From Cracking the New Consumption Top 10 to New Frontiers in Intelligent Manufacturing and Green Healthcare | FreeS Fund Blackboard · October

峰瑞资本·October 27, 2017

Investing is also a form of entrepreneurship — may we make the most of our time.

The October issue of the FreeS Fund newsletter — here's what's new with us, for friends who've been following and supporting us:

SoundAI closed a nearly RMB 100 million Series A round, with FreeS Fund continuing to participate.
Baichanghui closed its Series B round, with FreeS Fund continuing to participate.
FreeS Fund ranked among 36Kr's Top 10 VC firms in China's new consumer sector, with founding partner Li Feng named one of the top 10 investors in the space, and VP Huang Hai recognized as Most Insightful Investor.

Some updates from our portfolio companies:

Kunshan Meimiao Environmental Protection won the grand championship at the 2017 Environmental Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition.
IceKredit and XtalPi were named among China's Top 50 Most Investment-Worthy Enterprises.
Huasheng Auto ranked among the Top 100 Most Promising New Retail Tech Companies of 2017.

As a young fund, FreeS Fund will keep our heads down and push forward, staying curious about the unknown — always looking to meet innovation and the extraordinary.

FreeS Fund News

1

FreeS Fund continues to back SoundAI in Series A

On October 27, 2017, SoundAI, an AI-powered voice interaction technology company, announced it had completed a nearly RMB 100 million Series A round in September. The round was led by Baidu, Linekong Interactive, Hongtai APlus, and FreeS Fund as financial investors, with Bank of Beijing participating through an investment-loan linkage model.

Founded in April 2016, SoundAI's core team hails from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The company focuses on acoustic technology and AI-powered voice interaction, providing turnkey solutions spanning software, hardware, and cloud services for far-field voice interaction, as well as chip modules, PCBA, and industrial design. FreeS Fund, which participated in SoundAI's angel and pre-A rounds in 2016, continued to back the company in this round.

The funding will accelerate SoundAI's R&D in core AI technologies, improve user experience for far-field voice interaction products, expand into more vertical scenarios for voice intelligence, and serve more brand and SME customers.

From the Investor

Li Feng, Founding Partner, FreeS Fund

Email: feng@freesvc.com

Voice recognition is the gateway to intelligent interaction, and on-device voice recognition is a critical direction for its development.

When we invested in SoundAI in 2016, we were already convinced of the technical edge that Xiaoliang Chen's team had built on the device side. Over the past year, the team has made continuous breakthroughs in remote sound pickup and noise suppression by combining microphone arrays, noise reduction algorithms, and hardware platform configurations — enabling devices to deliver solid voice interaction performance across different environments.

SoundAI's timing couldn't be better. In the first half of 2017, China's smart speaker market took off, and demand for voice interaction technology surged. This accelerated SoundAI's business progress and brought them key partnerships with Baidu, Xiaomi, and others.

Going forward, as the number of connected, always-online smart devices continues to grow, market demand for voice interaction technology will only intensify. We remain bullish on teams and companies with technical advantages in voice interaction, and those capable of computing and data processing on the device side.

2

FreeS Fund continues to back Baichanghui in Series B

On October 11, 2017, Baichanghui, a platform for offline event venues and activity solutions, announced it had completed a RMB 70 million Series B round. The round was led by Kaixin Investment, Zhaopin founder Liu Hao, and other institutions and individuals, with FreeS Fund continuing to participate after backing the company's Series A.

The funding will focus on helping venue owners grow, and promoting standardization and scale in the industry. Baichanghui's total funding raised to date has exceeded RMB 100 million.

From the Investor

Huang Hai, VP, FreeS Fund

Email: hai@freesvc.com

From a business perspective, two forces are driving Baichanghui's growth: first, young consumers are increasingly seeking more interesting, personalized ways to gather, moving away from traditional formats like restaurant dinners and KTV; second, enterprise clients are trending smaller in scale. Unlike larger companies that prefer hosting press conferences and meetings at star-rated hotels, SMEs lean toward more distinctive venue choices.

In terms of team capabilities, Baichanghui is well-positioned to meet these needs. Co-founder and CEO Shen Wei and core team members previously served as executives at eLong. We believe their experience battling in the OTA red ocean will help Baichanghui stand out in the offline event venue space — a model similar to OTA, but with gentler competition.

3

FreeS Fund named among 36Kr's Top 10 VC firms in China's new consumer sector

New consumer brands are among the most watched and most funded sectors. On October 27, 36Kr released its rankings of Top 10 VC firms, Top 10 investors, and Most Insightful Investors in China's new consumer sector. FreeS Fund made the Top 10 VC firms list.

