Banyan Post · February | Roborock Lists on STAR Market, AI and New E-Commerce Aid the COVID-19 Fight and Work Resumption

This month, the "dual-front battle" against the epidemic and for work resumption kicked off, and Gaorong Ventures portfolio companies continued to act: from going deep into the front lines of the epidemic fight, to orderly and scientifically targeted resumption of work and production; from responding to immediate challenges, to thinking about and seizing opportunities brought by the crisis... Faced with crises and challenges, innovative commercial forces demonstrated strong endogenous momentum and continuously practiced their original aspiration of value creation.

After the outbreak, Gaorong Ventures immediately launched a series of research and industry analyses, sorting out innovation opportunities born from major crises in history, and encouraging entrepreneurs to seize opportunities brought by the broader digitalization of work and life. In addition, through Ronghui online salons and exclusive commissioned articles, outstanding entrepreneurs and CEOs of Gaorong portfolio companies were invited to share how to make decisions, rally people, and look to the future amid crisis, aiming to provide entrepreneurs with practical experience and guidance. On February 21, Roborock successfully listed on the STAR Market, becoming the second STAR Market-listed company in Gaorong's portfolio and the 12th IPO since Gaorong's founding six years ago. We also maintained our consistent investment pace, continuing to invest in innovative and high-growth enterprises in new consumption, new technology, industrial internet, and healthcare; while accompanying multiple companies in new consumer brands, enterprise services, and industrial intelligence to complete new funding rounds. In this issue of Rongbao, we continue to compile some of the epidemic-fighting actions of Gaorong portfolio companies; at the same time, we also share IPO news, new financing updates, and important milestones.

IPO: Roborock Successfully Lists on STAR Market, Leading the Smart Cleaning Robot Sector

On February 21, smart home appliance R&D manufacturer Roborock successfully listed on the STAR Market with stock code "688169." Roborock's IPO price of 271.12 yuan per share set a new record for STAR Market and A-share IPO prices. At market open, Roborock traded at 470.00 yuan per share, up more than 73% from the IPO price. Founded in 2014, Roborock focuses on the design, R&D, production, and sales of smart cleaning robots and other smart hardware, and is a global leader in the large-scale application of LiDAR technology and related algorithms in smart robot vacuums. Gaorong Ventures led Roborock's Series B funding round in early 2016.

Currently, Roborock has three main product lines: the Xiaomi custom brand "Mi Robot Vacuum," and its own brands "Roborock Robot Vacuum" and "Roborock Xiaowa Robot Vacuum." In September 2016, Roborock launched its first product and quickly captured market share through product quality and word of mouth. According to CMM data, Roborock products ranked second in both online and offline market share in China in the first half of 2019, with 23% and 26% market share respectively. From 2016 to the first three quarters of 2019, Roborock's revenue was 183.127 million yuan, 1.1188176 billion yuan, 3.0512504 billion yuan, and 3.0299925 billion yuan respectively, maintaining rapid growth momentum.

Industrial Internet: Lingdi Technology Completes Nearly 100 Million Yuan Series A+ Round, Led by Gaorong Ventures

Lingdi Technology announced the completion of a nearly 100 million yuan Series A+ funding round, led by Gaorong Ventures, with follow-on investment from existing shareholders Shunwei Capital, Yuanjing Capital, Baidu Venture, and Yinxingu Capital. Founded in 2015, Lingdi Technology is committed to reconstructing the fashion industry through 3D digitization, promoting digital integration across the entire ecosystem of fashion design, production, and consumption, and accelerating the implementation of industrial internet in apparel. Lingdi Technology's core products include Style 3D design software, a 3D digital apparel design R&D communication management system, and a 3D digital fashion industry service trading platform. Its "what you see is what you get" approach disrupts traditional fashion design R&D methods, helping apparel enterprises improve intelligent R&D design, intelligent production, intelligent management, and intelligent service capabilities.

Lingdi Technology's cooperating clients include well-known domestic and international apparel brands such as Bosideng, Semir, Ribo, Septwolves, OTTO, and MANGO. Facing the challenges of the epidemic, STYLE 3D opened free trial access to small and medium-sized apparel enterprises, hoping to help China's apparel industry weather the difficulties together.

New Consumption: Men's Health Management Brand "Menxlab" Completes Angel Round, Led by Gaorong Ventures

Men's health management brand "Menxlab" announced the completion of a tens of millions yuan angel funding round, led by Gaorong Ventures, with joint follow-on investment from GF Xinde Investment Management and other institutions. "Menxlab" focuses on men's health management, targeting high-net-worth men aged 20-45 with diversified medical consumer-grade products and comprehensive service solutions for health issues including hair loss prevention, wellness, and skincare. Currently, the team's self-developed "Menxlab Shiguangli" anti-hair loss shampoo and hair growth nutrient solution set has completed internal testing, and products will subsequently be launched on Tmall, JD.com, and other platforms. This round of funding will be used for independent product R&D and marketing promotion, building a user health lifecycle management system, and creating a digital men's health management platform.

