New drug development, energy storage, computing, and semiconductors see breakthrough innovations: homegrown R&D, world-first technologies, and AI-driven advances

Whether in technological innovation or the external environment, change is constant. Yet through it all, our commitment to creating value for users and our resolve to achieve global leadership remain unwavering. In this issue of the Gaorong Bulletin, alongside new funding rounds in healthcare, energy storage, and consumer sectors, we also highlight breakthroughs in quantum computing, semiconductors, new drug R&D, and AI-driven products.

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Funding

01

Cholesgen Completes Series A Financing of Over RMB 100 Million

Advancing Innovative Drug Development in Cholesterol Metabolism

On June 6, Cholesgen announced the completion of a Series A financing round exceeding RMB 100 million, led by Gaorong Ventures.

Founded in 2021 in Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, Cholesgen is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing first-in-class therapeutics. The company focuses on novel disease targets, leveraging disease biology, medicinal chemistry, and clinical translational medicine to conduct innovative R&D for metabolic diseases (including hyperlipidemia, obesity, diabetes, atherosclerosis, and NASH) and oncology.

Since its inception, Cholesgen has assembled a highly efficient new drug R&D team comprising scientific leaders with deep academic backgrounds — including academic advisor Academician Baoliang Song, an internationally recognized expert in glycolipid metabolism with over two decades in the field — alongside seasoned researchers with extensive experience at leading domestic and international pharmaceutical companies. The team has established multiple platforms spanning biochemical and cellular drug screening, drug design and medicinal chemistry, structural biology, metabolic disease animal models, and human genetics analysis. Partnerships with top-tier CROs and renowned domestic universities have laid a solid foundation for accelerating its pipeline. Read more

02

China Energy Storage Completes Series A Financing of Over RMB 1 Billion

Advancing Industrialization of Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage

Recently, China Energy Storage announced the completion of its Series A financing round exceeding RMB 1 billion, led by China Development Bank Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading Fund and Cinda Kunpeng, with participation from multiple new and existing shareholders and industrial investors. Gaorong Ventures had previously participated in China Energy Storage's Pre-A+ round in 2022.

China Energy Storage is a pioneer and leader in China's compressed air energy storage sector, as well as an internationally leading provider of compressed air energy storage system solutions. Its technology originates from the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Advanced compressed air energy storage offers advantages in scale, cost, longevity, cleanliness, unrestricted storage cycles, and no reliance on fossil fuels or geographic conditions — making it a highly promising technology for long-duration, large-scale energy storage.

In recent years, China Energy Storage has achieved continuous breakthroughs in advanced compressed air energy storage technology, including the world's first 100MW advanced compressed air energy storage national demonstration power plant in Zhangjiakou, which successfully connected to the grid in September 2022. The company is currently advancing 100-300MW demonstration projects across Henan, Shandong, Ningxia, and Jiangsu, with total commissioned, under-construction, and registered project capacity exceeding 4,000MW. Read more

03

Advance Intelligence Group Raises $80 Million

Advancing Digital Ecosystem Development in Southeast Asia

In May, AI-driven technology company Advance Intelligence Group announced the completion of an $80 million financing round, led by existing investors Warburg Pincus and Northstar. Gaorong Ventures had led the company's Series C round in 2019 and participated in its Series D round.

Headquartered in Singapore, Advance Intelligence Group is one of Asia's largest independent financial services technology companies. Its portfolio includes Atome, a "buy now, pay later" platform; Kredit Pintar, one of Indonesia's most popular digital lending platforms; ADVANCE.AI, a leading SaaS provider of enterprise digital identity, compliance, and risk management solutions; and Ginee, an omnichannel e-commerce merchant services platform.

Today, Advance Intelligence Group serves over 500 enterprise clients, 235,000 merchants, and 40 million individual consumers. On the consumer side, Atome continues to solidify its leadership position in Southeast Asia, offering consumers greater financial flexibility and value-added services to its extensive merchant network. In enterprise services, ADVANCE.AI is evolving into a world-class end-to-end risk management platform.

04

Specialty Coffee Chain M Stand Receives Strategic Investment from Xiaohongshu

Recently, specialty coffee chain M Stand completed its Series B+ financing round of several hundred million RMB, led by internet platform Xiaohongshu. Gaorong Ventures had participated in M Stand's Series B round in 2021.

Since its founding, the team has adhered to its "More than coffee" ethos, building a youthful, trend-forward lifestyle brand that starts with specialty coffee and integrates classic and creative elements with aesthetic design. M Stand also maintains its commitment to unique "one store, one design" coffee spaces. To date, M Stand has accumulated over 350 directly operated stores in core commercial districts across nearly 30 cities nationwide.

