618 Sales Roundup, World's Smartest Companies... 16 Updates and 7 Insights | FreeS Fund Blackboard · June
Do what's right, not what's easy.
FreeS Fund's June newsletter — sharing the latest updates with our long-standing friends and supporters:
- Singleron Biotechnologies completed a nearly RMB 100 million Pre-A round, with FreeS Fund continuing to participate.
We're also sharing good news from the FreeS family:
- Deep Tech: Xinyi Information's NB-IoT chip XY1100 with CMOS PA passed China Telecom's certification; EFY Intelligent Control reached a strategic partnership with China Mobile; Huawei AI Speaker Mini launched with SoundAI Technology's tech support; Shangyue helped Zhaopin's enterprise procurement mall go live.
- Consumer: Independent sportswear brand "Particle Fever" completed a nearly RMB 100 million Series B round; Three Squirrels, Zhong Xue Gao, and Huasheng Haoche delivered strong 618 results; Shima Chuxing hit record sales in June.
- Education: Onion Math reached a strategic partnership with Weixian County, Hebei.
- Awards: Lightelligence was named to MIT Technology Review's 2019 "50 Smartest Companies" list; DeepCare won second prize at the Yizhuang Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition; Three Squirrels and Huasheng Haoche made the "2019 China's Top 100 New Enterprises" list; Zhong Xue Gao received 7 "Global Top Flavor Awards."
As a young fund, FreeS Fund will continue to stay grounded and forge ahead, while diligently exploring the unknown — always looking forward to encountering innovation and the extraordinary.
FreeS Fund News
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Singleron Biotechnologies Completes Nearly RMB 100 Million Pre-A Round, FreeS Fund Continues to Participate
Singleron Biotechnologies recently raised nearly RMB 100 million in Pre-A funding. The round was led by Sherpa Healthcare Partners, with China Growth Capital and angel-round investors Oriza Seed and FreeS Fund following on.
This funding will help Singleron accelerate the clinical application of its self-developed innovative high-throughput single-cell sequencing technology, including development and commercialization of new products such as automated instruments, clinical testing laboratory construction, single-cell clinical database development, and sales team and channel expansion.
Founded in January 2018, Singleron is dedicated to developing simple and reliable high-throughput single-cell omics technologies to become a new generation of molecular diagnostic tools, enabling single-cell omics to serve precision medicine and health management with accuracy, sensitivity, and resolution that traditional methods cannot match. (See: [Sequencing China] Quick News! Singleron Biotechnologies Completes Nearly RMB 100 Million Pre-A Round, Accelerating Development and Clinical Application of High-Throughput Single-Cell Sequencing Products)
FreeS Fund Perspectives
▍Li Feng: Nearly every industry's technological development goes through mechanization, automation, datafication, and finally intelligence
What's the simple law of commercial technological development? I break it down into four parts: the first is mechanization; after mechanization comes the second stage, automation; after automation, the third stage is datafication — this is what's most relevant to today's hot topics, whether chips, edge computing, sensors, or IoT; datafication finally transitions to the fourth stage, intelligence, which we most typically understand as the AI-related discussions we have today.
Nearly every industry's technological development goes through mechanization, automation, datafication, and finally intelligence. (See: [Dedao] Where Will the Next "Google" Be Born?)
▍Shen Jiong: The STAR Market's removal of profitability requirements encourages technological innovation
Capital's role in the market is to allocate resources efficiently. The capital market acts like a conductor's baton, representing national policy's attitude toward commercializing scientific research.
The country is increasingly encouraging technological innovation. Last year, the CSRC and SSE launched the STAR Market — a weathervane and indicator. In January this year, the STAR Market draft proposal basically removed profitability requirements for listed companies. This is a very important shift.
In the past, IPOs and M&A both had profitability requirements, which to some extent suppressed the transformation of scientific achievements. Because we all know that the vast majority of research outcomes are unlikely to become profitable in a short time. After the STAR Market launched, the CSRC continuously introduced new policies with diverse and inclusive listing conditions — such as the removal of profitability requirements I just mentioned — which in turn encourages the transformation of scientific achievements and encourages researchers to actively start businesses. This is the role that capital and capital markets can play in supporting and driving innovation. (Source: Shen Jiong's speech at the Creative Qingdao Conference Parallel Session — Technology-Led City Building Conference)
▍Huang Hai: Content output can form strong consumer brand recognition
For consumer companies, the current high-quality customer acquisition method must shift to "content thinking," with particular emphasis on short-form video content.