Funding Updates: Saint Bella, Songzhi Intelligent, and Zhizhi Technology Complete Follow-on Rounds

This month, multiple Gaorong portfolio companies announced follow-on funding rounds.

Luxury postpartum care brand Saint Bella and its parent company PrimeCare announced the completion of a Series B round, with exclusive strategic investment from Hong Kong-listed company Sun Hung Kai. PrimeCare is a new internet-based family care brand focused on serving upper-middle-class families, with business covering maternal and infant care services, family childcare services, and professional care training. This round of funding will mainly be used for store expansion, online family health management, and continued upgrading of full-industry-chain digitalization.

Industrial intelligent systems developer Songzhi Intelligent announced the completion of a tens of millions of yuan Series A round. This round was led by ByteDance, with follow-on investment from Lenovo Smart Internet Innovation Fund and existing shareholder China Growth Capital. Founded in 2017, Songzhi Intelligent is a smart manufacturing robot developer, with products including embedded controllers, new teach pendants, and the Studio software implementation platform, with applications covering 3C electronics, e-commerce logistics, auto parts processing, and other areas, specifically applied to flexible loading/unloading and palletizing, logistics picking, high-precision gluing, flexible polishing, and on-site and edge data analysis scenarios. Currently, Songzhi has launched solutions for production scenarios in glass panels, semiconductors, and other fields, and has landed multiple benchmark clients.

Zhizhi Technology completed a tens of millions of yuan Pre-A round, with Matrix Partners China as the investor. Founded in mid-2018, Zhizhi Technology focuses on providing intelligent integrated solutions for fast-moving consumer goods retail enterprises. Specifically, Zhizhi Technology provides retailers with a multi-terminal SaaS system, forming a full-chain ecological solution through its core product — the smart retail business middle platform — together with online mini-programs, mobile merchant management, and store smart devices. From customer acquisition and traffic attraction in the pre-consumption stage, to enhancing shopping experience and accumulating user data during consumption, to precision marketing based on user behavior and data analysis, Zhizhi Technology empowers merchants to comprehensively improve sales per square meter through advanced technical means.

New E-commerce: Pinduoduo Launches "Anti-epidemic Agricultural Assistance" Zone, Combining New E-commerce with New Agriculture to Boost Agricultural Product Sales

On February 10, Pinduoduo launched the "Anti-epidemic Agricultural Products" zone to help impoverished areas and some agricultural regions solve the problem of unsold agricultural products during the special period. The zone already covers nearly 400 agricultural production areas nationwide, including more than 230 impoverished counties, with products encompassing various fruits and major fresh food ingredients. On February 19, Pinduoduo further launched the "Agricultural Product Production-Sales Matching" special event.

During the production-sales matching event, in addition to traffic support, Pinduoduo set up a 500 million yuan special subsidy for agricultural assistance products, as well as a 2 yuan per order express delivery subsidy.

During this special epidemic period, many consumers have become more dependent on e-commerce channels for agricultural products. The combination of new e-commerce and new agriculture has effectively boosted the market for agricultural product sales. Previously, Pinduoduo had already established a systematic agricultural product supply-demand matching mechanism of "Sky Net" and "Ground Net" through its "group buying" new e-commerce model. On the demand side, the platform uses "Sky Net" — the agricultural product intelligent processing system — to collect data and information on covered production areas including specialty products, maturity cycles, logistics conditions, warehousing and distribution facilities, and processing industry facilities, which after systematic coordination and calculation is matched to corresponding consumers. On the supply side, the platform's "Ground Net" system has driven more than 86,000 new farmers to return to their hometowns. In 2019, Pinduoduo's platform agricultural product transaction volume reached 136.4 billion yuan, making it China's largest agricultural product sales platform.

AI Fighting the Epidemic: YITU, Zhuiyi Technology, and GalaxySpace Use AI Technology to Help Combat the Epidemic

Going against the tide through a hundred battles, fighting the epidemic with dedication. Multiple Gaorong portfolio companies are using AI technology to fully support epidemic combat. YITU launched the industry's first AI imaging product for intelligent assessment of COVID-19 — the YITU Chest CT COVID-19 Intelligent Evaluation System — rapidly assisting frontline doctors in precise and efficient diagnosis, compressing the originally hours-long evaluation process to 2-3 seconds. YITU AI has already been deployed at 100+ medical and public institutions nationwide.

In addition, YITU also launched the COVID-19 "Little Yi Doctor" based on artificial intelligence intent recognition and medical knowledge graph technologies, providing the public with symptom self-screening and epidemic knowledge popularization. Little Yi Doctor has already been connected to the WeChat public accounts or online service platforms of dozens of medical and public institutions nationwide.

