July: Seeking Vast Possibilities | 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 involving 5Y and our portfolio companies, sharing it with friends who follow us in the hope of giving you a deeper understanding of who we are.
01 Portfolio Company Highlights
Major news about funding rounds, IPOs, strategic partnerships, breakthroughs, and new product launches from 5Y portfolio companies.
02 5Y Capital Updates
News about honors, investor interviews, and thought leadership from 5Y.
Note: Companies are listed in alphabetical order by pinyin.
01
Portfolio Company Highlights
Axbio Closes Nearly $100 Million Series B
Fourth-generation sequencing company Axbio announced in June that it had closed a nearly $100 million Series B round. This follows its Series A+ in October 2021, bringing its total raised to over $100 million. The round was co-led by AstraZeneca-CICC Healthcare Industry Fund and Yunfeng Capital, with CBC Group, SDIC Venture Capital, and 5Y Capital among the participants. The funding will go toward further optimization of Axbio's sequencing technology, construction of a sequencer production base, and commercial expansion — accelerating iteration of its fourth-generation sequencing tech and its path to industrialization. 5Y Capital led Axbio's Series A+ round in October 2021. Read More
Cashify Closes $90 Million Series E
Indian used electronics marketplace Cashify announced in June that it had raised $90 million in a Series E round led by NewQuest and Prosus (the investment arm of South Africa's Naspers Group). Participants included Bessemer Venture Partners, Blume Ventures, Olympus Capital, and Paramark Ventures. The round brings Cashify's total funding to over $130 million. 5Y Capital led Cashify's Series C round in 2018. Read More
Desty Closes New Funding Round
Indonesian e-commerce solutions provider Desty announced in June that it had closed a new round led by Square Peg. This follows its $3.2 million Pre-A and $5 million Pre-A+ rounds in 2021. 5Y Capital led Desty's $3.2 million Pre-A round. Founded in 2020 by Mulyono Xu and Bill Wang, both formerly with Alibaba's international business, Desty offers Indonesian merchants an integrated product platform with a full suite of digital tools for running their businesses. The company has served nearly one million Indonesian merchants across online sellers, offline restaurant chains, and other formats. Read More
Horizon Robotics Unveils China's First Integrated Hardware-Software Robot Development Platform
On June 14, Horizon Robotics, a global leader in edge AI computing platforms, held its "Hello Hobot" online launch event for the Horizon Hobot Platform — China's first open, easy-to-use, integrated hardware-software robot development platform. Addressing key pain points in robot development, the platform provides developers with a complete set of robot development services spanning underlying compute, development tools, and algorithm case studies, effectively improving development efficiency and driving industry growth and prosperity. Read More
HAI ROBOTICS Closes Over $100 Million Series D+
HAI ROBOTICS announced in June that it had raised over $100 million in a Series D+ round led by Capital Today, with a top-tier dollar fund and existing shareholders including 5Y Capital, Source Code Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Zero2IPO Ventures participating. This marks the company's third funding round in 12 months. The capital will be used for R&D of warehouse logistics robot systems and global business expansion, bringing more efficient, intelligent, and flexible products to put robots in every warehouse and address labor shortages and the challenges of an aging population. Read More
Helixon Closes Nearly RMB 500 Million Series A
Helixon announced in June that it had raised nearly RMB 500 million in a Series A round led by 5Y Capital, with Gaorong Capital and three angel-round investors — Xiang He Capital, Hillhouse, and Tsingzhi Capital — participating. Helixon will continue to deepen its work in AI-driven new drug development, expanding its team and business development, enhancing AI high-performance computing capabilities, building out high-throughput experimental platforms, and advancing both proprietary pipeline development and external partnerships. Read More
Kingsoft Office and Actionsoft Enter Strategic Partnership
On June 9, Beijing Kingsoft Office Software and Beijing Actionsoft Technology officially launched their strategic ecosystem partnership. Kingsoft Office's enterprise product ecosystem will support integration with Actionsoft's full product line, with Kingsoft Office committed to providing customers with more comprehensive, complete, and flexible digital office solutions. This builds on Kingsoft Office's investment in Actionsoft last September, representing a further step in product and ecosystem collaboration between the two companies. Read More
Kuaishou and Insta360 Enter Deep Cooperation in Panoramic Video
On June 29, Kuaishou (01024.HK) announced a series of deep cooperation initiatives with Insta360 in the panoramic video space. Users shooting panoramic video or livestreaming with Insta360 cameras can now publish VR panoramic works to Kuaishou with one click. The two companies are also continuously refining panoramic imaging capture and playback technology, working to deliver highly immersive sensory and interactive experiences for users. Read More
PingCAP Partners with Alibaba Cloud
