2 Companies Close Funding Rounds, 5 Complete Strategic Upgrades, 9 Win 6 Major Awards | Source Code Capital Monthly · January
"Ma Hui Chronicles" documents our members' incremental progress, shares the joy of growth, and looks forward to an even brighter future.
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Four years since Source Code Capital's founding, the family of portfolio companies has grown into a thriving forest. Ma Hui has become a platform where Source Code Capital's LPs, partners, and entrepreneurs exchange ideas. Ma Hui Journal records our partners' incremental progress, shares the joy of growth, and looks toward an even brighter future.
Ma Hui Journal — January
Contents
「Funding」
Yimi Dida
Raised RMB 1.8 billion in Series D
Linlinyi
Raised $30 million in Series A
「Milestones」
Duoshan
Topped China's App Store free apps chart
Douyin
Named exclusive social media platform for 2019 CCTV Spring Festival Gala
Walnut Coding
Renowned scientist Li Miao joins as distinguished expert
RiverPay
Accelerating global strategic expansion
Nongfenqi
Driving agricultural modernization through big data
「Quotes」
Xiang Li: Building China's own extended-range electric vehicles
Pengxuan Zeng: Giving children more space to think and explore independently
Ying Wang: For global millennials who "live in the future"
「Awards」
ByteDance, Meituan
Named to "2018 China's Top 10 AI Pioneer Enterprises"
CHJ Automotive founder and CEO Xiang Li
Named to "2018 Top 10 Best Makers"
Hai Feng Education, Knowbox
Named to "2019 China K-12 Education Innovative Enterprises List"
RELX
Won "2018 New Era Innovative Brand"
"2018 Most Socially Responsible Entrepreneur Award"
Yimi Dida, GalaxySpace, YQN Logistics
Named to "2018 China Internet 'Counter-Growth' Pre-Unicorn Top 50"
Funding
Yimi Dida
Raised RMB 1.8 billion in Series D
On January 14, Source Code Capital portfolio company Yimi Dida Supply Chain Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "Yimi Dida") announced the completion of its RMB 1.8 billion Series D financing. This round was led by Boyu Capital, with follow-on investments from existing and new investors including Source Code Capital, Hopu Investment, and Prologis Hidden Hill Capital.
This financing sets a record for the largest funding round in China's less-than-truckload (LTL) express industry, representing the strong endorsement of Yimi Dida's growth potential and enduring real value by top-tier financial investors, strategic investors, the market, and society at large. To date, over 28 consecutive months, Yimi Dida has completed six financing rounds with cumulative funding exceeding RMB 3 billion.
Yi Cao, Founding Partner of Source Code Capital, which invested in Yimi Dida's Series A, commented: "As infrastructure for industrial internet, Yimi Dida helps numerous industries upgrade and restructure, making the circulation of products and raw materials more efficient. The company's inherent organizational strength and evolutionary capabilities have supported its rapid development. As a longstanding investor, we are fully confident in the company's future."
Community group-buying platform Linlinyi
Raised $30 million in Series A
On January 2, Source Code Capital portfolio company and community group-buying platform "Linlinyi" announced the completion of its $30 million Series A financing. This round was led by Capital Today, with strategic investment from Suning Ecological Fund, and continued follow-on investments from existing shareholders Source Code Capital, Gaorong Ventures, and HSG. Following this round, Linlinyi will focus on deep supply chain development, upgrading its community leader operations system, investing in backend operational IT systems, and laying groundwork for further national expansion.
Yiwen Hao, Director at Linlinyi from Source Code Capital, which led this Series A, noted that in the fiercely competitive and rapidly evolving community group-buying sector, it's rare to find a team that can stay focused on building internal capabilities, assembling professional talent, and pursuing quality growth. Linlinyi's performance over the past two quarters made us very glad to continue increasing our investment.
Milestones
Duoshan
Topped China's App Store free apps chart
On January 24, Duoshan, ByteDance's first standalone video social product, reached #1 on China's App Store free apps chart. Just one day earlier, Duoshan product lead Lu Ran Xu revealed on Toutiao that the app had surpassed 1 million downloads within 24 hours of official launch. From press conference to official launch to topping the free chart, Duoshan achieved this in less than ten days.
On January 15, Douyin announced an upgrade to its private messaging feature, launching Duoshan — a video social app targeting young people and focused on close relationships — officially entering the social space. To address pain points in social products like WeChat, Duoshan employs features including automatic emoji suggestions, red-envelope videos, 72-hour disappearing content, and the removal of public social scenarios to reduce social pressure and stimulate expression.