At this stage, seeing a product and liking a brand have become increasingly separate — mere exposure is easily forgotten by consumers, because they encounter massive amounts of information daily, and your exposure easily becomes a fleeting moment. Brand marketing no longer equals attracting consumers with a slogan or a story, but rather requires creating distinctive content that reflects your brand's character, combining with consumer demands in inventive ways.
The creation and output of content has become a new core capability for consumer goods companies because in this era of information overload, it can create consumer cognition, memory, and preference for brands. (See: [FreeS Fund] Breaking Through for Startup Brands: From Traffic Thinking to Content Thinking | Frees Fund)
**▍Ma Rui: Waste sorting needs to promote environmental methods to more people the way coffee was promoted
Sanitation is a bigger market than environmental protection — if you can capture part of sanitation, that's also big business. If you include kitchen waste, kitchen waste processing is also a billion-RMB business within the environmental industry. All entrepreneurial opportunities combined essentially mean rebuilding the entire chain from scratch. Right now everyone is emotionally charged, but most haven't thought too clearly about exactly how to do it.
It's essentially a branding business — you need to promote environmental methods to more people the way coffee was promoted, and whoever builds the brand first has the advantage. The waste sorting industry requires long-term brand building, which is why many startups aren't too keen on entering from the waste sorting angle. (See: [Ran Caijing] "Garbage" Entrepreneurship, the Next Windfall?)
FreeS Family Updates
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Consumer | Independent Sportswear Brand "Particle Fever" Completes Nearly RMB 100 Million Series B
Recently, independent sportswear brand "Particle Fever" (hereinafter "PF") announced the completion of a nearly RMB 100 million Series B round, led by CCV with follow-on from Qingliu Capital and Shengwan Culture, and Qingtong Capital serving as exclusive financial advisor. Previously, PF received investment from FreeS Fund, Sharing Capital, Proxima Ventures, PreAngel, and other institutions. Founder "Ren Jiujin" stated that funding will be used for business expansion, team building, and product R&D.
Founded in October 2015, Particle Fever emerged from Ren Jiujin's passion for fitness and art. The Harvard graduate pulled together two other partners: Lin Hai, who graduated from Parsons School of Design, and Renata, who similarly loves sports and excels at skiing and cycling — together they created PF as a "sportswear laboratory."
Why a laboratory? Ren Jiujin explained that from the perspectives of craft and aesthetics, they rethink sportswear style. To describe PF's style: avoiding blind conformity to mass trends, rejecting meaningless labels, and from diverse perspectives of art, technology, and culture, practicing avant-garde projects related to all things sportswear. (See: [36Kr] Independent Sportswear Brand "Particle Fever" Completes Nearly RMB 100 Million Series B, May Open Overseas Stores Next Year | Early Stage Watch)
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Consumer | Three Squirrels, Zhong Xue Gao, Huasheng Haoche 618 Results Roundup
During the recently concluded 6.18 shopping festival, Three Squirrels achieved RMB 228 million in omni-channel sales, ranking first in its category; Huasheng Haoche closed with an impressive 4,374 vehicles sold, earning Tmall's top spot in new car/used car sales; Zhong Xue Gao sold nearly 2 million ice cream bars, surpassing last year's full-day sales within 3 minutes of 618's opening, with year-over-year sales growth of 535.02% compared to 2018.
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Consumer | Shima Chuxing's New Energy Vehicle Sales Exceeded 6,500 Units in June
In June, Shima Chuxing held product training sessions in Luohe, Henan; Tai'an, Shandong; and Nanchang, Jiangxi. Total new energy vehicle sales surpassed 6,500 units.
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Deep Tech | Xinyi Information's CMOS PA-Integrated NB-IoT Chip XY1100 Passes China Telecom Certification
Xinyi Information Technology's NB-IoT SoC XY1100 has successfully completed all test items for China Telecom's NB-IoT chip certification and officially passed.
