Robots, AI, and Simulation Technologies Accelerate Industrial Adoption | Rongbao · June

# About Gaorong Report

Frontier technology only realizes its transformative potential when it collides with industry — that's when we discover how it can reshape industrial workflows and convert technological dividends into industrial gains. In this issue of Gaorong Report, we round up recent funding rounds in industrial upgrading, AI drug discovery, and robotics; milestone achievements in commercial deployment and product launches by frontier tech companies; and noteworthy growth metrics and recognitions worth watching.

Jun

Funding

#01

Style3D Closes Nearly $100 Million Pre-B+ Round to Build Digital Fashion Infrastructure

On June 21, Style3D, a digital infrastructure provider for the physical world, announced it had raised nearly $100 million in a Pre-B+ round, with continued investment from Hillhouse, CDH Investments, and other institutions. Gaorong Ventures led Style3D's A+ round in early 2020 and has added to its position in subsequent rounds.

Founded in 2015, Style3D provides underlying technical services powered by proprietary simulation engines and industrial-grade software for the entire industry chain. The company has built a technology-driven 3D design collaboration platform to serve as digital infrastructure for fashion. It is currently deployed in the apparel industry, helping clothing enterprises digitize their entire workflow from R&D and collaboration to sales exhibitions and manufacturing.

Style3D's material simulation and modeling technology has consistently occupied a leading global position. To date, the company has accumulated over 50 patents and software copyrights in related fields and has participated in drafting multiple national standards for digital garments and dress forms.

Starting in 2021, Style3D established operations centers in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, New York, and Milan to provide localized services to fashion and cross-industry clients. The company's overseas business has grown steadily, gaining traction in Europe, the US, and Belt and Road markets, and has secured partnerships with international leaders across various segments. Read more

#02

Helixon Raises Nearly 500 Million Yuan in Series A to Drive AI-Powered Macromolecular Drug Discovery

On June 22, Helixon announced it had raised nearly 500 million yuan in a Series A round led by 5Y Capital, with Gaorong Ventures among the participants.

Helixon is building next-generation AI scientific computing platforms combined with proprietary high-throughput biological experimentation technologies to provide drug developers with intelligent systems for molecular computation, simulation, and design at the microscopic level.

In novel drug development, particularly macromolecular drug discovery, Helixon is innovatively developing efficient machine learning algorithms and data acquisition technologies to restructure the drug development process and substantially accelerate R&D speed and efficiency. The company has developed multiple revolutionary algorithms for protein drug design and modeling, integrating them with high-throughput experimental platforms to complete a high-efficiency iterative loop of AI design and experimental validation.

As its platform technology matures, Helixon has begun building multiple macromolecular and immunotherapy pipelines, with plans to rapidly advance them to clinical stages. Read more

#03

XYZ Robotics Closes Nearly $40 Million B+ Round to Build Next-Generation Vision-Guided Robotics Solutions

Recently, XYZ Robotics completed a nearly $40 million B+ round led by Capital Today, with Gaorong Ventures, 5Y Capital, and Source Code Capital participating. XYZ Robotics has now raised over $100 million in total funding. Gaorong Ventures led the company's Series A in 2019 and has continued to invest in subsequent rounds.

Since its founding in June 2018, XYZ Robotics has focused on providing industrial 3D vision products (including teach-free motion planning), logistics picking, and palletizing/depalletizing workstations for logistics and manufacturing customers. Building on three core technical strengths — 3D vision algorithms and sensor design, motion planning algorithms, and no-code user-friendly interfaces — the team has continuously refined its "hand-eye coordination" robotics technology through real-world deployments, enabling system integrators to deliver smarter robotic products that truly reduce costs and improve efficiency.

Over the past year, XYZ Robotics has rapidly accelerated commercial deployment, with hundreds of projects launched domestically and internationally (including in the US and Japan), covering industries such as automotive, 3C electronics, e-commerce, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, apparel, chemicals, and more, earning consistent recognition from leading enterprises across sectors. Read more

#04

Flexiv Completes B+ Round to Deepen General-Purpose Intelligent Robotics

Flexiv, a global technology leader in general-purpose intelligent robotics, recently completed a nearly $100 million B+ round at unicorn valuation. The funding will focus on R&D for general platform products, business expansion, and ecosystem development. Gaorong Ventures led Flexiv's funding in 2017 and has continued to add to its position in subsequent rounds.

Flexiv has successively released general-purpose robotics software platforms including Noema, Flexiv Elements, and Flexiv RDK. The company completed deployment and delivery of its first adaptive production line last year and has since achieved batch replication, with business growing nearly tenfold during the same period.

Jun

By the Numbers

#01

BOSS Zhipin Releases Q1 2022 Earnings: Revenue of 1.138 Billion Yuan, Up 44.3% Year-over-Year

On June 25, BOSS Zhipin released its Q1 2022 financial results. The company reported revenue of 1.138 billion yuan, up 44.3% year-over-year. Average monthly active users reached 25.2 million in Q1, continuing to grow year-over-year and leading the industry. Paying enterprise customers over the 12 months ended March 31, 2022 reached 4.1 million. R&D expenses hit 291 million yuan for the quarter, a new single-quarter record.

