Two Portfolio Companies Close Funding Rounds, Four Achieve Strategic Upgrades, and Two Rank First on Global Top Lists | Source Code Capital Community · February
"Ma Hui Notes" chronicles the small steps forward of our community members, shares in the joy of their growth, and looks toward an even brighter future.
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More than four years since Source Code Capital's founding, many of its portfolio companies have grown into a thriving ecosystem, and Ma Hui has become a platform for exchange among Source Code's LPs, partners, and entrepreneurs. Ma Hui Magazine records the incremental progress of these companies, shares in the joy of their growth, and looks forward to an even brighter future.
Ma Hui Magazine — February
Contents
「Funding」
Walnut Coding
Completes RMB 120 million Series A+ round
YQN Logistics
Completes tens of millions of dollars in Series B2 funding
「Milestones」
Pagoda
Partners with Inspur Cloud to "let people everywhere enjoy better fruit"
RiverPay
Accelerates expansion in global luxury department stores
Insnail
Launches national "Insurance Literacy Public Course" with Xinhua News Agency
WeiMai
Provides at-home maternal and infant care services for local residents
「Quotes」
Xing Wang: In the second half of the internet era, master the fundamentals
Lin Xiong: People need homes with "soul"
Xiang Li: Raising your floor of cognition is life's most crucial gain
「Awards」
ByteDance
Ranks #1 on CB Insights' "Global AI Unicorns" list
Meituan
Ranks #1 on Fast Company magazine's "50 Most Innovative Companies of 2019"
ByteDance, Ziroom
Win Xinhua News Agency "Most Influential APP" awards
Pagoda
Named to "China's Top 50 New Retail Companies of 2018"
Car300
Selected for 2019 Nanjing Service Industry Development Special Fund project pool
Funding
Walnut Coding
Completes RMB 120 million Series A+ round
Source Code Capital portfolio company Walnut Coding, a children's programming education platform, announced that it completed a RMB 120 million Series A+ round in 2018 several months prior. The round was led by Hillhouse, with existing shareholders Source Code Capital and XVC participating. This represents the largest Series A transaction to date in the children's programming sector. Walnut Coding's total Series A fundraising has now exceeded RMB 200 million.
As the lead investor in Walnut Coding's Series A and a board member, He Nan of Source Code Capital commented: "The children's programming market has seen tremendous activity over the past year, and Walnut Coding has been a pioneer in this space. The company's rapid growth and product iteration demonstrate the team's strategic vision and capacity for innovation. Source Code Capital remains bullish on and committed to Walnut Coding's development, working together to create a better future for children."
YQN Logistics
Completes tens of millions of dollars in Series B2 funding
On February 20, YQN Logistics ("Yun Qu Na"), a leading domestic one-stop international logistics service platform, announced the completion of its Series B2 round of tens of millions of dollars. The round was led by global investment firm Coatue, with existing shareholders Source Code Capital, DCM, and China Merchants Capital participating. Multiway Capital served as exclusive financial advisor.
As a veteran of the international logistics industry, YQN Logistics founder & CEO Zhou Shihao commented: "Beyond the capital markets, players across the supply chain — shipping companies, ports, customs authorities — are increasingly active in digitalization. With more participants joining in, we believe the shipping industry's digital transformation in 2019 warrants even greater anticipation."
Milestones
Pagoda
Partners with Inspur Cloud to "let people everywhere enjoy better fruit"
On February 14, fruit retail chain Pagoda signed a strategic partnership with Inspur Cloud ERP. The two parties will deepen collaboration in cloud computing, big data, and supply chain, supporting Pagoda's cloud migration and digital transformation while enabling consumers to enjoy better service and better fruit — "letting people everywhere enjoy better fruit."
As the pioneer of the specialized fruit retail chain model, Pagoda has spent 17 years since opening its first store in 2002 transforming the fruit shop into a chain business. Its footprint now spans more than 60 cities nationwide with over 3,600 locations, making it a renowned fruit retail chain in China and globally.
RiverPay
Accelerates expansion in global luxury department stores
RiverPay Inc., an emerging electronic payment services provider focused on North American and European markets and an officially authorized partner of Alipay and WeChat Pay, announced on February 1 its strong performance since beginning partnerships with several global luxury department store groups the previous year. The company stated it will continue in 2019 to expand its merchant share in the luxury department store sector alongside Chinese consumers' most favored and frequently used mobile payment tools — Alipay, WeChat Pay, and UnionPay mobile payments (UnionPay QuickPass app).
RiverPay currently maintains solid partnerships with global department store leaders including Saks Fifth Avenue, Selfridges & Co., Hudson's Bay Company, and Holt Renfrew, continuously expanding the number and scale of stores where it is available. The company expects to announce comprehensive payment partnerships with several additional mainstream European and American retail department store groups within the first quarter of this year.
WeiMai
"Internet + maternal and infant home care" provides at-home nursing services for local residents
On February 15, the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China issued the "Notice on Launching Pilot Programs for 'Internet + Nursing Services,'" beginning pilot programs for "Internet + nursing services" in six provinces and municipalities including Zhejiang.
Prior to this, WeiMai had partnered with Shaoxing Keqiao District Maternal and Child Health Hospital to pilot "Internet + maternal and infant home care" services. To date, more than twenty expectant mothers and newborns have received at-home nursing care, with services including breastfeeding guidance, lactation support, newborn touch therapy, and developmental assessments. Going forward, WeiMai will successively launch "Internet + nursing services" in Taizhou, Jinhua, and other locations, expanding service coverage to additional groups including disabled elderly individuals.
