Gaorong News · December | Gaorong Ventures Named Among "China's Top 3 Best VC Funds of 2019," Ronghui "Youth Innovation Camp" Concludes
The future is bright.
About Rongbao: This is the final issue of Rongbao for 2019. Over the past months, we've published monthly roundups of notable news and insights from Gaorong Ventures and our portfolio companies. Each issue shares just ten items — covering important funding updates and milestones, but also highlighting new trends, innovations, and perspectives. As Gaorong's vision is to "create" a better life through innovation, we believe every step forward unlocks infinite possibilities. Here's to 2020 — the future is bright.
Awards · Gaorong Ventures named among "Top 3 Best VC Funds in China 2019," Chang Chen ranked "Forbes China Best Venture Capitalist Top 6," Gao Xiang and Yue Bin named to "Forbes China Best Venture Capitalists Top 100"
In December, Gaorong Ventures received multiple industry honors. At the 2019 China FOF Annual Conference, hosted by the China Venture Capital Committee and China FOF Alliance with support from the China FOF Research Center, Gaorong was recognized as one of the "Top 3 Best Venture Capital Funds in China 2019" and "Top 5 Best Exit Performers in China 2019."
At the 3rd China Equity Investment Golden Bull Awards hosted by China Securities Journal, Gaorong received the "Golden Bull Venture Capital Annual Excellence Award."
At the 19th China Equity Investment Annual Forum hosted by Zero2IPO and PEDaily, Gaorong earned three recognitions: "Top 15 Venture Capital Firms in China 2019," "Top 30 Investors in Internet/Mobile Internet 2019," and "Top 30 Investors in Cultural Consumption 2019."
The 4th Annual Impact Investment Awards in Beijing, hosted by China Renaissance with co-hosting by China Renaissance Alpha and organized by China Renaissance Xingqi, named Gaorong among the "Top 10 Most Impactful VC Firms 2019" and "Top 10 Best Cash Return Investment Funds 2019."
Additionally, Gaorong founding partner Chang Chen was named to "Forbes China Best Venture Capitalists Top 6" and "Top 3 Most Welcome Founding Partners by FOFs 2019." Founding partner Gao Xiang received "Forbes China Best Venture Capitalists Top 100," "Top 100 Most Welcome Founding Partners by FOFs 2019," "Yicai Annual Investor Top 50 2019," and "Annual Best Investor" at the 3rd Mini Program Aladdin God Lamp Awards. Founding partner Yue Bin was named to "Forbes China Best Venture Capitalists Top 100" and "Top 100 Most Welcome Founding Partners by FOFs 2019."
Gaorong managing director Rui Han, executive director Xin Wang, and vice president Ma Xiaoyu were named to China Renaissance's "2019 Most Popular Elite Investors."
Fresh Retail · Missfresh's "Qian Damayi" completes nearly RMB 1 billion Series D
On December 26, community fresh grocery chain Qian Damayi officially announced its Series D round, which Gaorong Ventures had led in Series C. The round totaled nearly RMB 1 billion, led by Cornerstone Capital with follow-on investment from Taikang Life Insurance, GenBridge Capital, Jianggu Capital, Zhenghan Investment, and Lighthouse Capital.
Proceeds will fund regional expansion, online business development, supply chain integration, nationwide warehouse network buildout, and continued investment in technology infrastructure.
In 2019, Qian Damayi broke out of South China, entering East and Central China markets. Its community fresh grocery stores now span Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongguan, Zhuhai, Huizhou, Zhongshan, Zhaoqing, Qingyuan, Jiangmen, as well as Shanghai, Wuhan, and Hong Kong. As of end-November, the company operated 1,652 stores.
Qian Damayi currently offers over 500 SKUs across five categories: vegetables, fruits, meat, frozen seafood, and prepared foods. Full-year 2019 revenue is expected to exceed RMB 7 billion, doubling from 2018, with a compound annual growth rate of 277% since 2012 — making it the undisputed leader in China's community fresh grocery sector.
Fresh Retail · Benlai Group completes Series D1
Benlai Group recently completed its Series D1, led by Mingde Holdings — the majority shareholder of SF Express — with participation from Beishang Capital and existing investors Gaorong Ventures and CDH Investments. Funds will support the rollout of its O2O + B2C fresh retail model.
In a letter to all Benlai employees, CEO Yu Huafeng noted the company had rebranded to "Benlai Group," with businesses including Benlai Shenghuo, Benlai Xian, Benlai Guofang, and Weitepai. Benlai Shenghuo achieved full-year profitability in fiscal 2018, with fiscal 2019 profit expected to reach RMB 100 million.