Public information shows that BOSS Zhipin's safety-related teams exceeded 1,000 people in 2021, providing 24/7 job search security protection.

This year, BOSS Zhipin has directed resources to support users facing greater difficulties, including micro and small enterprises, businesses in severely COVID-affected regions, and college students. In Q1, the company reduced job posting fees for industries in Shanghai, Jilin, Shanxi, and other affected areas to encourage hiring demand. BOSS Zhipin also partnered with the Ministry of Education's 24365 Campus Recruitment Service for a six-week employment promotion event.

#02

Qitan Tech Releases Desktop Nanopore Gene Sequencer: 6 Chips Run Independently, 18G Data per Run

On June 28, Qitan Tech released the QNome-3841hex nanopore gene sequencer along with related reagent kits, offering a new solution for flexible sequencing scenarios. As the newest addition to Qitan's QNome family, the QNome-3841hex marks the beginning of matrix development for domestic nanopore gene sequencers, meeting more diverse market demands and providing core support for research and applications across fields.

As a desktop sequencer, the QNome-3841hex's standout feature is its more flexible throughput, supporting up to six independent sequencing tasks with the freedom to combine sequencing chips during operation — flexible and controllable without needing to batch samples, minimizing startup costs. For data output, the QNome-3841hex features the upgraded QCell-384 sequencing chip, with each chip producing 3G of data; with six chips running simultaneously, a single sequencing run can generate 18G. Single-read accuracy remains at 90%, consensus accuracy reaches 99.9%, and read lengths range from 200bp to 2Mbp.

In application testing, Qitan's team conducted validation across pathogen identification, microbial assembly, tumor fusion gene detection, forensic identification, and low-pass human genome sequencing — all yielding results or metrics exceeding expectations, demonstrating the QNome-3841hex's broad applicability and reliability.

#03

Qiyuan World Launches Comprehensive Game AI Solution: AI-Assisted Game Design to Become Industry Standard Within 2-3 Years

Recently, general AI platform company Qiyuan World launched a cross-genre comprehensive AI solution for the gaming industry, targeting SLG, FPS, and other genres with offline numerical design and optimization, online intelligent agents, and other AI-powered products to help clients reduce costs, improve efficiency, and enhance player experience.

For SLG games, Qiyuan's AI numerical design optimization solution can perform data mining in combinatorially explosive problem spaces, finding optimal solutions among hundreds of cards, tactics, and maps with limited computing power and time, while providing one-stop SaaS tools for partner clients in early-stage game design and mid-to-late-stage operations planning.

Additionally, Qiyuan World offers online intelligent agent capabilities for game developers, using smarter, more human-like AI to increase game engagement. In FPS games, for example, compared to NPCs written with traditional behavior trees, Qiyuan's online intelligent agents demonstrate higher cognitive decision-making capabilities, resulting in more human-like behavior and more intelligent combat performance.

Qiyuan World's large-scale neural network models, originally developed for StarCraft AI, can be maximally repurposed across SLG, tactical RPG, card, MOBA, FPS, and other genres, helping users complete game design and optimization at lower cost and in shorter cycles.

Qiyuan World founder and CEO Yuan Quan stated that AI-assisted game design will become an industry standard within the next two to three years, bringing qualitative changes to gaming. As a leading general AI platform, Qiyuan World will accelerate the deployment of AI in consumer and industrial metaverse scenarios.

#04

Tianrang Designs Natural Proteins with AI Dominance: De Novo Protein Design Based on Hundreds of Millions of Sequences

Recently, Tianrang's XLab team unveiled its new protein design platform, TRDesign, for the first time. Based on this platform, the team generated novel SARS-CoV-2 spike protein binders through de novo design without relying on any known natural protein structures. Tianrang's AI-dominant approach to de novo protein design opens new breakthroughs for novel drug R&D and synthetic biology development.

Last year, Tianrang developed TRFold, a high-precision protein structure prediction platform matching AlphaFold2 in speed and accuracy. Studying hundreds of millions of protein sequences and millions of protein structures with corresponding functions, the team established deep associations between sequence, structure, and function — mapping one-dimensional sequences back to three-dimensional structures and generalizing these high-dimensional associations into the new protein design platform TRDesign for efficient amino acid sequence generation.

Tianrang is now fully advancing the design of artificial proteins with superior properties and drug development processes. Drawing on insights in reinforcement learning and self-learning, the team is also combining experimental automation to design a fully intelligent wet-lab platform, TRLab, with the potential to accelerate exploration of more valuable proteins at scale for applications in biomedicine, chemistry, industry, agriculture, food, materials science, and environmental protection.

#05

Nothing Reveals Smartphone Design for phone (1): Official Launch on July 12

In June, consumer tech company Nothing revealed the design of its first smartphone, phone (1). Nothing co-founder and CEO Carl Pei noted that "phone (1)'s design comes from instinct."

phone (1) features a transparent back and unique mechanical design composed of over 400 components. Inspired by artists such as Massimo Vignelli (designer of the New York City subway map), it makes complex systems feel like art. A 100% recycled aluminum frame makes the body lightweight yet sturdy, and over 50% of the phone's plastic components are made from bio-based or recycled materials.

