3 Companies Close Funding Rounds, 5 Named to 2018 China Future Unicorn List | Source Code Capital Monthly · July

源码资本·July 31, 2018·1·4

【Ma Hui Journal】Here we record the small steps forward of our friends, share the joy of growth, and look forward to an even brighter future.

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Readers

Four years since Source Code Capital's founding, our growing family of portfolio companies has flourished into a thriving forest. Ma Hui has become a platform where our LPs, partners, and entrepreneurs exchange ideas. Ma Hui Journal is here to record our friends' progress, share in their growth, and look toward an even brighter future.

July

Ma Hui

Journal

Briefing

「Funding」

Walnut Coding completed a tens-of-millions RMB Series A round, led by Source Code Capital

Huizhaofang brought in Tencent; Source Code Capital followed on

Hai Feng Education completed a Series C+ round, co-led by TAL Education Group and Source Code Capital

「Upgrades」

Meituan launched new brand "Meituan Flash Purchase," partnering with Pagoda to break new ground in retail faster

CHJ Automotive to build high-level autonomous driving feature Robo-taxi

Xinchao Media established "Tishi Media," investing 1 billion RMB to capture commercial building elevator TV inventory

Linji enters the convenience store battlefield: 100 stores in 8 months

Moran AI partners with Konka to build full-ecosystem AI voice technology

KnowLeGene releases two AI strategic products

「Quotes」

Wang Chaocheng: Rumors, misconceptions, and facts about FMCG B2B.

Zheng Yubin: After long division, comes unity; the essence of supply chain is scale.

Ren Liang: Entrepreneurship must stand against the backdrop of national trends to achieve personal development.

「Honors」

ByteDance, Ziroom named "2018 Super Employer Enterprises"

Pengcheng Ji, founder and CEO of Edianzu, named "2018 Enterprise Service Pioneer"

Pagoda, Nongfenqi, Yimi Dida, Moran AI, Zhaomei.com named "2018 China Pre-Unicorns"

Hai Feng Education named "China Industry Exemplary Brand"; Zheng Wencheng named "Outstanding Young Chinese Brand Figure"

Yijiupi named "2018 China New Retail Supply Chain Top 10"

Meili United, Hai Feng Education selected for multiple lists at "2018 Global Future Tech Conference"

KnowLeGene named "AI Business Value TOP 100"

Milestone

Walnut Coding announces completion of tens-of-millions RMB Series A round, led by Source Code Capital

Children's coding project "Walnut Coding" recently announced it has completed a Series A round of tens of millions of RMB, led by Source Code Capital with existing investor XVC following on. This marks the project's second financing in four months, setting a new speed record for this track. According to founder and CEO Zeng Pengxuan: "Walnut Coding's curriculum draws on learning science research from MIT and the University of Pennsylvania, designed to spark interest in programming among children aged 6-12 and cultivate logical thinking. This round will fund R&D and continuous curriculum development — optimizing for China's educational context while following international research findings — and increase investment in AI products to improve service efficiency."

Yungang Huang, Partner at Source Code Capital, commented: "The Walnut Coding team has strong DNA in children's education and exceptional curriculum and technology R&D capabilities. In the emerging sub-sector of children's programming, Walnut Coding chose a unique and effective entry point and rapidly built moats in curriculum and operations. In less than a year, all metrics show industry-leading growth. We're bullish on this team."

Huizhaofang announces Tencent investment; Source Code Capital follows on

On July 5, internet rental platform "Huizhaofang" announced it has brought in Tencent. This round was led by Tencent with Source Code Capital following on. Funds will be used to further expand market presence and housing inventory, improve transaction efficiency, rapidly integrate core resources across the rental market, and accelerate growth. Cygnus Equity served as exclusive financial advisor. Huizhaofang CEO Li Lei noted that China's annual housing transaction volume is roughly 15 trillion RMB, with the rental market alone exceeding 1 trillion RMB and growing rapidly.

Going forward, Huizhaofang will fully open its platform, focusing on solving two pain points in the rental market: first, truly serving users' core needs from the renter's perspective, providing massive verified listings through direct SaaS connections to solve authenticity and safety issues; second, connecting with branded apartment operators to comprehensively empower and support small-to-medium brands, guiding healthy development across the entire living industry chain.

