Gaorong Monthly · October | Gaorong Ventures Named Among Zero2IPO's Top 10 VC Firms of the Year; Nuro Closes Major Series D Round

About Rongbao: Rongbao is a monthly digest that brings together noteworthy news and insights from Gaorong Ventures and its portfolio companies. Each issue shares just 10 items — including important funding updates and milestones, but also emerging trends, new innovations, and fresh perspectives. As Gaorong's vision of "creating" a better life through innovation, we believe every step forward unlocks infinite possibilities.

Autonomous Driving · Nuro Closes $600M Series D to Accelerate Commercialization of Driverless Delivery Vehicles

Global autonomous vehicle leader Nuro announced it has raised $600 million in a Series D round led by Tiger Global Management, with participation from Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Management & Research Company, LLC, Gaorong Ventures, Google, Kroger, SoftBank Vision Fund I, funds advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Toyota's Woven Capital, and other existing shareholders. The proceeds will support the development and deployment of Nuro's autonomous delivery services in communities across the United States. Gaorong Ventures led Nuro's Series A in 2016 and has continued to invest in subsequent rounds.

The Series D will drive Nuro's continued focus on commercializing its driverless delivery vehicles. Nuro's disruptive reimagining of autonomous vehicles and the opportunity to reshape local commerce have drawn attention from prominent business partners across industries. Kroger established a partnership with Nuro in 2018 to explore autonomous goods delivery. Nuro also entered a five-year strategic partnership with Google Cloud to jointly explore opportunities to enable and transform local commerce. More recently, Nuro announced a long-term partnership with FedEx and launched a pizza delivery pilot with Domino's in Houston. In August, Nuro announced a $40 million investment to build two new facilities in southern Nevada — an unmanned vehicle production and assembly plant, and a world-class closed-course testing facility — to commercialize and scale production of its third-generation autonomous vehicles.

Healthcare · MiRXES Raises $87M Series C to Develop Cancer Early Screening Products Based on Leading miRNA Technology

Tumor early screening company MiRXES announced it has completed an $87 million Series C round led by CR Life Sciences Fund, with participation from U.S. healthcare fund Rock Springs Capital, Singapore's EDBI, CCB International, Triumph Ventures, Chenling Capital, and NHH Venture. Gaorong Ventures invested in MiRXES's Series B in 2018.

MiRXES is a high-tech biotechnology company focused on microRNA ("miRNA") technology for early disease diagnosis, with a product pipeline covering common high-incidence cancers as well as cardiovascular, metabolic, and infectious diseases. The company has established a complete business process system spanning R&D, manufacturing, commercial operations, and medical testing services in Singapore and China, with market teams in the U.S. and Japan. In 2019, MiRXES's self-developed GASTROClear™, the world's first serum-based molecular diagnostic test for gastric cancer, received regulatory approval in Singapore. That same year, MiRXES was named to Nature Biotechnology's list of global liquid biopsy innovators — the only Asian company and the only miRNA technology platform on the list.

Semiconductors · Xingji Raises Hundreds of Millions of RMB in Series A to Focus on Digital Implementation EDA Product Innovation

On October 28, digital implementation EDA solutions provider Xingji announced it has completed a Series A round of several hundred million RMB, with participation from SK China, Vertex Ventures China, and Yunqi Capital. Following its Pre-A round, Gaorong Ventures, Yunhui Capital, Pine VC, and HSG also increased their investments in this round. In June, Xingji announced its Pre-A round, which Gaorong Ventures co-led. As an emerging force in self-developed digital implementation EDA products, Xingji will continue to focus on R&D innovation by integrating advanced technologies such as cloud computing and machine learning, aiming to improve tool automation, help chip design companies boost efficiency, shorten design cycles, reduce costs, and achieve leapfrog innovation in chip PPA (power, performance, and area) — empowering end applications in smart vehicles, smart cities, and IoT.

