Gaorong Monthly · November | Gaorong Ventures Wins "2019 China VC Firm of the Year" and Other Awards, 24 Portfolio Companies Named to 36Kr's "King of New Economy" List

About Rong Report: Rong Report will be published monthly, bringing together noteworthy updates and insights from Gaorong Ventures and our portfolio companies.

Each issue features just 10 items — including important funding news and milestones, but also new trends, new creations, and new perspectives.

As with Gaorong's vision of "creating" a better life through innovation, we believe every step forward opens up infinite possibilities.

Awards · Gaorong Ventures Named "2019 China VC Firm of the Year"

On November 29, at the 2019 China Annual Venture Capital Conference hosted by the Equity Investment and Venture Capital Committee of China Investment Association, Gaorong Ventures received the "2019 China VC Firm of the Year" award.

At the 9th China Innovative Capital Annual Conference hosted by 21st Century Business Herald, Gaorong Ventures was named among the "2019 Top 15 China High-Growth VC and PE Firms."

On November 22, at the 12th Entrepreneur Annual Conference hosted by iBlackhorse, the "2019 Investors of the Year" list was released, with Gaorong Ventures founding partner Chang Chen making the cut. Chang was also named to Jiemian's "2019 Top 10 China Venture Capitalists."

Gaorong Ventures founding partner Bin Yue received Jazzyear's "Tech Hunter — 2019 China's Most Visionary Tech Investor" and 36Kr's "2019 China Top 50 Mid-Generation Investors" awards, among others.

Awards · 24 Gaorong Portfolio Companies Make 36Kr's "New Economy Kings" List

In November, 36Kr released its WISE 2019 "New Economy Kings" annual company rankings, with 24 Gaorong portfolio companies making the list.

36Kr noted that the new economy represents China's most innovative and fastest-growing forces. This second annual "New Economy Kings" selection aimed to identify the most valuable and promising new economy companies.

The "New Economy Kings" list covers 10 major sectors and nearly 50 sub-tracks. A total of 24 Gaorong portfolio companies were recognized across the rankings.

We extend our warmest congratulations to all the listed companies! Going forward, Gaorong Ventures will continue to seek out and support outstanding companies, embracing the power of technology and innovation to create a better life together.

Singles' Day · Gaorong Portfolio Companies Dominate Sales, Becoming "Championship Collectors"

During the 2019 Singles' Day shopping festival, numerous Gaorong portfolio companies posted impressive results.

Huami's Amazfit brand captured 19 sales championships across Tmall and JD.com. This included JD.com's top spot for adult smartwatches under 1,000 RMB in both sales revenue and volume (November 1, 00:00 — November 11, 24:00), as well as Tmall's equivalent category leadership (November 11, 00:00 — 24:00). On Tmall, one-hour sales surpassed the entire previous Singles' Day; on JD.com, full-day sales exceeded the previous year's total by 400%.

Aqara's total sales across all platforms grew 200% year-over-year. Its electric curtains, sensors, and smart switches ranked first in both sales volume and revenue across all platforms; the Xiaomi Mijia Smart Door Lock topped both volume and revenue for electronic locks on JD.com Self-operated and Tmall. (November 1, 00:00 — November 11, 24:00)

Perfect Diary surpassed its entire previous Singles' Day sales in just 28 minutes, becoming the first domestic brand to top Tmall's Singles' Day beauty rankings. According to full-day Tmall data, Perfect Diary also ranked first in sales revenue for eyeshadow, lip glaze, mascara, and eyeliner categories.

AKOKO ranked first in Tmall's cookie category and took top spot for cookie single items, plus third place for traditional pastry single items.

Smart logistics robotics company Geekplus helped brands smoothly navigate the Singles' Day order peak. Within 72 hours, Geekplus completed fulfillment of all Singles' Day orders — 8.11 million shipments total, with an 86% shipment rate within 48 hours, far exceeding industry standards and nearly doubling the efficiency of manual 3PL warehouses.

