PingCAP
PingCAP is an enterprise open-source distributed database company founded in 2015 by Liu Qi (co-founder & CEO), Huang Dongxu, and Cui Qiu, all formerly of Wandoujia, built around a single product: TiDB, an open-source distributed relational database with horizontal scalability, distributed transactions, and real-time HTAP . True to its "born global" ethos — open-source from day one and zero revenue until Series B — it went from 10,000+ GitHub stars and early adopters like Mobike in 2017 to a $270 million Series D in 2020, described by 5Y Capital as a new milestone in global database history . As of mid-2024 reporting, TiDB runs core systems in Chinese banks, insurers, and securities firms, added nearly a hundred paying customers across the US, Japan, India, and Southeast Asia in 2023, and was named a Gartner Peer Insights "Customers' Choice" — the only Chinese vendor so recognized — while TiDB Cloud expanded into vector search for AI applications . Along the way it has lined up cloud partnerships with Alibaba Cloud, Kingsoft Cloud, and AWS as its preferred cloud provider, with backers including Yunqi Capital (which led its 2016 Series A), 5Y Capital, and FreeS Fund .
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Coverage
Vol.19 Scaling Isn't Just About Stacking Data: Three Embodied AI Founders on World Models, Talent, and Real-World Deployment
Yu Chen on Tech Investing: Beneath the Hype, What Is Long-Term Value? | Yunqi Insights
Finding the Constant in Change
Yunqi Capital Quarterly Q2 | In the Height of Summer, the Future Takes on More Concrete Shapes
A Quick Update on Yunqi Capital
Deep Dive into Open-Source Commercialization: AI Is Rewriting the Value Logic | Yunqi Insights
Co-published the open source report for four consecutive years
Vol.17 48-Hour Xiaohongshu Hackathon Hit: How an AI Native Product Broke the 'Retention Curse'
Vol.16 Tsinghua Entrepreneur-Scientist Huazhe Xu: From Intelligent "Hatching" to Home Embodiment, Stubbornly Chasing Originality in the AI Wave
Yunqi Capital Quarterly Q1 | Keep Moving Forward, Answers Lie Ahead
A Quick Look at Yunqi Capital's Latest
Vol.15: The Post-'98 Founder Who Built a $20M Business in Two Years — On Building an AI That Talks Back | A Conversation with Kicker's Founder
The Lobster Farmers Have Already Started Rebuilding the World | Yunqi Capital X MiniMax OpenClaw Meetup Recap
What Is Agent Actually Changing?
Piecing Together the First Fragments of the OpenClaw Ecosystem | A Yunqi Portfolio Company "Shrimp Catching" Chronicle
Claiming a Spot in the Crayfish Ecosystem
MaHui Entrepreneur | Meshy AI Founder Ethan Yuanming Hu: When 10 AI Agents Took Over My Job, I Finally Became a Real CEO
The scariest part is, AI is accelerating its own rate of iteration, taking off at a speed humans can't match.
Congratulations to Yunqi Capital portfolio company *MiniMax* on its successful listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange! | Yunqi Capital
Never Stop Moving, Witnessing Growth
Moving Forward Together! Chen Yu Promoted to Managing Partner at Yunqi Capital | Yunqi Team
Marching forward side by side, continuing to rise.
Congratulations to JD Industrials on Its Successful Hong Kong Stock Exchange Listing | Yunqi Capital
Technology-enabled, with a promising future ahead.