Hai Feng Education announces completion of Series C+ round, co-led by TAL Education Group and Source Code Capital

On July 4, K12 online 1-on-1 leader Hai Feng Education announced its Series C+ round — its second financing in six months following its January 2018 Series C. Total Series C funding exceeds $100 million USD, co-led by TAL Education Group, Source Code Capital, and a sovereign fund, with Yonghua Investment, Lingyi Venture Capital and other existing investors following on.

Yungang Huang, Partner at Source Code Capital, stated: "Hai Feng Education is the fastest-growing online 1-on-1 team in the past two years with the best user retention. On key metrics like student activity and average monthly class consumption per student, they are more than double the industry average. Sustained leadership stems from heavy early investment in building out curriculum products, teaching models, and instructor teams. Hai Feng's current product portfolio represents the core of what will drive explosive growth in online education over the next decade."

What's New

Meituan launches new brand "Meituan Flash Purchase"

Partnering with Pagoda to break new ground in retail faster

On July 18, Meituan held its Flash Purchase brand launch event, officially rolling out the service to accelerate retail through speed. Pagoda VP Jiao Yue was invited to discuss the necessity and feasibility of combining internet and retail.

Faster, more timely delivery has always been a core demand for fresh products. Meituan Flash Purchase was built to crack this. It requires merchants and riders to deliver within 30 minutes, 24 hours a day. "Flash captures one of the essences of future retail," Jiao Yue assessed. Meituan's proprietary intelligent dispatch system cuts delivery to half an hour — a huge leap in industry speed standards that will accelerate transformation across delivery.

Industry analysts note that Meituan and Pagoda are both leaders in their respective fields; deepening cooperation through this "Flash Purchase" channel actively advances both businesses and could drive geometric growth in online fruit retail.

CHJ Automotive to build high-level autonomous driving Robo-taxi

At the 2018 Smart Vehicle Cross-Industry Integration Summit, CHJ Automotive Autonomous Driving Director Xianpeng Lang publicly outlined the company's unmanned driving and shared mobility strategy for the first time. The ultimate shared mobility goal is to build Robo-taxi with high-level autonomous driving capability at SAE Level 4. First mass-produced vehicles are planned for commercial operation in 2025, providing 100 million kilometers of daily mobility service.

According to the timeline: around 2019, after Robo-taxi prototypes are completed, CHJ Automotive will finalize vehicle design by 2020, spend 1-2 years refining algorithms, and begin large-scale mass production between 2023 and 2025.

Xinchao Media establishes "Tishi Media"

Investing 1 billion RMB to capture commercial building elevator TV

On July 22, Xinchao Media announced the establishment of "Tishi Media," investing over 1 billion RMB to compete for commercial building elevator TV inventory. Sources say Tishi Media has already secured placements in over 24,000 exterior elevator screens and nearly 45,000 interior screens across commercial buildings. Xinchao Media stated this move aims to expand elevator advertising more broadly and cap industry ad profit margins at 25%, creating win-win outcomes with advertising clients and property resource owners.

Linji enters convenience store battlefield from second-tier cities

100 stores in 8 months

Domestic convenience store chain Linji targets young people in second- and third-tier cities with a business-oriented positioning, opening 100 stores in Hefei and Wuhu in just 8 months. On business model: Linji started with direct operation, then franchise, with all goods centrally procured and distributed by headquarters under unified management. Going forward, direct operation will be supplementary to franchising. On supply chain: drawing on team experience, they have stable upstream partners and also work with local Hefei suppliers, currently operating two distribution centers (ambient and cold chain) totaling 5,000 square meters.

CEO Liu Zhongjian noted that cities along the Yangtze in Anhui like Wuhu and Anqing remain nearly blank slates for convenience stores, where opportunity still exists. He added that convenience stores are easy to enter but extremely difficult to scale — requiring not just capital and technology, but obsessive attention to detail.