This marks the first time globally that a modem chip vendor has achieved carrier certification for an SoC with a single-die, full-band CMOS PA integration. With a product now in commercial deployment, Xinyi Information Technology has not only demonstrated to the industry that the technical bottlenecks of CMOS PA integration have been overcome, but also proven that commercially available SoCs with integrated CMOS PA fully meet market requirements for chip commercialization. (Full report: [Xinyi Information Technology] Xinyi Information's XY1100, the World's First NB-IoT Chip with Integrated CMOS PA, Successfully Passes China Telecom Certification!)
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Deep Tech | EHang Intelligent Control and China Mobile Form Strategic Partnership
From June 20 to 22, 2019, at the 2019 World UAV Congress and 4th Shenzhen International UAV Exhibition, China Mobile (Chengdu) Industrial Research Institute (hereinafter "CMRI Chengdu") and industrial drone leader EHang Intelligent Control held a strategic partnership signing ceremony focused on 5G-enabled drone applications and the convergence of drone informatization with mobile data.
Zhou Jian, Director of Drone R&D and Operations at CMRI Chengdu, and Qi Juntong, Founder of EHang Intelligent Control, attended the signing. Going forward, both parties will leverage their respective strengths to jointly build a 5G drone industry chain and accelerate the commercialization of 5G drones. (Full report: [HiKr Infinite] China Mobile Partners with EHang Intelligent Control to Lead 5G Drone Development)
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Deep Tech | Huawei AI Speaker Mini Launches with SoundAI Technology
On June 28, the Huawei AI Speaker Mini went on sale simultaneously online and offline. As the smart home era arrives, voice-interactive smart home products — smart speakers especially — are gaining increasing consumer favor.
The Huawei AI Speaker Mini adopts SoundAI's latest Opendenoise far-field acoustic software, built on a customized 6-microphone ring array with proprietary far-field speech recognition and wake-word technologies to deliver seamless intelligent interaction. (Full report: [SoundAI] Compact Huawei AI Speaker Mini Debuts with SoundAI's Latest Technology Enhancing Noise Resistance)
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Deep Tech | Shangyue Helps Zhaopin Enterprise Procurement Mall Go Live
On June 28, Zhaopin held a launch celebration for its digital procurement platform at its offices. Miao Feng, Founder and CEO of Shangyue; Cheng Jin, VP of Zhaopin Group; and Sun Chuanyu, Director of the President's Office, were among the attendees. The event marked the official completion of Zhaopin's procurement mall, which now supports daily operations for over 30 Zhaopin offices nationwide and more than 7,000 employees.
The core goal of this procurement mall build was to deliver an optimal purchasing experience for Zhaopin employees, covering the full procurement workflow from budget control, curated catalog selection, requisition, purchase orders, order management, receipt management, and review management. Zhaopin partnered with Shangyue to complete its digital procurement transformation. (Full report: [Shangyue] Shangyue Helps Zhaopin Enterprise Procurement Mall Successfully Launch, Entering the Digital Procurement Era)
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Education | Onion Math Forms Strategic Partnership with Wei County, Hebei
On June 18, edtech company Onion Math and the Wei County Education Bureau in Hebei Province reached a strategic partnership on a smart math education initiative for the county.
Over the next two years, Onion Math and Higher Education Press's Teacher Development Center will provide smart teaching platforms, intelligent teaching resources, and teacher development services to 800 math teachers across 84 primary and secondary schools in Wei County, advancing comprehensive educational informatization through smart education.
Wei County government officials Weng Naixia and Wang Bingming, Education Bureau Director Yin Wensheng, and Onion Math CEO Yang Linfeng attended the signing ceremony. Representatives from both sides signed the strategic agreement and held discussions with math teacher representatives from Wei County. (Full report: [Onion Math] Building Smart Math Education Together: Hebei Wei County and Onion Math Form Strategic Partnership)
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FreeS Fund Portfolio Companies in the News
▍Lightelligence Named to MIT Technology Review's 2019 "50 Smartest Companies" List
On June 29, the century-old MIT Technology Review unveiled its 2019 "50 Smartest Companies" (TR50) list in Hangzhou. Founded in 1899, the publication's TR50 list is approaching its 10th anniversary.