Yunqi Capital Quarterly | Upward, the Consistent Answer
New Growth, New Gains
Talking Shop in a Bubble: How We Accidentally Threw a "Stand-Up Comedy" Show | Attent!on AI Open Source Night
Unfiltered Thoughts on AI Open Source from the Front Lines
Yunqi Capital x OpenAtom Foundation *China Open Source Development Deep-Dive Report* Officially Released
What's Next for Open Source
From Hedge Fund to AI Startup Frontlines: A Conversation with Du Zhiheng on Rebuilding the "Information Superhighway" for Agents | Yunqi Capital Attent!on Podcast
**The "last mile" of search engines is being rebuilt.**
Vol.09 How Should Search Engines Work in the Agent Era? A Conversation with Yu Chen and Zhiheng Du on AI "New Infrastructure"
Come to AGI Bar and Hang with the Open-Source Crowd | Attent!on Onsite: Open-Source AI Night Talk
Drink the froth, talk some real stuff 🍻
Walking Through the Heat, Gathering Along the Way | Yunqi Capital Quarterly
Yunqi Capital Q2 Good News
Manycore Tech's Huang Xiaohuang: The "Hammer" and the "Stars" of 14 Years Building a Company | Yunqi Capital Doers
From GPU Rendering to Spatial Intelligence
Creating Agents with Agents? A Conversation with Yunqi Capital's Chen Yu and Creao AI's Cheng Kai on the New Agent Tech Ecosystem | Yunqi Attent!on Podcast
Manus and Genspark's rapid rise to prominence have made Agent one of the most anticipated AI application formats for the general public in 2025. Meanwhile, the Agent development ecosystem has entered a stage of stronger compatibility and easier deployment, driven by new frameworks such as MCP and Agent-to-Agent.
Vol.08 Creating Agents with Agents? A Chat with Yunqi Capital's Chen Yu and Creao AI's Kai Cheng on the New Agent Infra Ecosystem
Investing in people, hiring people too — we're looking for you | Yunqi AI Talent Call
Welcome to the chat.
Mao Chengyu, Yunqi Capital: DeepSeek Accelerates AI Application Adoption — Where to Invest in AI in 2025? | Partners' Perspectives
More Challenges, More Possibilities
Yunqi Capital's Back-to-Work Special: 2025 — Talking Confidence with Tech Founders and Partners
The Lunar New Year holiday just past was anything but quiet in the global tech world. DeepSeek — that "mysterious force from the East" — shattered the assumption that top-tier AI performance requires top-tier computing power, reshaping the global AI landscape through a series of technical innovations and planting a seed of confidence for the year of innovation ahead.
Going Global 101: New Strategies and New Challenges — A Conversation with Four Founders | Yunqi Capital's Doers Series
Chatting with PingCAP, Manycore Tech, XTransfer, and WorldEx
A Conversation with Linkloud's Ning Gao: What Do Successful Chinese Companies Going Global Agree On — and Disagree On? | 100 Questions on AI Applications
2024: Some Observations and Takeaways on Going Global
January: Arriving at the Realm of Infinity | 5Y News Monthly
The big news from last month.
Some Thoughts on Going Global for Software Companies: From Zero to One | 5Y Capital's Little Tavern Vol. 24 with Dongxu Huang of PingCAP
Experience, lessons learned, and methodology.
Wisdom Cultivates the New, Striding Forward on Ten Years | Yunqi Capital 2024 Investor Annual Meeting
Seize the present, embrace the future.
December: No End to Progress | 5Y News Monthly
The big news from last month.
November, a World of Infinite Possibilities | 5Y News Monthly
The big news from last month.
Yunqi Capital Quarterly | We Are Stardust, Imagining the Universe
New Practices, New Breakthroughs, New Thinking for Summer and Fall
PPIO Launches New Compute Cloud Product, Driving 1,000x Cost Reduction for LLM Inference | BlueRun Ventures Headlines
Distributed computing power will be a key driver of the next wave of technological revolution.
3 Yunqi Capital Portfolio Founders Named to *Fortune* "40 Under 40" China Business Elite List | Yunqi Capital News
Riding the Current with Innovators Beneath the Surface
Yunqi Capital Attent!on Podcast | Founders Up and Down the Supply Chain: From Embodiment to Intelligence, How Is AI "Awakening" Robots?
Let's Talk About the Messy Reality of Deployment and Application Bottlenecks
Vol.05 Has AI "Woken Up" the Robots? A Look at the Many Applications and Bottlenecks of Embodied Intelligence
Yunqi Capital | PingCAP Overtakes TOP Spot, Becomes the Fastest-Growing Vendor in Global Database Management Systems Market
The market is growing at a rate of nearly 100%.