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By the Numbers

01

Huayi Quantum Breaks World Record

Achieves Stable Trapping of 92-Ion One-Dimensional Chain at Room Temperature

Recently, Huayi Quantum announced that its first-generation commercial ion-trap quantum computing prototype HYQ-A37 has surpassed its own previous milestone. Following its achievement of stable trapping of 62 ions, the company has broken another world record by maintaining a one-dimensional ion crystal of 92 ytterbium-171 ions for several hours without decoherence, laying a solid foundation for large-scale ion-trap quantum computing.

Huayi Quantum officially launched HYQ-A37 in April this year, offering up to 37 qubits of quantum computing capability with programmable universal quantum logic gate sets and adiabatic quantum computing. All performance metrics have met initial design expectations, with some reaching world-leading levels — making it broadly comparable to the most advanced ion-trap quantum computers globally. Read our interview with Huayi Quantum

02

MemVerge Launches World's First CXL Global Shared Memory Architecture, Redefining Distributed Computing

At the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) in May, leading big-memory software innovator MemVerge announced the launch of Gismo (Global IO-Free Shared Memory Object system). This groundbreaking technology revolutionizes distributed application performance by eliminating network IO and data copies.

As the world's first CXL-based multi-server shared memory architecture, Gismo pushes the boundaries of data access and collaboration in distributed environments. Through seamless CXL integration, Gismo enables real-time data sharing across multiple servers while eliminating network IO and reducing data transfer latency.

This innovation allows enterprises to unlock the full potential of their distributed applications, accelerating data-intensive workloads and reducing latency to unprecedented levels. With Gismo, organizations can achieve significant performance gains while simplifying infrastructure and optimizing resource utilization. Primary use cases include AI/ML applications, large language models, next-generation databases, and financial trading platforms.

03

Raysolve Globally Launches 0.11-Inch and 0.22-Inch Monolithic Full-Color Micro-LED Microdisplay Series

Recently, Raysolve globally launched its 0.11-inch and 0.22-inch monolithic full-color Micro-LED microdisplay series at SID Display Week 2023.

The 0.11-inch monolithic full-color microdisplay breaks the current record for smallest Micro-LED microdisplay chip size, weighing just 0.23g with full-color resolution of 320x240. The 0.22-inch monolithic full-color microdisplay weighs 0.29g with full-color resolution of 640x480. The series achieves 3.5-micron ultra-small pixel pitch, Micro-LED pixel density of up to 7,200 PPI, full-color brightness exceeding 100,000 nits, and operating temperatures from -20°C to 85°C.

The series' disruptive breakthrough lies not only in achieving monolithic full-color display, but simultaneously delivering ultra-high brightness, ultra-high pixel density, and ultra-compact size — setting new industry records and solving the dilemma of balancing performance with form factor. This meets the demands for ultra-lightweight design in consumer-grade AR glasses.

Through proprietary photolithographic quantum dot processes, Raysolve has achieved quantum dot film layers just 2 microns thick, combined with blue Micro-LED to realize full-color microdisplay chips. This maintains high conversion optical efficiency while preserving the high-resolution characteristics of photoresist, and combines with unique optical crosstalk elimination technology to achieve high color purity — providing a viable mass-production pathway for full-color Micro-LED microdisplays.

04

Inmabio's World's First Recombinant Botulinum Toxin Type A YY001 Successfully Completes Phase II Clinical Trials in China

On May 24, Inmabio announced that its subsidiary Yuyan Pharmaceutical has successfully completed Phase I/II clinical trials for its self-developed recombinant botulinum toxin type A for injection (YY001) for the treatment of moderate to severe glabellar lines, and is actively preparing for Phase III clinical trials.

Botulinum toxin products have broad applications across multiple therapeutic areas, with substantial and rapidly growing market size both domestically and internationally. YY001 is the world's first recombinant botulinum toxin type A to enter clinical trials in China. According to trial results disclosed at the clinical study summary meeting, YY001 demonstrated excellent safety and efficacy data.

Inmabio has independently developed a diversified and synergistic product pipeline spanning ophthalmic drugs, recombinant protein botulinum toxins, tumor immunotherapy drugs, and pet immunotherapy drugs — including multiple potential first-in-class innovative therapeutics, with all major products having entered clinical stages.

