Rongbao · September | YITU and Zhuiyi Clinch World Championship Titles, "Ronghui" Steps into QQ Mini Programs...
Wishing everyone a happy National Day!
About Rongbao: Rongbao is a monthly digest that brings together noteworthy news and insights from Gaorong Ventures and our portfolio companies. Each issue shares just ten items — covering not only major funding announcements and milestones, but also emerging trends, new innovations, and fresh perspectives. As Gaorong works toward its vision of "creating a better life through innovation," we believe every step forward opens up infinite possibilities.
Recognition · Chang Chen Named Among Top 5 Best Venture Capitalists in China by ChinaVenture
On September 19, ChinaVenture officially released its "2018 Investors" rankings. The list was compiled by the ChinaVenture Research Institute using the CVSource database, following a rigorous process of surveys, interviews, data verification, and standardization, with final rankings based on overall composite scores — making it one of the industry's most authoritative, comprehensive, and objective benchmarks.
On the list, Chang Chen, founding partner of Gaorong Ventures, was named among the "Top 5 Best Venture Capitalists in China for 2018." He was also ranked in the "Top 10 Best Internet Industry Investors in China for 2018."
AI · YITU Wins Global Speaker Recognition Competition
Recently, at VoxSRC, an international speaker recognition competition, YITU's algorithm took first place, reducing the equal error rate to 0.0098 — significantly ahead of the second-place finisher. Notably, YITU's team (competing under the name "logicworld") achieved better results using designated data than other teams achieved with unrestricted data, demonstrating that YITU's speaker recognition technology has reached world-leading levels.
VoxSRC is a global speaker recognition competition co-organized by Oxford University, Korean internet giant Naver, SRI International, and MIT, often called "the ImageNet of speaker recognition." Over its seven years of development, YITU has built capabilities across visual perception, natural language processing, speech recognition, and intelligent decision-making. This VoxSRC competition marked YITU's first foray into voice technology. Going forward, YITU will continue investing across multiple algorithm domains, advancing multimodal technology integration and software-hardware co-development, combining world-leading AI algorithms with industry scenarios to drive real-world AI deployment.
AI · Zhuiyi Technology Tops CoQA Leaderboard with Breakthrough in Multi-Turn Conversational Reading Comprehension
Recently, in the Conversational Question Answering Challenge (CoQA) hosted by Stanford University, the AI Lab team at Zhuiyi Technology surpassed Microsoft to claim the top spot on the leaderboard, breaking previous records set by Microsoft and others. Notably, the team's submitted solution was the first single-model approach to comprehensively outperform human benchmarks across all metrics.
As an AI company driven by technological innovation, Zhuiyi Technology has consistently focused on advancing frontier AI semantic interaction and algorithm technologies, achieving breakthroughs in intent recognition, sentiment analysis, knowledge graphs, reading comprehension, and multi-turn dialogue. The company previously won the 2018 CMRC Machine Reading Comprehension Competition and the "Knowledge-Driven Dialogue" category at the 2019 CCF Language and Intelligence Technology Competition. Zhuiyi Technology's intelligent products and solutions have been deployed across finance, telecom, government, and internet sectors, serving more than 300 industry-leading enterprise clients.
AI · ADVANCE.AI Closes Series C Round, Doubling Down on AI Enterprise Services
In September, ADVANCE.AI, an AI and big data innovation company focused on the Asia-Pacific market, announced the completion of its Series C funding round. The round was led by Gaorong Ventures and Pavilion Capital, a Temasek subsidiary, with participation from GSR Ventures, Yuanjing Capital, Lingxi Capital, and Yiyuan Capital. Headquartered in Singapore, ADVANCE.AI builds leading big data processing and analytics platforms, providing enterprise clients in financial services, telecom, and internet with core services including credit assessment, anti-fraud, e-KYC, and facial recognition. Its operations currently span China, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and India, helping partners across the broader Asia-Pacific region achieve technological innovation and intelligent upgrades. To date, ADVANCE.AI serves more than 300 enterprise clients, with monthly API calls reaching 40 million — a fivefold increase in business volume year-over-year. In March 2019, ADVANCE.AI launched "ADVANCE.AI Card," an enterprise financial services product for the China market. Targeting small and medium-sized enterprises, the product provides a mobile business card offering integrated payment, expense control, and reimbursement solutions.
5G · GalaxySpace Closes New Funding Round to Advance Global 5G Satellite Communications and Satellite Internet Services
Recently, commercial space company GalaxySpace completed its latest funding round, led by Jianhua Technology Investment with participation from Shunwei Capital, IDG Capital, Legend Capital, and 5Y Capital, at a valuation exceeding 5 billion yuan. Gaorong Ventures had previously participated in GalaxySpace's Series A round in 2018. Following this round, the company will continue focusing on R&D for low-earth-orbit broadband communication satellites and the commercial deployment of application scenarios.
Founded in 2018 by Xu Ming, co-founder and former president of Cheetah Mobile, GalaxySpace combines aerospace and internet DNA. Through agile development and rapid iteration, the company is scaling production of low-cost, high-performance 5G satellites to build a world-leading low-earth-orbit broadband communication satellite constellation. GalaxySpace's technical team has already developed China's first Q/V-band low-earth-orbit broadband communication satellite payload and first 10Gbps-capacity low-earth-orbit broadband satellite communication system, with technical specifications reaching internationally advanced levels. The company has also made initial progress in validating low-cost, batch-production models.
