia Growth Fund. Three months prior, ShareChat had completed a $502 million round. The company has now completed its Series F round at a valuation of approximately $3 billion. The new funding will be used to build out its AI Feed and attract and incentivize creators. 5Y Capital participated in ShareChat's Series C and D rounds in 2018 and 2019. Read more
DeepSight Applies AR Technology to Ultrasound Diagnosis
In July, Shanghai DeepSight Information Technology partnered with Weipeng (Suzhou) Medical Devices to incubate an "ultrasound empowerment" project through an innovative medical device platform, applying AR technology to ultrasound diagnosis. The solution provides interactive visual guidance for traditional ultrasound scanning procedures, improving scanning efficiency, shortening the learning curve, and further democratizing precision medicine. Read more
Tapdata Secures Two Consecutive Rounds Totaling Tens of Millions of Dollars
Tapdata, a real-time data service platform for enterprise OLTP businesses, announced in July the completion of a Pre-A round led exclusively by 5Y Capital and a Pre-A+ round jointly led by XVC and Delian Capital, totaling tens of millions of dollars. Both rounds will be primarily used for further R&D investment. Read more
Xiaoice Unveils Super-Natural Voice Technology and Completes Series A
On July 12, Xiaoice Corporation released its new super-natural voice technology, which for the first time raises AI voice naturalness to a level nearly indistinguishable from real human speech, supporting general-purpose, full-domain scenarios. The company also disclosed its Series A funding information. The round was led by Hillhouse, with participation from 5Y Capital, Neumann, IDG, GGV Capital, and existing investors Northern Light Venture Capital and NetEase. Xiaoice's valuation has now exceeded unicorn status. Read more
Pony.ai Announces Robotaxi Launch in Shanghai
In July, Pony.ai showcased its latest self-developed autonomous driving technology during the Shanghai World Artificial Intelligence Conference, painting a vision of future life for attendees. The company also announced the official launch of its autonomous ride-hailing service (Robotaxi) in Shanghai, and for the first time revealed details of its PonyTruck commercial operations. The Robotaxi service will begin pilot operations in Shanghai's Jiading District, covering major urban road sections in the area. Through the PonyPilot+ app, users will have the opportunity to experience this safe, comfortable new mode of transportation in Jiading. Read more
Xpeng Motors Successfully Lists on Hong Kong Stock Exchange
On July 7, Xpeng Motors — the "first intelligent EV stock" on Hong Kong equities — officially began trading on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under ticker symbol "9868," with an IPO price of HK$165 per share. The listing ceremony was held simultaneously at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Xpeng Motors' global headquarters in Guangzhou. Less than a year after its New York listing, Xpeng Motors completed a dual listing in New York and Hong Kong. Read more
Neox Biotech Completes Series A+ Round
On July 8, Neox Biotech, a frontier technology company using computational design to drive new drug R&D, announced the completion of a Series A+ round of tens of millions of dollars, less than six months after its previous round, bringing its cumulative funding to nearly $100 million. The round was led by Yuanbio Venture Capital, with co-investment from LYFE Capital. Existing investors 5Y Capital, HSG, Sky9 Capital, and BAI Capital continued to increase their stakes. Read more
Xijing Taohuayuan Raises Tens of Millions of Yuan in Angel Round
The Xijing Taohuayuan project recently announced an angel round of tens of millions of yuan, jointly led by 5Y Capital and Black Ant Capital. The project aims to create immersive amusement parks for a new generation of young consumers in core urban areas. Its first location is planned to open by year-end at Viva Beijing Fuli Plaza in Beijing's Shuangjing area, with a space of nearly 3,000 square meters. Read more
XYZ Robotics Completes $35 Million Series B
XYZ Robotics announced in July the completion of a $35 million Series B round led by Capital Today, with existing investors Gaorong Capital, 5Y Capital, and Source Code Capital significantly oversubscribing. Following this round, the company will increase product R&D investment, deepen vertical integration of its technology stack, and build scalable sales and delivery capabilities. Read more
5Y Updates
In Conversation with Qin Liu: An Investor Is the Coolest Head and the Wildest Heart
This edition of 5Y Talk features an interview with Qin Liu, founding partner of 5Y Capital, conducted by Run Liu, founder of Runmi Consulting. Some people are simply born to be entrepreneurs. Like fearless explorers, they blaze trails where no paths exist. They may not be understood in the present moment — and it is precisely this lack of understanding that expands the boundaries of humanity, breaking through existing paradigms and the limits of human imagination.
They are rare and precious. What 5Y Capital does is identify them, believe in their wildness and imagination, and support them in turning visions into reality. The you that others see as crazy — starts to be believed. Read more
Agora x 5Y Capital "Supersonic Plan" Entrepreneur Recruitment Opens
Real-time interactive technology is transforming our world, changing how people connect with each other and with the world around them. Last year, Agora's real-time internet entrepreneurship challenge and workshop series, co-hosted with 5Y Capital, received positive feedback from entrepreneurs and investors alike, along with broad interest from the real-time interactive startup community.
This year, Agora is partnering with 5Y Capital and other ecosystem partners to launch the "Supersonic Plan," designed to accelerate the growth of startups in the real-time interactive space. Read more
5Y Capital (formerly Morningside Venture Capital) currently manages approximately $5 billion across USD and RMB dual-currency funds. We believe that if the you that others see as crazy starts to be believed, the world will be a better place.
BEIJING · SHANGHAI · SHENZHEN · HONG KONG