Moran AI partners with Konka

To build full-ecosystem AI voice technology

On July 9, Konka held its strategic launch and fall new product event in Shenzhen, redefining and upgrading its smart TV offerings from all-weather AI voice to new three-dimensional variable frequency technology, bringing consumers more "futuristic" products. The officially launched Konka V1 OLED TV features full-ecosystem AI voice technology co-developed with iFlytek and Moran AI, and is among the first in the industry to use 8K super decoding — sufficient to handle content upgrades for the next 5-10 years.

At the event, Chang Dong, Chairman and GM of Shenzhen Konka Electronics Technology, personally demonstrated ordering coffee for guests by voice on the TV — black tech powered by Moran AI. Moran AI's voice technology now covers more than 40 life scenarios including food, housing, transportation, and travel, allowing users to order takeout, check weather, ask about stocks, book movie tickets, and check maps through their TV — enjoying full-ecosystem smart living without leaving home.

KnowLeGene releases two AI strategic products

On July 5, fintech startup KnowLeGene officially released two strategic products: the KS Intelligent Marketing Engine and the K-BOX KnowLeGene Box. Founder and CEO Ren Liang believes these products, distilled from the core team's decade of industry observation and practice, represent an important step toward scaled AI empowerment of financial institutions.

The Knowledgene Sale (KS) Intelligent Marketing Engine was developed around the real business needs of financial institution account managers, practically helping frontline staff solve problems in business development. The second product, K-BOX (Knowledgene BOX), is a virtual box based on big data and AI technology enabling cloud deployment and knowledge graph scenario applications.

Quotes

Wang Chaocheng (Founder & CEO, Yijiupi)

There are two major rumors about the FMCG B2B industry right now. First, that FMCG B2B isn't working — is it or isn't it? Second, that investors are losing interest and money is drying up. No smoke without fire; there's some truth to it. Rumors don't emerge from nothing. Is B2B working? I have one key metric; I basically don't look at how much money companies raised, how many started up, how many died. Those are all surface-level. Whether B2B works comes down to one indicator: is the proportion of small shops ordering by phone growing or shrinking? If fewer and fewer small shops are ordering by phone, B2B isn't working. If that proportion is growing, B2B is working — the demand has solid foundational value.

Zheng Yubin (Founder & CEO, Zhangshangkuaixiao)

As an FMCG B2B entrepreneur, I have a core belief. The emergence in China of a multi-category, multi-channel, ultra-large-scale supply chain enterprise is a certainty, and FMCG B2B is best positioned to capture this wave. What we do is simple: directly cover small shops. For manufacturers, we're a new distribution format that helps you reach small shops directly. So channel change at this stage mainly manifests as specialized division of labor. But after long division, comes unity — the essence of supply chain is scale. Channels that achieve scale leadership will horizontally cover other store types. FMCG B2B has the best shot at scale because our downstream are small Bs, and small B business is standardized; standardized things scale easily.

Ren Liang (Founder & CEO, KnowLeGene)

KnowLeGene builds industry-finance knowledge graphs — we pay attention to industry when doing finance, weaving industry and finance into one big net, using AI to extract rules for prediction. When we started in 2016, our goal was "using AI + finance to drive real industry upgrading." Many thought this was too grandiose; how could a startup aim so high? I believe: national fortune is my fortune. Entrepreneurship must stand against the backdrop of national trends to achieve personal development. China is a massive industrial chain, and now Chinese industry is upgrading. The two strongest drivers of this upgrade: first, technology, represented by AI. Second, finance. These are our true levers.

Honor & Awards

ByteDance, Ziroom named

Lagou.com "2018 Super Employer Enterprise" award

On July 20, Lagou.com hosted the China Internet Talent Officer Leaders Summit in Beijing, where Ziroom received the "2018 Super Employer" award. The summit gathered 101 top internet company HR executives and industry experts for brainstorming around "discovering and empowering HR leaders."

To recognize outstanding employer brands in the internet industry, Lagou.com presented the "2018 China Internet Recruitment Season · Super Employer Enterprise" award. ByteDance, Ziroom, and 9 other companies received this honor. This marks Ziroom's fourth consecutive year winning the internet industry's "Best Employer" title.