Going Global · African Mobile Payment and Mobility Provider OPay Closes $120M Series B

In November, OPay announced the completion of its Series B round, raising $120 million led by Meituan, Gaorong Ventures, and Source Code Capital. Other participants included Longzhu Capital (Meituan), SoftBank Asia, BAI (Bertelsmann Asia Investments), Redpoint China Ventures, IDG Capital, HSG, and GSR Ventures.

OPay is among Africa's fastest-scaling companies, incubated by Norway-headquartered global internet company Opera. It is currently Nigeria's leading mobile payment and mobility services provider. OPay is committed to offering consumers comprehensive convenient internet services, including mobile payments, ride-sharing, and food delivery. The company plans to use the new capital to further accelerate expansion across multiple verticals and enter new African markets.

IoT · Aqara Completes Series B2 Round, Will Aggressively Expand Overseas and into Enterprise Markets

In November, domestic IoT leader Aqara announced the completion of its Series B2 round, led by VisionX Capital with participation from Cathay Capital, Joy Capital, and Yunmu Capital. Gaorong Ventures had previously invested in Aqara's Series A round in 2015.

As a leader in China's smart home and IoT space, Aqara has developed multiple hit products in recent years, including the Mi Smart Home Kit, Xiaomi Mijia Smart Door Lock, Aqara Smart Door Lock, Aqara Smart Curtain Motor, and Aqara Air Conditioning Companion, establishing itself as a trendsetter in the smart home industry. Beyond continuously expanding its product portfolio, Aqara has achieved full coverage of smart home and commercial scenarios, leading the industry's transition from selling single products (Version 1.0) to selling full-scene solutions (Version 2.0). Going forward, Aqara will further establish strategic partnerships with global tech giants and push into overseas markets, while actively developing enterprise solutions for smart elderly care, smart agriculture, and other scenarios.

AI · YITU Partners with Ministry of Public Security's Traffic Management Research Institute

On November 6, YITU and the Traffic Management Research Institute of the Ministry of Public Security signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The two parties will jointly establish a laboratory for traffic behavior video cognition and algorithmic reasoning, exploring intelligent application technologies in traffic management to accelerate the field's intelligent transformation.

According to reports, YITU and the Traffic Management Research Institute will jointly explore "Traffic Management + AI" innovations in business models, technology, and mechanisms. The collaboration will focus on video-based road traffic governance research, a joint laboratory for video cognition powered by domestic AI chips, traffic management big data analytics based on machine learning, and AI-powered traffic management training technology.

Going forward, YITU and the Traffic Management Research Institute will establish a strategic coordination mechanism to jointly advance the deep integration of traffic management and artificial intelligence, further enhancing technical capabilities in public security traffic management, and together open a new chapter in "Traffic Management + AI" development.

Healthcare · AI Microecological Drug Company Unknown Closes Series B Round

In November, AI microecological drug company Unknown announced the completion of a Series B round exceeding 100 million RMB, led by Legend Capital with continued participation from existing investors Gaorong Ventures, 5Y Capital, and Yahui Investment. The proceeds will primarily fund further development of its microecological drug preclinical platform and clinical trials for its main pipeline drugs.

Founded in 2017, Unknown is China's first AI-based microecological drug company. Its core R&D team comes from top international research institutions and pharmaceutical companies including the Broad Institute, Harvard University, MIT, Pfizer, and Bristol Myers Squibb. Based on gut microbiome modulation and leveraging AI technology and bioengineering, Unknown is committed to tackling intractable diseases and improving human health.

Unknown is one of the few domestic platform companies developing microecological drugs. It has built a data-driven microecological drug preclinical platform, providing end-to-end SOPs for microecological drug development where standardized approaches remain lacking. The platform comprises six sub-platforms covering everything from multi-omics computation to functional strain discovery, R&D, and production.