On December 18, Benlai Shenghuo announced a supply chain collaboration with SF Express to upgrade cold chain logistics and expand fresh delivery coverage to 28 provincial-level administrative regions nationwide — broadening reach while improving delivery efficiency.
Education · XuetangX closes new RMB 100 million+ round
On December 12, XuetangX announced a new funding round exceeding RMB 100 million, led by Muhua Capital with participation from Gaorong Ventures and Redpoint China Ventures.
Proceeds will strengthen AI + education R&D, premium course development, and exploration of new online education models — unlocking the advantages of online learning to deliver better user experiences and content quality, while enabling integrated online-offline smart education across multiple scenarios.
Founded by Tsinghua University in October 2013, XuetangX is a MOOC platform and the research exchange and application platform for the Ministry of Education's Online Education Research Center. The platform has pursued a dual-engine strategy of content and technology to drive educational resource sharing and quality improvement. It currently hosts over 2,600 courses from leading universities including Tsinghua, Peking University, MIT, and Stanford University, with exclusive mainland China licensing rights for MOOCs from these institutions and edX. As of November 30, 2019, XuetangX had surpassed 30 million registered users and 78 million total course enrollments.
Autonomous Driving · Nuro partners with Walmart for Houston autonomous delivery pilot
In December, autonomous driving company Nuro announced a partnership with retail giant Walmart to test autonomous vehicles in Houston starting in 2020, offering customers more convenient grocery delivery options. Over the coming months, Walmart will offer autonomous delivery from select Houston stores using Nuro's latest-generation autonomous electric delivery vehicle, the R2.
Tom Ward, Walmart's senior vice president of digital operations, said: "Walmart is committed to providing customers with shopping options wherever and whenever they want. We're excited to partner with Nuro and continue learning as we integrate autonomous technology into our delivery options, helping us better understand customer needs and evolve Walmart's future delivery services."
Cosimo Leipold, Nuro's head of partnerships, said: "We want to help people save time and money while making shopping easier — aligned with Walmart's commitment to its customers. We're thrilled to team up with Walmart to deliver the best possible delivery experience."
Founded in 2016 by former Google self-driving team lead engineer Jiajun Zhu and Dave Ferguson, Nuro combines software and hardware expertise to design and manufacture products that accelerate how robotics technology improves people's lives. Nuro is committed to partnering with businesses seeking more cost-efficient ways to transport goods and create new user experiences.
Previously, Nuro launched the world's first public-facing autonomous vehicle delivery service with Kroger, the world's largest grocery chain. In June 2019, Nuro also announced a pilot with Domino's Pizza for autonomous pizza delivery in Houston.
Decision Intelligence · Inspirit StarCraft Commander debuts at NeurIPS 2019 to acclaim
At the recent NeurIPS 2019 conference in Canada, Inspirit World's StarCraft Commander made its debut at the world's most prestigious AI conference, receiving high praise from DeepMind and other global peers.
Inspirit World is dedicated to building internationally leading decision intelligence products and technology for industries, with world-class capabilities in deep reinforcement learning and distributed decision intelligence platforms. Its products have broad applications in intelligent gaming, game AI, and intelligent robotics, with partnerships established with multiple top-tier customers.
Since its founding in 2017, Inspirit World has used StarCraft II to research decision intelligence and explore the path to AGI. Its NeurIPS presentation, SCC: Deep Reinforcement Learning Agent plays StarCraft II at Competitive Human Level, showcased an agent first trained via imitation learning on human game replays, then further refined through reinforcement learning self-play and agent league training against diverse opponents to improve strength and robustness. After its exhibition at NeurIPS, SCC became the center of attention, with multiple DeepMind AlphaStar team experts taking turns playing against it and expressing admiration that Inspirit achieved platinum-level play with limited compute resources.
At NeurIPS's Bomberman competition, Inspirit's agent "inspir" also placed third in the finals after more than 100 matches against teams from the US, Hungary, and Canada — in a more challenging and engaging setup. This was achieved primarily by an undergraduate student using Inspirit's decision intelligence platform, further highlighting the platform's advantages.
5G Satellites · GalaxySpace's first satellite rolls off production line as world's first Q/V-band LEO broadband satellite
GalaxySpace recently announced that its first satellite has completed production. It is China's first low-earth-orbit broadband satellite with communication capacity reaching 10 Gbps, expected to launch soon from Jiuquan, Gansu aboard a Kuaizhou series rocket developed by ExPace. The satellite is the world's first Q/V-band LEO broadband satellite and China's first 200kg-class satellite developed by a commercial aerospace company. A single satellite can cover 300,000 square kilometers — roughly the area of 50 Shanghai municipalities — at an orbital altitude of 1,200 km.