Douyin
Named exclusive social media platform for 2019 CCTV Spring Festival Gala
On January 18, CCTV and Douyin held a joint press conference, officially announcing Douyin as the exclusive social media distribution platform for CCTV's 2019 Spring Festival Gala. For 2019, the Spring Festival Gala unveiled its new media initiative themed "A Year of Happiness." This year, Douyin will work with the Spring Festival Gala to conduct comprehensive deep cooperation in short-video promotion and social interaction, mobilizing young audiences and reaching Chinese worldwide to amplify the gala's reach.
The Spring Festival and Spring Festival Gala carry too many beautiful and happy emotions for Chinese people, and Douyin is precisely a platform dedicated to recording beautiful lives. How to use short videos to capture the small joys and great beauty of the Spring Festival period has become an entirely new proposition. Douyin will jointly launch the "A Year of Happiness" themed campaign with the Spring Festival Gala, using the "Official Spring Festival Gala Douyin Account" as its base to create new hotspots for nationwide participation.
Walnut Coding
Renowned scientist Li Miao joins as distinguished expert
On January 18, online children's programming education leader Walnut Coding announced the appointment of distinguished expert — Li Miao, Dean of the School of Astronomy and Space Science at Sun Yat-sen University, member of the Physics Division of the Ministry of Education's Science and Technology Committee, and internationally renowned physicist — to collaborate on building a complete and effective curriculum system and accelerate the popularization of children's programming education.
Li Miao graduated from Peking University with a major in astrophysics, earning dual PhDs in science and philosophy. He previously served as researcher and doctoral advisor at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and currently serves as Dean of the School of Astronomy and Space Science at Sun Yat-sen University and member of the Physics Division of the Ministry of Education's Science and Technology Committee. He is also a scholar dedicated to children's science popularization. He believes that "science helps children establish a correct worldview and provides them with options. Moreover, science contains logic and empirical elements; if children can learn logical reasoning from an early age, it will benefit them regardless of what career they pursue in the future."
RiverPay
Accelerating global strategic expansion
On January 21, RiverPay Inc. — an emerging electronic payment service provider deeply rooted in North American and European markets and an officially authorized partner of Alipay and WeChat Pay — officially announced its latest global expansion strategy from its headquarters in California, USA.
At the start of the new year, building on its existing achievements, RiverPay will leverage its stable merchant resources and extensive presence across 18 countries in North America and Europe to continue aggressively expanding its global footprint. The company aims to successfully enter additional markets in 2019 including Australia, New Zealand, Northeast Asia, and major Southeast Asian countries, while continuing to expand coverage in North America and Europe, completing its strategic goal of signing 30,000 merchants and 100 financial payment institutions and technology partners.
Nongfenqi
Driving agricultural modernization through big data
On January 5, the highly anticipated "2019 First Agriculture, Rural Areas, and Farmers Investment Exchange Conference and Agricultural Innovation & Entrepreneurship Ceremony" was held in Beijing. Nongfenqi promotes China's agricultural economic development on multiple levels, driving agricultural finance through big data. Nongfenqi has gone through a relatively lengthy process, from the perception and data collection stage, to using big data technology to mine massive data across multiple dimensions of farmers themselves and their radiating networks, obtaining effective analytical results, and establishing a new credit model for new types of agricultural business operators — Xinya Credit.
Over five years, Nongfenqi has covered seven major agricultural provinces, collected data from over 500,000 farmers, and empowered 35 mainstream domestic agricultural enterprises. Based on this massive big data model, Nongfenqi helps quality financial institutions achieve more precise risk control while actively channeling quality capital to rural areas, concretely helping farmers solve funding difficulties encountered in agricultural production.
Quotes
CHJ Automotive Founder & CEO Xiang Li:
Building China's own extended-range electric vehicles
At winter temperatures of minus 5 degrees Celsius, pure electric vehicles experience overall range loss exceeding 30%; we've controlled our loss to within 5%. In extreme conditions of minus 20 degrees, our loss is only 7%, while pure electric vehicles lose over 50%. Extended-range electric vehicles can guarantee users' actual energy usage costs at just 20% of the energy consumption of a same-class mid-to-large luxury SUV. This makes electric vehicles truly cars you can drive with confidence — no charging anxiety, no long-distance anxiety, no winter anxiety.