The back of phone (1) features multiple LED light strips that provide different feedback when users charge, receive notifications, or use the camera. The Glyph Interface system in settings allows users to control and customize the LEDs.

By building an ecosystem of iconic and connected tech products, Nothing aims to bring artistry and passion back to the industry. Its smart earphones, ear (1), have sold over 530,000 units to date, and the much-anticipated phone (1) will officially launch on July 12, 2022.

#06

Xinhua Net and Dewu App Release "Guochao Report": Young Users' Guochao Consumption Heat Grows Over 10x

In June, Xinhua Net and Dewu App jointly released the "Guochao Brand Young Consumer Insights Report," using Dewu App — where young consumers are most concentrated — as its research sample.

The report shows that compared to ten years ago, Guochao (China-chic) popularity has grown more than fivefold, with 78.5% of consumers preferring Chinese brands — 72% higher than preference for foreign brands. In Guochao consumption, post-90s and post-00s generations have become the absolute main force, contributing 74% of Guochao consumption; on Dewu App, this proportion reaches 87%.

In 2020, the number of new Guochao products launched on Dewu App grew nearly eightfold, while young users' consumption heat for Guochao products grew over tenfold. Guochao brand new products now cover footwear, apparel, digital devices, bags, watches, beauty, accessories, and even art.

Post-90s and post-00s consumers prioritize quality most when shopping, while also caring about aesthetics, technological innovation, and emotional value — even surpassing "cost performance." This structural shift in young people's demands is opening "new supply" for Guochao brands and sparking innovation thinking for more brands. Dewu App founder and CEO Yang Bing noted that young people's trust and passion for Guochao products is driving supply-side changes. Dewu App promotes new Guochao forces and heritage brand innovation through new product launches, forming a higher-level dynamic balance where demand pulls supply and supply creates demand.

Jun

Recognition

At the mid-year mark, Gaorong Ventures was named to 36Kr's 2022 Top 10 Most Entrepreneur-Friendly VC Firms and Top 10 Most Influential VC Firms. Gaorong founding partners Chang Chen, Gao Xiang, and Yue Bin were listed among 36Kr's 2022 Top 100 Most Entrepreneur-Friendly Investors.

Gaorong Ventures was also named to TMTpost's 2022 H1 Top 10 Investment Pioneer VC Firms, and Gaorong partner Rui Han was named to the 2022 H1 Top 10 Young Partners.

In June, Arterial Network released the 2022 Future Healthcare 100 list, with multiple Gaorong-invested healthcare enterprises making the cut. Among them: Mirxes, Hygea Medical, Cornerstone Robotics, Pulse Medical, and Qitan Tech were selected for China Innovative Medical Devices Top 100; Abogen Biosciences, Inmagene Biopharmaceuticals, Unknown, and Andon Therapeutics made the China Innovative Biopharma Top 100; Galixir and Stack Data were selected for China Innovative Digital Healthcare Top 100.

Flexiv co-founder and CEO Shiquan Wang, Unknown co-founder and CEO Yan Tan, and Stack Data founder and CEO Gejie Liu were all named to Fortune China's 2022 40 Under 40 Business Elite.

Jun

Horizons

#01

Chinese Company Going Global Builds "Africa's Alipay": OPay Receives Domestic and International Media Coverage

#02

E-bike Brand Aventon: Saving Wildlife and Protecting Nature Is Humanity's Shared Mission

#03

What Will Future Concerts Look Like? XVERSE Provides Cloud-Edge Collaborative 3D Interactive Technology for TMELAND

Jun

Gaorong Hub

#01

Organization Upgrade Season: Agile Organizations for the Future

In June, Gaorong Hub launched its "Organization Upgrade Season" series of events co-hosted with Amazon Web Services. At the inaugural online session, Yuan Lingzi, VP of Lark Consulting, shared organizational development philosophies and talent perspectives that support agile collaboration in the pandemic era. Read more

ToDesk founder and CEO Hu Jianqiang, Genki Forest Chief Human Resources Officer Zhang Yunyi, Gaorong partner Rui Han, and Yuan Lingzi joined in dialogue. The roundtable guests noted that for future global human resource allocation, the guiding principle should be "organization follows business." Beyond bravely trying better management approaches, advanced organizations must first have their own creed — from the very start of entrepreneurship, thinking about what value an innovative product or business model can bring to the broader ecosystem and society, and what connections it will form in a larger arena. Read more

#02

Globalization Series: Global Brands and Strategic Public Relations

In June, Gaorong Hub hosted an online session on global brands and strategic PR. Qu Hong, CEO of BCW China, shared how to approach public relations with strategic thinking in an era of great competition, based on global macro trends. Cui Tianshi, founder and CEO of KastKing; Yu Hong, CMO of Geekplus; and Hu Xiaochen, VP of Y.O.U brand, joined to discuss and exchange views on global brand building, user mindshare and community networks, and B2B enterprise marketing.