This year's list drew particular attention as it was the first ever curated around the concept of "China as a fulcrum." Lightelligence made the cut alongside tech giants including Huawei, TSMC, Tencent, Xilinx, Intel, and Tesla.
Lightelligence's award citation:
Successfully developed the world's first photonic chip prototype board, and used it to run the convolutional neural network model from Google TensorFlow on the MNIST dataset, with over 95% of the model's computations performed on the photonic chip.
Key figure: 1% — the photonic chip's processing accuracy has neared that of electronic chips (above 97%), while the time required for matrix multiplication is within 1% of the most advanced electronic chips. (Full report: [deeptech] MIT Technology Review's 50 Smartest Companies List Officially Released! Century-Old Magazine First Spotlights "China Strength")
▍DeepCare Wins Second Prize at Yizhuang Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition
The finals of the 5th Yizhuang Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition recently concluded at the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Global Roadshow Center. DeepCare stood out from 816 competing innovative enterprises to win second prize.
This year's competition focused on internationalization, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration, and industrial innovation, under the theme "Linking Three Cities, Creating in Yizhuang." It comprised seven sectoral tracks: AI, healthcare, medical devices, tech services, internet, electronics and information, and new energy/new materials. (Full report: [DeepCare] DeepCare Wins Second Prize at Yizhuang Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition)
▍Three Squirrels and Huasheng Haoche Named to 2019 China's Top 100 New Enterprises
In the recently released 2019 China's Top 100 New Enterprises list by Internet Weekly and eNet Research Institute, both Three Squirrels and Huasheng Haoche were selected. (Full report: [Internet Weekly] 2019 China's Top 100 New Enterprises)
▍Zhong Xue Gao Wins 7 "Global Top Flavor Medals"
On June 24 in Brussels, over 100 Michelin-starred chefs conducted blind tastings to select the 2019 "Global Top Flavor" awards. Zhong Xue Gao took home seven medals.
FreeS Fund Perspectives
▍Yang Linfeng, Onion Math: Edtech Apps Should Stay True to Educational Values and Empower Classroom Innovation
School-based learning apps have only two core purposes: helping teachers teach better and helping students learn better. Anything unrelated to these goals is not value that learning products should provide.
The entire industry should bring together technologists and educators to meet the needs of schools, teachers, and parents, return to its core mission in R&D, and channel all intellectual resources, critical thinking, and innovative capacity toward the right path — accelerating the development of educational informatization and modernization.
If a company fails at its core mission and instead resorts to other tactics to boost user stickiness or frequency of use, it contradicts the very purpose of education and will find no room to survive within the industry or the broader value chain. (Full report: [Future Network] Onion Math's Yang Linfeng: Edtech Apps Should Stay True to Educational Values and Empower Classroom Innovation)
▍Lin Sheng, Zhong Xue Gao: Quality and Restraint Are What Matter Most in the Ice Cream Business
Quality and restraint — that's what matters most in making ice cream work as a business. Going viral is an unavoidable stage on the path to becoming a brand; it takes patience, and virality without substance is just empty hype. China's ice cream market isn't short of viral hits; we want to move through that phase as quickly as possible and become "evergreen."
The upgrade of ice cream has only just begun. The key is whether producers have the capability to create higher-quality products that justify a premium in consumers' minds. The more players who commit to high-quality production, the more the entire industry will advance. Otherwise, cost-cutting price wars will only create a vicious cycle that pushes consumers further away. (Full report: [Ran Caijing] How to Build a Viral Ice Cream Brand?)
▍Wang Jianchao, Aoben Environmental: Shortening the Middlemen in Traditional Recycling to Make Waste Sorting a User-Driven Behavior
When it came to waste sorting, residents used to have two problems: they didn't know what to do, and even if they did, there was no channel nearby — their efforts seemed pointless. Aoben exists to solve both.
Aoben's model works like this: it provides eco-bags to residents who already have environmental awareness. Users sort their waste into 14 categories according to Aoben's definitions, then drop the bags at the nearest self-service collection point, co-built with their community. After backend sorting and weighing, the money goes straight back to the user.
Compared with traditional models, this eliminates two rounds of weighing and settlement upfront. And because waste sorting becomes a spontaneous user behavior, labor costs are reduced too. (Full report: [Ran Caijing] "Trash" Startups — The Next Big Thing?)
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