AI · Zhuiyi Technology Partners with China Mobile to Build Digital Ecosystem; Next-Gen AI Digital Employees Draw Attention

In November, as an important AI ecosystem partner for China Mobile, Zhuiyi Technology appeared at the China Mobile Global Partner Conference, showcasing its latest multimodal interactive digital human, AI digital employee products, and industry solutions to China Mobile's domestic and international ecosystem partners.

To better meet enterprise demand for intelligent upgrades in the 5G era, Zhuiyi Technology launched its next-generation AI digital employee: the multimodal interactive digital human. By integrating natural language processing, voice, and vision technologies, Zhuiyi's digital human "can see, understand, and speak," delivering a more realistic user experience. Compared to other synthetic AI products in the industry, it features powerful interactive dialogue capabilities and supports richer scenario-based applications including online customer service, virtual anchors, and education and training. Zhuiyi Technology continues to explore more diverse AI technologies and products based on enterprise needs, such as structured data interaction (NL2SQL) and knowledge extraction, ultimately forming a full-scenario "digital employee" product suite based on its digital factory capabilities.

Additionally, Zhuiyi Technology will partner with China Mobile to provide diverse digital employee solutions through cloud + AI SaaS services, offering intelligent capabilities to ecosystem partners in finance, education, energy, culture and tourism, and industrial sectors. This will help enterprises continuously improve operational efficiency, innovate user service experiences, advance the integration of 5G and AI technologies, application innovation, and scenario deployment, and facilitate intelligent transformation.

Perspective · Chang Chen: Watching for New Opportunities at the Intersection of Internet, New Technology, and Real Economy

On Gold Medal Investor, China's first dialogue program focused on exchanges between investors, Noah Holdings PE partner Chun Zeng and Gaorong Ventures founding partner Chang Chen discussed Chen's views on investment trends over the next 3-5 years. (Watch the full conversation)

Chang believes the internet and new technologies will transform every industry. The first half of the internet was "pure" internet — vertical portals, search engines, online games. "Today we've entered the second half, where the internet combines with the real economy. The integration of internet with manufacturing, education, healthcare, and other sectors will have far greater room for imagination and drive improvements in industrial efficiency." Chang noted that Gaorong Ventures will continue to focus on new opportunities emerging from the convergence of internet, new technology, and real industries.

RongHui · Enterprise Services CEO Closed-Door Session Explores New Trends in Enterprise Services and Industrial Upgrading

On November 1, Gaorong Ventures' innovation community "RongHui" hosted an enterprise services CEO closed-door session at Xiamen C&D Group. Thirty CEOs from Gaorong portfolio companies gathered to discuss future trends in enterprise services and industrial upgrading, engaging in deep dialogue around new business models, B2B sales, and product matrices.

At RongHui, Hillhouse operating partner and former Meituan COO Jiawei Gan shared in-depth insights on organizational development and team management for B2B sales, starting from fundamental frameworks for thinking about B2B business. (Click to review key takeaways)

Gaorong Ventures founding partner Gao Xiang noted that significant changes are underway in the enterprise services market, and these changes harbor tremendous opportunities. Gao believes enterprise services companies need to pay close attention to several key points: development speed will be faster than in the past; leveraging platform ecosystems (the major cloud providers) is crucial; mobile user experience must be prioritized; thinking about enterprise services from an industry perspective; and industrial upgrading opens the ceiling for enterprise services.

Gao summarized: "From enterprise services to industrial upgrading — this is one of the most important directions for the next five years. Using enterprise services as a foundation to find breakthroughs in industrial upgrading will give rise to a large number of outstanding companies."

African Mobile Payment and Mobility Provider OPay Closes $120M Series B | Gaorong News IoT Leader Aqara Completes Series B2 Round, Will Aggressively Expand Overseas and into Enterprise Markets Topping Tmall Singles' Day Beauty Rankings, Perfect Diary Aims to Become the New L'Oréal of the Internet Era | Gaorong Feature