Data Intelligence · Value Simplex Closes Series B Round as Full-Domain Data Middle Platform Provider
In September, Value Simplex (熵简科技), a leading full-domain data middle platform provider in China, announced the completion of a multi-million-dollar Series B round led by Gaorong Ventures, with existing investor Harvest Investment participating. In September 2018, Value Simplex had raised its Series A from Xiaomi, Harvest Investment, and Qingquanshi Capital.
Centered on data middle platforms, Value Simplex helps enterprises build one-stop data intelligence service platforms, effectively accelerating their data transformation and enabling rapid business value realization. The company's self-developed data middle platform engine addresses core enterprise pain points through an end-to-end system, providing an intelligent backbone for "data-driven business operations." Value Simplex currently serves leading cross-sector clients in finance, consumer goods, technology, and consulting, including Harvest Fund, China Universal Asset Management, Xiaomi, and BCG.
AI · Tianrang Intelligence Joins Alibaba Cloud's R100 New Retail Ecosystem Partnership
On September 25, at the Apsara Conference New Retail Summit, Alibaba Group officially launched its "New Retail Digital Intelligence Transformation R100 Ecosystem Initiative." As a deep partner of Alibaba Cloud, Tianrang Intelligence was named one of 30 representative partners in the "Alibaba Cloud Intelligence New Retail R100 Ecosystem Initiative."
Tianrang Intelligence builds on AI technology centered on "self-learning and continuous optimization," integrating data middle platforms, AI capability platforms, and interactive efficiency robots to help clients construct fully automated marketing solutions. This effectively supports clients in improving operational efficiency, unlocking data value, and optimizing decision-making in complex scenarios across new retail and new marketing. Tianrang Intelligence's marketing automation platform currently serves hundreds of clients spanning brand e-commerce, finance, automotive, and education, driving enterprise digital intelligence upgrades. Going forward, Tianrang Intelligence will continue deepening its Alibaba Cloud integration in new retail and new marketing, releasing more efficiency and effectiveness robot products to empower brand enterprises with digital intelligence capabilities and deliver benchmark cases for the industry.
Long-Term Rentals · People's Daily Online, Danke Apartment, and Future Network Release 2019 Blue Book on College Graduate Rentals
On September 4, the launch event for the 2019 Blue Book on College Graduate Rentals (hereinafter referred to as the "Blue Book") was held in Beijing. The event was hosted by People's Daily Online, supported by Future Network and Danke Apartment, with academic support from the People's Daily Public Opinion Data Center.
The Blue Book notes that "Generation Z" (ages 15–23) is characterized by using consumption to attract like-minded peers for social connection, building personal identity, deepening interests, and pursuing instant gratification. Branded long-term rental apartments that are stylish, reasonably priced, healthy, convenient, and professionally managed better align with Generation Z's rental needs. Their attitude toward living and survival is ushering in a new era for the residential rental market. The Blue Book synthesizes new patterns and characteristics of how recent college graduates integrate into society and pursue personal growth, providing effective guidance for young people's rental decisions while helping the rental market better understand graduates' rental preferences and needs — in line with the implementation of the Medium- and Long-Term Youth Development Plan (2016–2025).
Perspective · Gaorong Ventures' Gao Xiang: Three Forces Accelerating Industrial Internet
On September 25, the 2019 China Fund of Funds Summit and inaugural Lujiang Venture Capital Forum were held in Xiamen. The summit was guided by the Asset Management Association of China and the Xiamen Municipal Government, hosted by the Xiamen Local Financial Supervision Bureau and FOF Weekly, and co-organized by C&D Group, Jinyuan Group, Guodu Venture Capital, and Plum Ventures.
At the "New Economy and New Venture Capital" panel, Gao Xiang, founding partner of Gaorong Ventures, joined fellow guests in discussing which transformations are unfolding amid the wave of economic transition. Gao Xiang noted that understanding the "new economy" requires examining the fundamental shift in underlying drivers. Whereas past economic growth was driven more by labor and other production factors, the new economy is driven more by technology and innovation. In this transition, industrial internet — born from the integration of technological innovation with traditional industries — is a key area worthy of attention and investment.
Gao Xiang believes that innovative companies in the industrial internet space will encounter entirely new opportunities, with the potential for "fast companies" to emerge. His reasoning includes the following: First, cloud computing is a critical enabler for industrial internet. With the development of Tencent Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, Huawei Cloud, and others, enterprise informatization and datafication levels will improve substantially over the next five years. Second, industrial internet may enter an era where the boundaries between B2B and B2C become increasingly blurred — after connecting data and operations, B2B businesses can gradually develop capabilities to serve end consumers. Third, the further development and commercial application of AI, 5G, and other technologies will build a more intelligent, higher-speed, more powerful industrial internet, driving efficiency gains across industries.
Ronghui · Gaorong Family Visits QQ Mini Programs
On September 26, Gaorong Ventures' "Ronghui" community and QQ Mini Programs co-hosted a salon, inviting 45 members from Gaorong portfolio companies to Tencent for in-depth dialogue with the QQ Mini Programs team. From product, operations, and commercial perspectives, participants explored platform strategy and innovative development models and monetization opportunities. Going forward, Gaorong portfolio companies will collaborate with the QQ platform to explore open partnership opportunities and co-create "Q-flavored mini programs" that young people love.
Gaorong Ventures' "Ronghui" is dedicated to building an ecosystem network, sharing knowledge and insights with outstanding entrepreneurs and enabling resource connections. Going forward, Ronghui will continue partnering with ecosystem platforms to better support founders.