05

ProfoundBio Announces Clinical Trial Progress for Two ADC Drug Candidates

Demonstrating Best-in-Class ADC Potential

On May 26, ProfoundBio announced that its ADC drug candidate PRO1160 has completed first-patient dosing in the US and received approval from China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) to initiate Phase I/II clinical trials. PRO1184 (rinatabart sesutecan, Rina-S) also received NMPA approval to begin Phase I/II trials in China. Rina-S has shown promising preliminary clinical data with observed anti-tumor activity at tolerable doses.

Rina-S is an FRα-targeting ADC drug; its Phase I/II trials will evaluate safety, activity, and pharmacokinetics in patients with ovarian, endometrial, breast, non-small cell lung cancers, and mesothelioma. PRO1160 is a CD70-targeting ADC drug; its Phase I/II trials will assess safety, activity, and pharmacokinetics in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma, metastatic or recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and advanced non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Both Rina-S and PRO1160 employ unique hydrophilic linkers and exatecan payloads, designed to reduce off-target toxicity and increase anti-tumor activity through higher drug exposure and stronger bystander killing effects — demonstrating best-in-class ADC potential.

06 Westlake Valley Intelligent Pharma's Lijia Ma Team Develops Deep Learning Model: Based on 740,000 gRNAs, Effectively Predicts CRISPR Multi-Dimensional gRNA Performance

On May 16, Lijia Ma, scientific founder of Westlake Valley Intelligent Pharma and researcher at Westlake University's School of Life Sciences, together with team members, published a research paper in Cell Discovery titled "Deep sampling of gRNA in the human genome and deep-learning-informed prediction of gRNA activities." The paper introduces a deep learning model built on a novel strategy that can effectively predict multi-dimensional CRISPR gRNA performance.

gRNA design and optimization is one of the important challenges in CRISPR (gene editing technology) system research. Researchers need to design gRNA molecules with specific targeting and stability based on application requirements and experimental conditions to improve CRISPR performance. In this study, the team used 740,000 gRNAs — compared to previous studies that used only 10,000 to 50,000 gRNA sequences for deep learning model construction.

The study developed machine learning models that, through deep sampling and large-scale quantification of gRNA capabilities in K562 cells, predict SpCas9/gRNA on-target cleavage efficiency (AIdit_ON), off-target cleavage specificity (AIdit_OFF), and mutation profiles (AIdit_DSB) from uniformly collected and processed datasets. Compared to previous models, these demonstrated superior performance in predicting SpCas9/gRNA activity across every independent dataset. Additionally, the study observed cell type-specific mutation profiles and identified exonucleases as key drivers of these results.

07 Dianxiaomi ERP Supports ChatGPT One-Click Publishing, Reducing Product Listing Time by 90%

In May, Dianxiaomi ERP launched AI-related features supporting ChatGPT one-click publishing and automated product listing, improving efficiency and convenience for cross-border e-commerce operations.

Through Dianxiaomi ERP's ChatGPT one-click publishing, titles and descriptions are automatically translated, product categories are intelligently matched, and product attributes and basic information are auto-populated — all without manual intervention.

Additionally, Dianxiaomi ERP supports one-click publishing of 1688 apparel products to the Ozon platform, with ChatGPT automatically handling the entire process without seller manual operation — fast and efficient. This feature dramatically simplifies the product listing workflow, saving sellers 90% of their time.

Going forward, sellers will only need to input product information and keywords into Dianxiaomi ERP to generate high-quality, SEO-optimized product titles and descriptions tailored to e-commerce platform requirements through big data analysis and AI algorithms. It can also customize content for different target audiences, bringing more precise traffic and conversion.

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Horizon

01 CCTV Xinwen Lianbo Reports: GalaxySpace Independently Develops China's First Flat-Panel Satellite, Featuring China's First Commercial Flexible Solar Array

02 BOSS Zhipin App Visual Experience Upgrade: "Every Conversation Opens New Possibilities"

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Gaorong Hub

# Gaorong Hub · Generative AI Series Events

Facing the new frontier of AI, entrepreneurs and developers are prompted to consider: What future will generative AI create? Which industries will undergo transformation? How should innovative enterprises actively build their next-generation applications?

On May 11, Gaorong Hub partnered with Microsoft Greater China Strategic Incubator (CSI) to host a large model and generative AI themed event, exploring with entrepreneurs how artificial intelligence is transforming industries and revolutionizing application scenarios. Mian Li, director of big data and AI products at Microsoft Greater China Azure Division; Siyuan Zhang, general manager of Microsoft Greater China Strategic Incubator; and Chenfei Wu, senior researcher at Microsoft Research Asia, among others, shared their insights. Advance Intelligence Group, BioGeometry, Entropy Technology, and Cloud Atom Technology also shared how they are exploring generative AI applications in their respective fields and their perspectives on future opportunities.