Event Recruitment: How Can AI/SaaS Companies Break Into Overseas Markets?
10 Yunqi Capital Portfolio Companies Named to Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2024 | Yunqi Capital News
Partnering with industry leaders to shape the future of technology.
Yunqi Capital Year-End Roundup | Annual Deep-Dive Report: AI + Open Source + Commercialization = ?
Three Years Running: The New Trends in Open Source + AI
Allen Liu of PingCAP: Seven Pitfalls to Avoid When Going Global
Confirm the resolve, keep learning.
January, a Fresh Start | 5Y News Monthly
The big news from last month.
AI Recruitment Platform "HelloBoss" Raises Several Million USD in Pre-A Round, Led by Yunqi Capital | Yunqi Capital
Targeting the Japanese Market, Unlocking the Full Potential of AI+
Born Global: Their Opportunities and Challenges | 5Y View x PingCAP x Zilliz
Where Does China's Opportunity in Global Software Lie?
Interview with a Pioneer of Open-Source Commercialization: How Programmers Question Sales, Understand Sales, and Become Sales
Now is the best time to pay attention to "open-source commercialization."
Vol.02 Conversations with People Making Money from Open Source: AGI Is Coming — Is It Too Late to "Outward-Compete"?
November: Stay Curious and Imaginative | 5Y News Monthly
The big news from last month.
First "Global Open Source Contribution Ranking" Released, Three PingCAP Co-Founders Make the List | Cloud News · Open Source
Ranked solely by contribution.
AGI in Practice: Summer Results, Diverse Ecosystems, and Frontier Insights | Yunqi Capital Quarterly · Summer
Large language models have been integrated across thousands of industries, and a new ecosystem is flourishing.
August: Keep Pushing Forward | 5Y News Monthly
The big news from last month.
Ten Tech Industry Developments Worth Watching | "Cloud News · Business Bulletin Board"
Innovation in science and technology, and the incremental progress of industrial development, are driving improvements in the quality and efficiency of both production and daily life.
Exploring Forward in a World with Open-Source Communities: There Will Be Challenges, But It Will Be Worth It | Riding the AGI+ Wave
More, Bigger, Better, More Valuable Open-Source Communities
"Cloud News · Business Chalkboard" — First Issue Now Live! Ten Tech Industry Developments Worth Watching
Ignite curiosity and seek answers this summer.
Why Won't Chinese Database Companies Simply "Copy" the Snowflake Model? | Yunqi Capital Science Chat
Respect the market, seek common ground while reserving differences.
Yunqi Capital Repeats as Top 5 Early-Stage VC in China at CV Awards, Among Other Honors | Yunqi News
Technological Innovation Powers Industrial Development
AGI in Practice, Innovation Breakthroughs, and Frontier Insights This Spring | Yunqi Capital Quarterly · Spring Issue
New thinking and new practice in AI from Yunqi Capital and its portfolio companies.
10 Yunqi Capital Portfolio Companies Named to *Hurun Global Unicorn Index* | Yunqi Capital News
Partnering with industry leaders to create greater value for society.
High Tech, High Growth! 16 Yunqi Capital Portfolio Companies Earn 21 Accolades | Yunqi Capital News
Meeting Challenges Together, Making the Future's Trajectory More Within Reach
Come On, Young People, Go Explore the Light Ahead on the AIGC Path | Yunqi YoUNg Program
Join the adventure of technological innovation and industrial transformation!
"Deep Winter" and "Spring Light": Where Is the Path Forward for Enterprise Software in 2023? | Enterprise Software Notes
A Deep Dive into the China-US Software Markets
"PingCAP" Huang Dongxu: After GPT-4, ChatGPT + Database = ? | Yunqi Capital ChatGPT Special
Draft to website, in just seconds?
Yunqi's Chen Yu: ChatGPT's Qualitative Leap Is More Than a Technical Shift | The Paper X Yunqi Capital ChatGPT Special
When it comes to large language model R&D, startups have more flexibility than big companies.
"PingCAP" Huang Dongxu: A Deep Dive into New Database Development Trends in 10,000 Words | Yunqi Tech π
"Before ChatGPT came out, I always thought there was an element of hype around AI."