Privacy Computing · Privacy-Preserving Computing and Data Circulation Leader "Huakong Qingjiao" Closes 500M RMB Series B

Recently, Huakong Qingjiao announced it has completed a 500 million RMB Series B round. Existing shareholder Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group continued its investment, joined by Zhongguancun Science City, OPPO, Xunce Technology, CICC, Pu Xin Capital (affiliated with SPD Bank), China Renaissance, Langmafeng Venture Capital, and Tongchuang Weiyue. Huakong Qingjiao's post-money valuation exceeds 4 billion RMB, making it a leading enterprise in China's privacy-preserving computing and data circulation technology sector. Gaorong Ventures led Huakong Qingjiao's seed round in 2018 and participated in subsequent rounds. Founded in June 2018 by Tsinghua University to commercialize the research of Academician Andrew Yao and Professor Wei Xu, Huakong Qingjiao specializes in researching, developing, building, and operating privacy-preserving computing and data circulation technologies, standards, and infrastructure based on multi-party secure computation and related theories. Huakong Qingjiao has initiated and participated in the construction and implementation of multiple government data sharing platforms and data element market infrastructure, including the Beijing International Big Data Exchange. It is currently the only company to have moved beyond plaintext data trading by implementing "new" data trading models and platforms in practice, accumulating unique experience in building and operating such platforms. Huakong Qingjiao is also the only company in China to have successfully deployed and operated an enterprise-grade multi-party secure computation platform in production at a major commercial bank.

Smart Home · IoT Unicorn Aqara Completes 1B RMB Series C

Recently, IoT industry unicorn Aqara announced it has completed a 1 billion RMB Series C round from Shenzhen Capital Group, Joy Capital, China Telecom Group Co., Ltd., Greenwoods Asset Management, Zhongyuan Capital, and China Unicom CICC. Gaorong Ventures invested in Aqara's Series A in 2015. The proceeds will focus on product R&D and innovation, global commercial channel development and deployment, brand building, and talent acquisition. Aqara is one of China's earliest companies capable of delivering scalable whole-home smart wireless solutions, and one of the few with both To B IoT software-hardware integrated solutions and To C whole-home smart customization capabilities. Its products and services have been widely adopted in homes, apartments, hotels, real estate, offices, eldercare, and other industries. To date, Aqara offers over 30 product categories and more than 500 self-developed SKUs — leading the industry in self-developed product volume in China — and holds over 800 patent applications.

Aqara products are integrated with Xiaomi Mi Home, Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and other ecosystem platforms, enabling interoperability with numerous smart products globally. Since launching its offline whole-home smart customization services, Aqara has established over 600 Aqara Home experience stores across 490+ cities and regions, with an offline service team exceeding 10,000 people. Aqara has become China's leading provider of digital lifestyle and smart industry solutions, with the Aqara brand established as a frontrunner in the smart home race.

New Brands · Genki Forest Unveils "Three Zeros Factory" Strategy to Build Carbon-Neutral Facilities

On October 26, Genki Forest held a supply chain and food safety strategy conference, officially launching its "Three Zeros Factory" strategy: achieving "zero preservatives," "zero pollution," and "zero carbon" in production.

Genki Forest began its "zero preservatives" initiative earlier this year, removing sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate from its entire sparkling water product line. Its "zero pollution" goals include逐步实现 zero wastewater discharge, recycled water use, and zero landfill waste. The company also aims to make all its factories carbon-neutral demonstration plants for the beverage industry by 2025.

Since 2019, Genki Forest has pursued a "5 major metropolitan clusters + self-built factories" strategy, with five facilities located in Xiqing, Tianjin; Chuzhou, Anhui; Zhaoqing, Guangdong; Xianning, Hubei; and Dujiangyan, Sichuan — covering North, East, South, Central, and Southwest China and reaching approximately 700 million people. To date, the five factories represent a planned total investment of 5.5 billion RMB across over 1,000 mu of land.

