Huasheng Haoche

Huasheng Haoche (花生好车) is a Chinese "auto new retail" platform founded in June 2015, entering the market through new-car direct leasing with self-built, directly operated stores aimed at lower-tier (third-to-fifth-tier) cities, per FreeS Fund's reporting . FreeS Fund backed it at the angel round, followed by a strategic Series A from JD Finance, and an October 2018 Series B of $210 million led by Crescent Point with Goldman Sachs participating — at which point it was framed as a new retail unicorn, with FreeS following on . By October 2018 it ran roughly 400 directly operated stores across 350+ cities — described as the country's largest directly operated auto retail chain — with founder Ma Xiaojun saying the new capital would go toward store expansion, operating efficiency, and incubating new businesses . Its model pairs leasing with financial partnerships: rent-installment products with banks including ICBC, Bank of China, and Minsheng, a RMB 1 billion leasing cooperation with Minsheng Financial Leasing signed in late 2017, and online storefronts on Tmall and JD . Co-founder Chen Pengyun has argued the longer-term opportunity lies in after-sales services — maintenance, repairs, insurance renewals — that the multi-year lease relationship opens up . Note this picture rests on 2017–2019 coverage; elsewhere's corpus has nothing more recent on the company.