Source Code Capital portfolio company "Chuxin" announces completion of over RMB 230 million in Series B financing — Source Code Capital was the sole investor in its angel round

源码资本·December 31, 2019·0·6

It provides full-stack AIoT solution leasing services for restaurant back-of-house operations, pioneering the "LIS" model — Leasing Intelligence Services.

Chuxin, a commercial kitchen intelligence service provider, announced it has raised over RMB 230 million in its Series B funding round. The round was led by Blueprint Ventures, with participation from former Meituan COO Jiawei Gan, Hejun Capital, and others. The funds will be used primarily to expand its city network.

Founded in 2016, Chuxin provides intelligent solutions for restaurant back-of-house operations, entering the market through the category of "networked commercial smart dishwashers." What sets Chuxin apart from traditional kitchen equipment manufacturers is that it doesn't simply sell equipment — instead, it offers restaurants a complete AIoT solution through a leasing model, pioneering what it calls the "LIS" (Leasing Intelligence Service) model.

Image source: Chuxin

In just three years since its founding, Chuxin's operations now cover more than 75 cities nationwide, serving over 3,000 restaurant brands. Its clients include established names like Grandma's House, Xiabu Xiabu, Muwu BBQ, and Yunhaiyao, as well as emerging brands like Tai Er, Tan Yu, and A Long Time Ago. It serves all restaurant categories, including fast food, buffet, hot pot, BBQ, seafood, Western cuisine, and Japanese and Korean cuisine.

Founder and CEO Changyi Liu noted that commercial dishwashers have grown rapidly in recent years, and Chuxin has become the top brand in China by shipment volume, with over 20% market share. Compared to last year, its leasing business has tripled overall this year.

1. Stricter food safety regulations driving rapid growth in commercial dishwashers

Founder and CEO Changyi Liu stated: "A key market driver for commercial dishwashers is regulation." The government has placed increasing emphasis on food safety. In 2016, it issued new national standards for Food Safety National Standard for Disinfected Tableware (Drinking Utensils). After the merger of the Administration for Industry and Commerce, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, and the China Food and Drug Administration into what is now the State Administration for Market Regulation, more resources were devoted to food safety, with increasingly rigorous enforcement. Restaurants have had to pay much closer attention to tableware hygiene.

The national standard sets three technical requirements: sensory indicators, physicochemical indicators, and microbiological indicators. Meeting these standards through manual washing is extremely difficult, and restaurants struggle to manage and ensure compliance. When food safety incidents occur, the penalties are severe, and the damage to brand reputation can be irreparable.

With China's food service market exceeding RMB 4 trillion and over 8 million restaurant locations, commercial dishwashers have the potential to grow into a RMB 100 billion market.

2. Product innovation built on technology, with service at the core

From a product perspective, Founder and CEO Changyi Liu explained that Chuxin's proprietary brand product, the "Chuxin X1," is the industry's first truly networked commercial smart dishwasher, offering a complete AIoT restaurant dishwashing solution that delivers higher cleaning standards, controllable results, and greater peace of mind compared to traditional dishwashing methods. Its advantages include:

Launching the industry's first dishwashing data management tool, enabling oversight of the dishwashing process and results. With traditional dishwashers, improper operation by dishwashing staff often leads to subpar cleaning results. Two major issues are opening the lid mid-cycle and failing to change water as required, yet restaurant managers have no way to monitor staff operations. Addressing this pain point, Chuxin launched the "Chuxin" mini-program, a dishwashing data management tool that displays equipment information across all dimensions to improve back-of-house management efficiency. It provides real-time data on lid openings, water changes, water temperature, and power consumption, strengthening dishwashing station oversight. All service information is also traceable and queryable, including service type, time, and even the after-sales engineer, ensuring peace of mind throughout the leasing period.
Offering a high-value product combination. Compared to other products on the market, Chuxin has optimized power consumption and detergent usage. Its proprietary energy-saving technology, built on an exclusive patented energy-saving module, reduces electricity, power, and space requirements, saving merchants 15% on electricity costs per rack washed.

On the service front, Chuxin has established branch offices in multiple cities, with 18 key cities currently covered, providing 365-day year-round service with 2-hour rapid response, with all service items fully included. Within cities, Chuxin sets up service satellite stations distributed in a honeycomb pattern around dining districts, coordinated with cloud technology for efficient response to restaurant needs. The 2-hour on-site service rate in central urban areas approaches 100%, with the 1-hour rate exceeding 50%. It also uses an intelligent AI system for online diagnostics and intelligent inspection routing — frequent visits when needed, minimal disruption otherwise.

On the team front, the company now employs over 600 people. Core members of its product quality and delivery system come from companies like Huawei and Apple, while its big data, information technology, and operations team members hail from leading Chinese internet companies like Tencent and Meituan.