36Kr's citation: From its founding, FreeS Fund identified the opportunity in consumption upgrade. Its investment in Uber Global demonstrated the firm's precise judgment and decisive style, becoming its first heavyweight move. Since then, FreeS Fund has continued to dig deep into consumer brand investments, tapping into consumers' emotional attachment to brands, and backing brand IPs like Three Squirrels and Guancha. In the new consumer sector, FreeS Fund seeks out energetic entrepreneurs and faces a generation of confident new consumers — unapologetically leading the charge in investment.

Meanwhile, FreeS Fund founding partner Li Feng was named among China's Top 10 investors in the new consumer sector; FreeS Fund VP Huang Hai was recognized as Most Insightful Investor in China's new consumer sector.

4

FreeS Fund founding partner Li Feng named to "2017 China's Top Investors" Top 50

On October 17, the "2017 China's Top Investors Top 50" list was unveiled, with FreeS Fund founding partner Li Feng recognized. The selection was jointly organized by Sina Finance, Sina Tech, Jiemian, and China Business News. A total of 113 tech sector investors participated, with the final list curated by 100 star enterprise leaders including Focus Media chairman and CEO Jason Jiang and 58.com CEO Michael Yao, along with 15 media opinion leaders.

Read more: [Sina Tech] 2017 China's Top Investors Top 50 officially released

5

FreeS Fund founding partner Li Feng named to "2017 AI Sector Investors" Top 20

AI is not only a battlefield for internet giants, but also a stage where entrepreneurs can unleash their innovative power. On October 12, the "2017 AI Sector Top 20 Investors" list was unveiled at the 2017 Hangzhou Yunqi Conference sub-forum — Alibaba Innovation and Entrepreneurship Annual Summit, with FreeS Fund founding partner Li Feng recognized. The selection was co-launched by Alibaba Entrepreneurship University, iYiou, and Weilian, aiming to honor those who have truly delved deep into AI, played a key role in advancing the industry, and are "investing in the future."

Read more: [iYiou] China's AI Investors Top 20 special documentary "Watching Over AI"

Portfolio Updates

1

"2017 Environmental Innovation Annual Summit & 3rd Environmental Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition" concludes, Kunshan Meimiao Environmental Protection wins grand championship

On October 25, the "Discovering Hidden Unicorns in Environmental Sub-sectors — 2017 Environmental Innovation Annual Summit & 3rd Environmental Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Finals" concluded in Beijing. This year's competition was guided by the Ministry of Science and Technology's Department of Social Development and Jiangsu Provincial Department of Science and Technology, and co-hosted by the Yixing Environmental Protection Science and Technology Industrial Park, Chuangye Heima, and the Ministry of Environmental Protection's Foreign Environmental Cooperation Center.

Among hundreds of applicants, FreeS Fund portfolio company Kunshan Meimiao Environmental Protection stood out to win the grand championship. The company specializes in treating and recycling ink wastewater, using electrocatalytic hydrogen peroxide to generate hydroxyl radicals, providing advanced oxidation technology with no solid waste and low cost — a significant technical advantage.

2

"China's Top 50 Most Investment-Worthy Enterprises" unveiled, IceKredit and XtalPi make the list

On October 26, the 2017 "China's Top 50 Most Investment-Worthy Enterprises" list was unveiled at the "2017 V Wulin Conference," with FreeS Fund portfolio companies IceKredit and XtalPi recognized. The selection was co-launched by Zero2IPO, PEDaily, and NewSeed. As China's first enterprise ranking from an investment perspective, the list has accompanied the country's equity investment market for twelve years, becoming the most authoritative reference for evaluating high-growth enterprise investments and a barometer for the year's most promising companies.

3

"2017 China's Top 100 Most Promising New Retail Tech Companies" unveiled, Huasheng Auto ranks 19th

On October 17, the "2017 China's Top 100 Most Promising New Retail Tech Companies" list was unveiled, with FreeS Fund portfolio company Huasheng Auto recognized at 19th place. The list was selected and published by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Internet Weekly, using comprehensive metrics including brand influence, scale, funding/valuation, and market share. Notable companies on the list included JD.com, VIP.com, Uniqlo, and Xiaomi. Huasheng Auto was the only auto industry company recognized in the new retail category.

▲ With the holiday approaching, we want to share 6 pieces of good news | FreeS Fund Newsletter · September