February: Returning to Our Imagination of the World | 5Y News Monthly
The big news from last month.
Open Source Annual Report! Yunqi Capital Partners Again with Open Source Society to Release *2022 China Open Source Annual Report* | Yunqi News
Open Source Is Entering Its Next Phase of Development
Multiple Yunqi Capital Portfolio Companies Recognized as "China Industrial Digitalization Leaders" with Nine Honors | Yunqi Capital News
Innovation Never Stops — Co-Creating the Future of Technology
"Bitling Technology" Selected for 2022 *China Digital Security Capability Atlas (Select Edition)* | Yunqi Tech π
Building a Secure Software Development Foundation
The Dawning New Cycle | 5Y Annual Share
Where our confidence lies.
"Sobot Partners with New Chinese-Style Tea Brand ChaYanYueSe to Build Integrated Service and Marketing" | Yunqi Capital Industry+
Partnering with the "Milk Tea Benchmark," Upgrading Intelligent Customer Engagement Scenarios
January: Toward Broader Horizons | 5Y News Monthly
The big news from last month.
China's First: PingCAP's Distributed Database TiDB Passes CAICT HTAP Database Basic Capability Assessment | Yunqi Tech π
Leading the frontier of databases
MaHui | Source Code Capital's Xingshi Wang Named to 2022 "F40 China Young Investors" List
Yunqi Capital's Chen Yu Named to 2022 "F40 China Young Investors" List | Yunqi Capital News
Innovation is reshaping the present and defining the future.
"Zilliz": Eight Predictions for the Vector Database Industry in 2023 | Yunqi Capital
The Future Outlook for Vector Databases
Time forever forks, leading toward innumerable futures | 5Y News Monthly
The big news from last month.
The Only Chinese Company Named a "Strong Performer" by Forrester, PingCAP Leads HTAP Frontier Trends | Yunqi Capital
Leading the "Invisible Technology" Era
Multiple Yunqi Capital portfolio companies selected for 36Kr's "WISE2022 King of New Economy" list | Yunqi Capital News
Through the Winter, Looking Ahead
Go Discover, Go Challenge! PingCAP DevCon 2022 Goes Live Tomorrow | Yunqi Capital X PingCAP
From Cloud Native to Serverless: Reflections and Takeaways
"XTransfer" Releases *2022 First Three Quarters SME Export Trade (B2B) Index Report* | Yunqi Capital Industry+
Steady progress through innovation
Beyond What Meets the Eye | 5Y News Monthly
The big news from last month.
Sensitive data access control security vendor "Zhongtu Shiren" raises tens of millions of RMB in Pre-A funding led by Linear Capital | Linear News
The goal is to securely link every digital identity to business and digital assets.
July: Seeking Vast Possibilities | 5Y News Monthly
The big news from last month.
The Gambler's Mirage in a Downturn: When a Fund Goes All-In on a Single Company
In the investment industry, it's as ubiquitous as air. When markets plunge, it also faces the greatest risk.
Three Hours Drinking with Three Female Founders | 5Y Tavern Vol. 3
After a few rounds of drinks, what did they talk about?
As Fierce as August | 5Y News Monthly
The big news from last month.
The Best Is Always Ahead | 5Y News Monthly
Happy Labor Day!
5Y News | PingCAP Closes $270 Million Series D, Setting a New Global Database Milestone
We believe this round of funding is only the beginning of our global expansion — a small step toward the future. The $100 billion global database market is our true north.
Consensus and Non-Consensus in Enterprise Software Investing
Enterprise services are just getting started.
What were the big moments for us last month? | Light Moments August Report
IPOs, Funding, Strategic Partnerships, Awards... August in Review
The Last "FreeS Fund Family Update" of 2017 | FreeS Fund Bulletin · December
After a year of trudging forward, may you find more fellow travelers here.
Distributed relational database company PingCAP closes $15 million Series B, with FreeS Fund continuing to participate | Funding News
PingCAP builds open-source databases that change the future, freeing backend developers from drudgery.