Edianzu founder and CEO Pengcheng Ji

named to "2018 Enterprise Service Pioneer Figures" list

Recently, in the "2018 China Enterprise Service Industry List" selected by Enterprise Service Headlines, Edianzu founder and CEO Pengcheng Ji was named a pioneer figure. With deeper internet penetration and network infrastructure development, high-value B2B services will inevitably become the choice for enterprise development, and the enterprise service market is welcoming a new round of growth peaks.

Amid this vigorous trend, B2B companies are actively expanding. As a more professional vertical platform for the enterprise market, under Pengcheng Ji's leadership, Edianzu has solidly built its business through innovation + technology + service, leading commercial transformation and empowering enterprise development. After one month of preliminary screening, review, and scoring, 20 entrepreneurs ultimately stood out from numerous applicants to make the list.

Pagoda, Nongfenqi, Yimi Dida

Moran AI, Zhaomei.com

Named "2018 China Pre-Unicorns"

On July 6, the "2018 Unicorn Summit" hosted by Chuangye Heima with iHeima as co-organizer was held in Beijing, releasing the "2018 China Pre-Unicorn TOP 50 (Summer List)." This summer list resulted from broad screening by Chuangye Heima in collaboration with the venture investment community: 146 investment institutions participated in recommendations, 227 companies applied, and 50 ultimately stood out.

Source Code Capital portfolio companies Pagoda, Nongfenqi, Yimi Dida, and Zhaomei.com were named "2018 China Pre-Unicorns"; Moran AI was named "2018 China AI Pre-Unicorn."

Hai Feng Education named "China Industry Exemplary Brand"

Zheng Wencheng named "Outstanding Young Chinese Brand Figure"

On July 14, the 2018 China Brand Summit was grandly held in Beijing, themed "Enhancing Enterprise Value, Building Brand Economy." As a high-end event focused on Chinese brand development and enterprise influence, it received support from ministry leaders, experts, brand leaders, and outstanding entrepreneurs from across the country.

Hai Feng Education, as a leading online education enterprise, was invited to this summit and received "China (Industry) Exemplary Brand." Meanwhile, Hai Feng Education founder and CEO Zheng Wencheng was awarded "China Brand Figure · Outstanding Young" for his outstanding contributions to the industry.

Yijiupi named

"2018 China New Retail Supply Chain Top 10"

On July 20, at the "Third China New Retail Domestic Supply Chain Conference" hosted by Tobee.com, the China E-Commerce Association B2B Industry Branch announced and presented the "China New Retail Supply Chain Top 10." Yijiupi made the top 10 list. Tobee.com's research team selected publicly available, quantifiable, and comparable data to maintain relative objectivity and fairness in finalizing the "2018 China New Retail Supply Chain Top 10."

Meili United, Hai Feng Education selected for

multiple lists at "2018 Global Future Tech Conference"

On July 13, the 2018 Global Future Tech Conference was grandly held in Shanghai. The "2018 Global Future Tech Conference" evolved from the Global Mobile Internet CEO Summit, which has been held for five consecutive years, generating tremendous industry response as a globally renowned heavyweight annual internet industry event.

The conference released the "2018 China East China New Economy Industry Unicorns" report, providing comprehensive analysis through five sections: (pre-)unicorn development changes, distribution, list reveal, challenge analysis, and trends. Meili United was named a 2018 China East China New Economy Industry Unicorn; Hai Feng Education was named a 2018 China East China New Economy Industry Pre-Unicorn.

KnowLeGene named

"AI Business Value TOP 100"

Recently, the "2018 China AI International Cooperation Conference" was grandly held at Chengdu Century City International Convention Center, co-hosted by the China Center for Information Industry Development, China AI Industry Innovation Alliance, Sichuan Economic and Information Technology Commission, Sichuan Association for Science and Technology, and Sichuan Council for the Promotion of International Trade. The conference attracted political, industrial, academic, and research figures to deeply exchange around the theme "Intelligence Leading Industry Upgrading, Cooperation Accelerating Integrated Win-Win."

KnowLeGene made the "2018 AI Business Value TOP 100" list released during the conference, alongside other AI leaders including Alibaba, Baidu, DiDi, DJI, iFlytek, and Megvii.

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