Satellite rollout is a critical milestone in spacecraft development, indicating that all hardware and software have been finalized. The successful production of GalaxySpace's first satellite means that China's first 10 Gbps-capable LEO broadband satellite has reached a stable and reliable technical state through ground testing and is ready for launch.
GalaxySpace founder, chairman, and CEO Xu Ming stated that starting with this first satellite, GalaxySpace will take its first step toward "space internet." Going forward, the company will scale R&D and production of low-cost, high-performance 5G satellites to build a space internet that bridges the digital divide, connecting every corner of Earth with 5G satellite networks.
Game AI · Hyperparameter unveils first game AI progress, building 3D survival game AI
Hyperparameter, a startup focused on the AI + gaming track, recently unveiled its first progress in gaming AI. In Seas of Glory, a battle royale game developed by Xishanju, "Orion α" — a 3D survival AI created through Hyperparameter's collaboration with Xishanju — demonstrated complex 3D environmental perception, item search/use, combat, and team coordination capabilities through reinforcement learning trained from scratch, showing broad application potential.
Founded in early 2019 by former Tencent AI Lab general manager and T4 technical expert Yongsheng Liu, Hyperparameter has raised a Series A from 5Y Capital and Gaorong Ventures. The team includes AI scientists and technical leads from Tencent AI Lab and IEG Games, as well as elite talent from top domestic and international universities. At Tencent, Liu and the core team led development of the Go AI "Jueyi" and Honor of Kings AI "Juewu." Since founding, Hyperparameter has focused on deep learning, reinforcement learning, and large-scale systems engineering. By deeply integrating AI capabilities with gaming scenarios, it provides AI solutions for game companies across genres, helping developers improve efficiency and unlock new gameplay possibilities across design, development, and operations. Looking ahead, capabilities that AI agents develop in 3D survival games — including 3D environmental perception and understanding, adaptation to complex environmental changes, uncertainty assessment and reasoning, flexible application of strategies and tactics, and multi-agent competition and cooperation — will also create value in broader fields such as autonomous driving, smart cities, and healthcare.
Automation · Ruben Technology launches three breakthrough products to simplify automation
Ruben Technology recently launched three breakthrough products: two computer vision products — the RVC X series 3D camera with micron-level precision 3D imaging, and the VDA (Visual Displacement Analyzer) for non-contact high-precision displacement measurement — plus a robot motion planning controller deeply compatible with mainstream industrial robots.
Founded in early 2018 by experts in computer vision, robotics, and optics, Ruben Technology focuses on visual perception and motion planning, tackling key challenges in these fields to develop core technologies and products. The company aims to dramatically lower the barrier to robot adoption by combining vision with robotics, making automation simpler. Its two computer vision products, developed over nearly two years of hardware and software R&D, achieve world-class speed and precision with broad applications in industry, transportation, healthcare, and research. The robot motion planning controller, launched simultaneously, already supports mainstream robots from ABB, YASKAWA, UR, and FANUC, enabling developers to achieve precise control without needing to understand specific robot models or operation methods. These three products lay the foundation for Ruben Technology's ongoing R&D in robot perception and motion planning.
Ronghui · "Youth Innovation Camp" concludes successfully: 22 young returnees learn the methods, mindset, and tactics of entrepreneurship
On December 23, the "Youth Innovation Camp" co-hosted by Gaorong Ventures and OnePiece Work, with support from UpHonest Capital and Canjia Academy, successfully concluded. Gaorong Ventures launched this initiative to help promising young entrepreneurs navigate the zero-to-one journey more effectively.
This cohort recruited 22 young returnees from Silicon Valley, New York, London, Canada, and other locations. Over ten venture capital mentors shared their expertise, including Gaorong founding partner Gao Xiang; Gaorong venture partner and former Kuaishou chief growth officer Liu Xinhua; ByteDance enterprise SaaS global ecosystem and channel director Chen Ju; BOSS Zhipin founder Zhao Peng; Waterdrop Company founder Shen Peng; Gaotu Techedu vice president Luo Bin; Gaotu Techedu HR vice president Zhao Hangqi; Youzan COO Leo; and Silicon Valley early-stage investor and OnePiece Work co-founder Guo Wei.
Beyond tactical knowledge ("the craft"), mentors also discussed how to "understand principles" and "read trends" with participants — helping them build foundational mental frameworks and cognitive systems, understand the logic behind irreversible trends, and identify entrepreneurial opportunities within them.