Walnut Coding Founder & CEO Pengxuan Zeng:
Giving children more space to think and explore independently
Walnut Coding's curriculum system is designed based on research findings in the learning sciences from MIT and the University of Pennsylvania, enhancing children aged 6-12's interest in programming and cultivating logical thinking abilities. In balancing "giving children more space to think and explore independently" with "providing timely support and guidance," Walnut Coding employs a solution combining live instructors with artificial intelligence, which also significantly reduces scaling costs. While maintaining its curriculum R&D advantages, Walnut Coding has pioneered a human-computer interactive dual-teacher class model, completing instruction and services through fully online methods including animated video explanations, targeted tutoring, and parent community operations.
RELX Founder & CEO Ying Wang:
For global millennials who "live in the future"
The cigarette industry is a century-old industry that has risen and fallen across the world's industrial, cultural, commercial, economic, and military spheres. With 2020 approaching, RELX was born three years prior, for global millennials who "live in the future." As a consumer brand born in China and facing the global market, we are prepared to embrace the rises and falls belonging to this new industry — worldwide. RELX has 108 people, averaging 27 years old, yet also a rich composition — '70s experts leading the way, '80s managers steering the ship, '90s talents as the backbone. We are united by a shared mission and vision, working in seamless harmony.
Awards
ByteDance, Meituan
Named to "2018 China's Top 10 AI Pioneer Enterprises"
On January 23, QbitAI officially released its 2018 China Annual AI Selection results. Drawing on QbitAI's actual interviews, research, and analysis of hundreds of AI companies throughout 2018, followed by screening and recommendations from dozens of industry experts, ByteDance and Meituan stood out to be named to "2018 China's Top 10 AI Pioneer Enterprises."
CHJ Automotive Founder and CEO Xiang Li
Named to "2018 Top 10 Best Makers"
The 2018 Geek Awards annual selection results were grandly announced. The Geek Awards, initiated by Geek Network, is a fair and authoritative TMT annual selection now in its fourth consecutive year. Drawing on the collective efforts of 220,000 professional readers, 500 self-media personalities, judging panel experts, and the Geek Network editorial team, the selection progressed through project solicitation, public voting, expert judging, and award announcement phases to ultimately identify China's most geek-spirited enterprises, products, and individuals in its TOP lists. CHJ Automotive Founder and CEO Xiang Li was named to the "2018 Top 10 Best Makers."
Knowbox, Hai Feng Education
Named to "2019 China K-12 Education Innovative Enterprises List"
On January 24, based on nearly three years of research and tracking, Ifenxi strictly evaluated the competitiveness of enterprises across various domains to officially release the "2019 Ifenxi · China K-12 Education Innovative Enterprises List." Knowbox and Hai Feng Education were named to the list based on their enterprise competitiveness.
RELX
Won "2018 New Era Innovative Brand"
"2018 Most Socially Responsible Entrepreneur Award"
On January 4, the 6th China Entrepreneur Development Annual Conference concluded in Sanya. RELX won "2018 New Era Innovative Brand" and "2018 Most Socially Responsible Entrepreneur Award." As of December 2018, the young company RELX, founded just one year prior, already had fans in 28 countries and regions, with global market share doubling month over month.
Yimi Dida, GalaxySpace, YQN Logistics
Named to "2018 China Internet 'Counter-Growth' Pre-Unicorn Top 50"
On January 16, PencilDao released its inaugural list, the "PencilDao · True Ranking." This research drew from a foundational sample of 3,000 companies; based on入围 standards across various dimensions and layer-by-layer screening, 300 of these 1,000 companies were ultimately subject to in-depth research through questionnaire distribution and data statistics, selecting the "Counter-Growth" Pre-Unicorn Top 50 and the Top 10 Most Promising Innovative Companies across six细分 domains, with 110 enterprises selected in total. Yimi Dida, GalaxySpace, and YQN Logistics were named to the "2018 China Internet 'Counter-Growth' Pre-Unicorn Top 50" based on their high professionalism, high popularity, and substantial data support.
More Ma Hui Journal
Ma Hui Journal · December | A solid finish to 2018, continuing patient long-term growth in 2019
Ma Hui Journal · July | 3 companies completed financing, 5 named 2018 China Pre-Unicorns
Ma Hui Journal · March | 5 companies raised funding, multiple listed on China Unicorn TOP100