Insnail
Launches national "Insurance Literacy Public Course" with Xinhua News Agency
On February 12, Insnail and Xinhua News Agency jointly launched "An Insurance Open Course for All Chinese People," delivered via WeChat micro-courses nationwide. The initiative aims to help more people understand basic insurance knowledge, return insurance to its essential purpose of protection, and maximize the leverage effect of insurance to provide the greatest possible safeguard for people's lives.
To adapt to evolving insurance consumption needs, Insnail launched a free, nationwide "Insurance Literacy Public Course" open to all internet users. Going forward, Insnail will continue to uphold its operating philosophy of "letting insurance return to protection," sustaining the "Insurance Literacy Public Course" program to enable more consumers to learn about insurance at zero cost through knowledge sharing.
Quotes
Meituan Founder & CEO Xing Wang:
In the second half of the internet era, master the fundamentals
In the first half of the internet era, you could still achieve rapid growth through market dividends, strategy, and resources even with weak fundamentals. But in the second half, if your fundamentals aren't solid, survival itself becomes difficult. Looking at business history, the vast majority of company failures stem not from an inability to master difficult maneuvers, but from problems with basic skills. Yet building strong fundamentals is not a matter of days — it's a long-term endeavor, arguably something that spans a company's entire lifecycle.
"Painstaking" in "painstaking practice of fundamentals" means we must adjust our mindset: this isn't about satisfying novelty, and may even feel somewhat tedious. We must strive to build good mechanisms that transform this "pain" into a sense of accomplishment for everyone. "Practice" is the core — easier said than done. Seemingly simple actions must be repeated, iterated, and improved upon with each iteration. Improving just a little each day, if sustained, can produce exponential effects that dramatically elevate our capabilities. Through painstaking practice of fundamentals, we must internalize them as organizational capability. With solid fundamentals, we can win at 99% of things.
Ziroom CEO Lin Xiong:
People need homes with "soul"
The rental homes of the future will certainly have emotion and service embedded in them. Going forward, people's living spaces and community services will enter an era of interconnected everything, an era of intelligence. A home with "soul" implies higher, more specific, and more intelligent demands for personalized service. This path is difficult and the challenges are substantial, but I believe the opportunities are even greater. Through unremitting effort, I believe renting will become increasingly convenient and increasingly better.
CHJ Automotive Founder & CEO Xiang Li:
Raising my floor of cognition is my life's most crucial gain
Over 20 years of entrepreneurship, I've experienced five floors of cognition — each level, in retrospect, was worlds apart, and I was extraordinarily fortunate to reach each. Only from a higher floor can you better see the problems of the floors below.
Floor one: being an ordinary person.
Floor two: becoming an excellent person.
Floor three: becoming an excellent manager.
Floor four: becoming an excellent leader.
Floor five: becoming a top-tier leader — this I only came to understand in 2018. I've only just begun, with no tangible results yet. Our true capabilities are far stronger than we imagine. Raising my floor of cognition is my life's most crucial gain.
Awards
ByteDance
Ranks #1 on CB Insights' "2019 Global AI Unicorns" list
On February 14, renowned global research firm CB Insights released its latest "Global AI Unicorns" list, published annually. In 2018, 17 AI startups reached valuations of $1 billion or more, compared to just 9 in 2017. ByteDance claimed the top spot on the "2019 Global AI Unicorns" list for its AI innovation.
Meituan
Ranks #1 on Fast Company magazine's
"50 Most Innovative Companies of 2019"
On February 20, leading American business magazine Fast Company released its "2019 World's Most Innovative Companies" ranking. Chinese company Meituan appeared on the list for the first time and claimed the #1 position; Apple had won the top spot in the previous year's ranking.
Fast Company is the only one of the world's three major business media brands to focus exclusively on innovation and creativity. The "World's Most Innovative Companies" list is selected by 30 senior editors, reporters, and experts from thousands of companies across 35 industries, and is regarded as an annual bellwether for business value and investment trends. Meituan took the top spot with the citation "pioneering transactional super-app," dethroning last year's champion Apple.
ByteDance, Ziroom
Win Xinhua News Agency "Most Influential APP" awards
The fourth "Youth China — Most Popular APP Recommendation Event," hosted by Xinhua News Agency's New Media Center, launched in Beijing on February 2. The selection process comprised online voting and expert review phases, drawing from 12 categories including media and information, lifestyle services, travel, e-commerce, automotive services, education, and healthcare. Over 200 popular apps emerged from the selection process to compete for six major awards. Toutiao won "Most Influential APP in News and Information," while Ziroom won "Most Influential APP in Lifestyle Services."
Pagoda
Named to "China's Top 50 New Retail Companies of 2018"
On February 17, the E-Commerce Research Center specially released the "China's Top 50 New Retail Companies of 2018" list. The ranking was determined based on comprehensive evaluation of each company's latest valuation, revenue, profit, store and user scale, and industry influence, aiming to reflect the overall development landscape of China's new retail sector. Pagoda was named to the list based on its industry influence, revenue, and valuation.
Car300
Selected for "2019 Nanjing Service Industry Development Special Fund Project Pool"
The Nanjing Municipal Development and Reform Commission, together with the Municipal Commerce Bureau and Finance Bureau, organized the 2019 municipal service industry development special fund project application and pool entry process. Following procedures including application submission, formal review, expert evaluation, credit review, and collective deliberation, Car300 — a Nanjing-based company focused on cultivating unicorn enterprises and a leading auto big data firm — was selected for the "2019 Nanjing Service Industry Development Special Fund Project Pool."
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