On June 15, enterprise open-source distributed database company PingCAP announced a partnership with Alibaba Cloud. Cloud Database TiDB, combining the technical strengths of both parties, is now officially available on Alibaba Cloud's curated marketplace, bringing Chinese enterprise users a next-generation cloud HTAP database experience. Cloud Database TiDB delivers OLTP scalability and real-time HTAP capabilities, driving business innovation and high-speed growth across financial services, telecommunications, e-commerce, logistics, SaaS, gaming, manufacturing, energy, and public sectors through one-stop real-time data services — an ideal choice for MySQL and TiDB users migrating to the cloud. Read More
ShareChat Closes New Funding Round
Indian social media platform ShareChat and short video platform Moj's parent company, Mohalla Tech, recently announced a new $255 million funding round with participants including Google, Temasek, and Times Internet. Mohalla Tech is now valued at $5 billion, making it one of India's highest-valued internet companies. 5Y Capital participated in its Series C and D rounds in 2018 and 2019. Read More
XYZ Robotics Closes Series B+
XYZ Robotics announced in June that it had raised nearly $40 million in a Series B+ round led by Capital Today, with Gaorong Capital, 5Y Capital, and Source Code Capital participating. The company has now raised over $100 million in total. Since its founding in June 2018, XYZ Robotics has remained focused on providing industrial 3D vision products (including teach-free motion planning), logistics piece-picking, and mixed-case depalletizing workstations for logistics and manufacturing customers. Building on three core technical strengths — 3D vision algorithms and sensor design, motion planning algorithms, and no-code user-friendly interfaces — the team has continuously refined its "hand-eye coordination" technology through real-world deployments, enabling system integrators to deliver smarter robotic products that truly reduce costs and improve efficiency. Read More
Multiple 5Y Portfolio Founders Named to Fortune China 40 Under 40
Fortune magazine announced its 2022 China 40 Under 40 Business Elite list in June, with multiple founders from 5Y portfolio companies making the cut — Yingqi Wang, founder and CEO of ONES; Yan Tan, co-founder and CEO of Unknown; Weiqiang Huang, founder and CEO of LI RAN; Jilong Zhou, founder and CEO of YunYou Freight; and Wenfeng Sang, founder and CEO of Sensors Data. Read More
5Y Capital Updates
5Y Capital Wins Multiple Awards from 36kr
In June, 36kr announced its 2022 Most Entrepreneur-Friendly Investors/Investment Institutions rankings. 36kr's venture capital research arm conducted extensive surveys with founders about their "ideal investor" profiles in June, selecting the year's most entrepreneur-friendly institutions and investors. 5Y Capital was named #4 on the "Most Entrepreneur-Friendly VC Firms" list and #10 on the "Most Influential VC Firms" list. 5Y Capital founding partner Qin Liu and partner Fei Zhang were both named "Most Entrepreneur-Friendly Investors." Read More
5Y Capital's Kai Liu: Focus on the Underlying Variables of Technology, Make Bold Hypotheses and Carefully Verify | Riding the Wave: Young Partners
TMTpost released its H1 2022 Investment Institution Pioneer Rankings in June. 5Y Capital was named to four lists: "Top 10 VC Firms — Investment Pioneer," "Top 10 VC Firms — Post-Investment Management Pioneer," "Top 10 VC Firms — Exit Pioneer," and "Top 10 Investment Pioneers in China's Healthcare Sector." 5Y Capital partner Kai Liu was named to the "Top 10 Young Partners" list.
TMTpost Venture also launched a "Riding the Wave: Young Partners" special feature, inviting ten award-winning young partners to discuss shifts in investment direction and new opportunities for Chinese venture capital in the second half of 2022. In the conversation, Kai Liu shared his observations on the enterprise services market: "While short-term market volatility is significant, China's fundamentals remain strong. We continue to focus on the underlying variables of technology." He added: "5Y Capital has very different expectations for founders. We want entrepreneurs who can think long-term, with entrepreneurial spirit, leadership, and a capacity for continuous learning." Read More
From Technology to Business: New Possibilities from ITBT | 5Y Talk
Life science is about health and disease, and about everyone's future. The journey from lab to industry involves long cycles of trial and error, and entrepreneurs in this space are exploring different niches. As one of the earliest investment firms to explore the ITBT space, we've discovered and supported many entrepreneurs in digital drug discovery over the years. From technology to business, from innovation to market, they've made even more breakthroughs this year.
In June, 5Y Capital co-hosted a roundtable with VB Data titled "The Road to ITBT Commercialization: Technology and the Future." 5Y Capital managing director Xutian Jing joined five portfolio company founders — Hang Chen, co-founder and CEO of Neox Biotech; Caida Lai, co-founder and CEO of METiS Pharmaceuticals; Yuchong Wang, founder and CEO of CellX Biosciences; Shubao Wen, co-founder and chairman of XtalPi; and Wen Wen, founder and CEO of TransThera Biosciences — to share progress in their respective fields and their visions for the future. Read More
5Y Capital x Synced: Stanford AI Index 2022 Annual Report Deep Dive
Stanford University's One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100) officially released its fifth AI Index report in March 2022. Compared with previous editions, this report incorporates data from a broader range of academic, private, and nonprofit organizations, with more original analysis based on self-collected data. On June 22, 5Y Capital partnered with Synced — the exclusive Chinese-language partner for the AI Index — to host an online event featuring the Stanford HAI research team delivering an official China-focused interpretation via livestream. Read More
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