Zhuiyi Technology launched a series of epidemic AI robot services, including epidemic online robots, epidemic phone robots, and epidemic digital anchors. Service content covers epidemic dynamics, epidemic prevention knowledge, epidemic screening, and work resumption; in terms of interaction forms, it achieves upgrades from text to phone to visual multi-modal; in terms of channels, it supports rapid access via WeChat, App, mini-programs, and PC, with same-day service launch. Zhuiyi's epidemic AI robot series has served more than 220 clients in over 20 provinces and cities nationwide. GalaxySpace AI Research Institute released the "Industry Big Data Epidemic Prevention and Control System." This system can help electricity authorities comprehensively understand detailed enterprise electricity usage information during the epidemic period, precisely understand enterprise operating conditions during the epidemic, and make predictions about future electricity usage in local areas, providing important reference basis for relevant decision-making departments to carry out precise epidemic prevention and control, scientific decision-making, and efficient deployment through electricity big data. During the epidemic period, GalaxySpace made this system available for free, providing free access to relevant units in provinces and cities in need.

Autonomous Driving: U.S. Approves Nuro Deployment of New Delivery Vehicle, "A Big Step for the Autonomous Vehicle Industry"

In February, Nuro received approval to deploy unmanned delivery vehicles without side mirrors, steering wheels, and other manual control devices. This is the first such regulatory approval issued by the U.S., allowing deployment of autonomous driving systems without meeting all current U.S. vehicle safety standards (75 items). It was evaluated as "one small step for Nuro, one giant leap for the autonomous vehicle industry." According to the latest approval, Nuro's latest generation autonomous electric delivery vehicle R2 can be deployed without side mirrors or windshields, and can turn off rear-view cameras while the vehicle is moving forward, among other things. Nuro stated that this design can create additional space for cyclists and other "vulnerable road users." In addition, the R2's capacity will be 65% greater than the first-generation delivery vehicle R1, and the compartments will feature temperature control to keep perishable goods fresh.

It is reported that Nuro is working with Michigan-based Roush Enterprises on the design and assembly of the R2. Previously, Nuro has announced partnerships with Walmart, Kroger, and Domino's Pizza to pilot unmanned delivery services in Houston and other locations.

Shared Mobility: Hellobike Shares 8,000 Operations Positions, Jointly Serving Safe Travel for Work Resumption

On February 17, Hellobike announced it was making 8,000 operations positions available, jointly serving safe travel for work resumption. As work resumption progressed in various regions and citizens' cycling choices increased significantly, Hellobike faced a large labor gap for operations personnel in various regions. To ensure more timely fulfillment of user needs, Hellobike's bike and e-bike divisions opened up 8,000 vehicle operations positions for people temporarily out of work due to the epidemic. Hellobike stated, "We encourage companies that have suspended work or production due to the epidemic to contact us, and Hellobike will work with your needs to seek a customized shared employment solution for your employees; we also encourage taxi, bus, and ride-hailing drivers across various regions who have been temporarily laid off due to the epidemic's impact to cross the tool attributes of mobility and jointly serve urban travel." Since the outbreak, Hellobike has cumulatively provided nearly 200,000 free travel benefits to medical, disease control, sanitation, and urban management staff on the front lines of epidemic combat in various regions.

Internet Insurance Platform: Waterdrop Insurance Mall Launches Open Platform, Cultivating Netizens' Insurance Awareness, Expanding Insurance Incremental Market

On February 28, Waterdrop Insurance Mall launched an open platform, partnering with high-quality partners across various industries to jointly provide insurance protection services for users, cultivate domestic netizens' insurance awareness, and expand the insurance incremental market. Over the past two-plus years, Waterdrop Insurance Mall has accumulated rich experience in online customer acquisition, traffic conversion, and user service. As its cooperative relationship with insurance companies has deepened, it has been able to customize and develop corresponding insurance protection products for different industries, scenarios, and user groups, and transform Waterdrop Company's rich user operation experience serving 300 million users into efficient operation tools. Waterdrop Insurance Mall builds its open platform business by providing professional SaaS systems, quality advisory services, and high-efficiency operation tools, empowering partners. As of the end of 2019, Waterdrop Company had over 300 million independent paying users, and Waterdrop Insurance Mall's insured user base had exceeded 65 million. During the epidemic period, Waterdrop Insurance Mall partnered with Anxin Insurance to launch the free "COVID-19 Worry-Free Insurance," and to date, more than 2 million users have claimed this insurance online.

Ronghui: Jason Jiang and Shen Peng Share: How to Make Decisions and Stock Up on Ammunition in a Crisis

"Entrepreneurship is about the brave winning — those with ambition and action prevail." For enterprises with truly differentiated value, crisis is opportunity, and there must be sufficient courage and confidence to rise to the challenge and seize opportunities. On February 23, Gaorong Ventures Ronghui held the "Navigating Crisis" online salon. Focus Media founder and chairman Jason Jiang, through online video conference, shared his reflections after personally experiencing three crises — SARS in 2003, the 2008 financial crisis, and COVID-19 — with more than 180 CEOs, executives, and partners of Gaorong portfolio companies, and distilled three insights: crisis is opportunity, right and wrong determine success or failure, and differentiation is evolution. Waterdrop Crowdfunding and Waterdrop Insurance Mall CEO Shen Peng also shared Waterdrop's 33-day epidemic fight journey (from January 21 to February 22), as well as the organizational transformation and corporate culture upgrade launched under the epidemic.