At the strategy conference, Genki Forest also disclosed select business data for the first time: over the past 12 months, it added more than 30 new beverage flavors with an average product development cycle of 5.5 months. As of September this year, R&D costs increased 350% year-over-year, with total R&D spending representing the highest proportion among peer-scale beverage companies.

Fresh Retail · Dingdong Maicai Stabilizes Prices and Ensures Supply, Expanding Direct Farm Sourcing Nationwide

Recently, Dingdong Maicai has responded proactively to vegetable price fluctuations and tight market supply to help stabilize local "vegetable basket" prices across regions.

Building on its existing 540 direct supply origin partnerships nationwide, Dingdong Maicai is further expanding direct farm sourcing for vegetables and other agricultural products across multiple regions. To address vegetable price volatility, the company launched a supply stabilization planting program at its own farms earlier this year, using consumer data analytics and market gap forecasts to pre-plant seasonal vegetables in high demand — ensuring supply and price stability for the winter and spring markets. By November, company-owned farms are expected to supply an additional 10,000 portions of fairly-priced vegetables daily.

Beyond existing self-operated planting bases in areas like Langxia, Jinshan, Shanghai, Dingdong continues to build out its self-operated farming and aquaculture facilities, including bases in Huidong, Sidan, Shanghai; Zhongchuan, Lanzhou, Gansu; Xinchengzi, Yongchang, Gansu; a carrot base in Weifang, Shandong; and an antibiotic-free shrimp farm in Neijiang, Sichuan. These facilities will come online progressively by the end of next year, working alongside hundreds of Dingdong agricultural direct-sourcing bases to provide stable supplies of essential daily necessities for tens of millions of Dingdong users.

Research Support · Congratulations on the Establishment of Peking University School of Computer Science, with Gaorong Ventures Donation to Support Education

On October 24, Peking University officially established its School of Computer Science, with Academician Yang Fuqing, professor at Peking University, appointed as honorary dean. This marks the formal elevation of Peking University's computer science program from a department to an independent school.

On this occasion, Gaorong Ventures, as an alumni enterprise, made a donation to the Peking University School of Computer Science to support educational development and promote teaching, research, and talent cultivation.

Ronghui · Visiting the Beijing Stock Exchange, Seizing Strategic Capital Market Opportunities

On October 27, Gaorong Ventures organized nearly 20 portfolio companies to visit the Beijing Stock Exchange. Experts from the National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ) Market Development Department introduced BSE and NEEQ policies and regulations, followed by interactive discussions with participating companies — including BSE's foundational institutional arrangements tailored to innovative SMEs, covering issuance and listing, trading, delisting, ongoing regulation, and investor suitability management.

Recognition · Gaorong Ventures Ranks in Zero2IPO Top 10 VC Firms of the Year, 36Kr Best Post-Investment Enabler

In October, Zero2IPO released its 2021 China Equity Investment Annual Rankings, with Gaorong Ventures placing in the 2021 China Venture Capital Firms TOP 10. Gaorong Ventures founding partner Chang Chen was named among the 2021 China Venture Capitalists TOP 10. Gaorong Ventures also ranked in the 2021 China Consumer Sector Investment Firms TOP 30 and AI Sector Investment Firms TOP 20.

This month, Gaorong Ventures was also named to 36Kr's Best Post-Investment Enablers list. 36Kr noted: "Gaorong's post-investment services skillfully leverage products and community as empowerment multipliers. Their post-investment strengths lie in refined course offerings, star mentor teams, and resource platform connections. Gaorong has also built a post-investment system encompassing Ronghui courses, talent recruitment, brand PR, research think tank, and ecosystem services — creating a friendly, productized post-investment interface for portfolio companies."

Additionally, Gaorong Ventures partner Rui Han was named to 21st Century Business Herald's 2020-2021 Most Influential Young Investors (GP) TOP 30; Gaorong Ventures senior vice president Xiaoyu Ma received PEDaily's 2021 F40 China Young Investors award.