Yongqianbao Announces Completion of 466 Million Yuan Series C Funding Round, Source Code Capital Follows On

On March 28, Yongqianbao announced the completion of its Series C funding round, led by BRIC Capital and CICC Capital; with participation from Guoke Jiahe, Source Code Capital, Innovation Works, Guangxin Capital, and other institutions.

1 AI + Finance

On March 28, Yongqianbao's parent company Zhirong Group announced the completion of its Series C funding round and a brand upgrade. The round was led by BRIC Capital and CICC Capital, with participation from Guoke Jiahe, Source Code Capital, Innovation Works, Guangxin Capital, and other institutions, raising a total of 466 million RMB ($67.8461 million).

Zhirong Group has consistently adhered to its mission of "solving financial industry problems with technological初心," deepening its exploration in the fintech space through new financial technologies centered on AI-driven risk control — a commitment that has earned recognition from numerous top-tier investment institutions.

Wang Zhan, Managing Director at BRIC Capital, expressed strong optimism about fintech's development in the Chinese market. He noted: "In Europe and America, the relatively mature financial system leaves limited room for fintech, but China is different — there's still massive market space not covered by traditional finance. Therefore, fintech holds enormous imaginative potential."

Liang Guozhong, Chairman of CICC Capital, also believes that compared to the Fintech 1.0 era, which relied on internet and mobile internet technologies, Fintech 2.0 demonstrates a distinctly "technology-driven" character, powered by enabling technologies including artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and blockchain. In his view, Fintech 2.0 will represent a chemical reaction between finance and technology, with vast room for innovation.

2 The "Strongest Brain" in Finance

In fact, AI applications in finance have attracted considerable attention in recent years. Industry experts believe AI possesses tremendous capacity to empower sector-wide innovation. At the press conference, Kai-Fu Lee, founder of Innovation Works, stated: "This is the golden age of artificial intelligence. I hope our AI investments will account for nearly half of our total investment portfolio." He added: "AI will first take root in domains with the largest data volumes and fastest value generation — and finance is among the best fields for AI application." He believes AI may well disrupt the internet finance industry.

Jiao Ke, founder and CEO of Zhirong Group, also believes AI has inherent advantages for small-sum, dispersed, high-frequency, highly standardized financial services. First, machines can process massive datasets, dramatically improving service efficiency. Second, machine learning operates at extremely high speeds, enabling model iterations at high frequency when AI is at the core. Third, machines demonstrate clear advantages in anti-fraud, substantially enhancing system security.

Zhirong Group's self-developed "I.C.E. Risk Control Engine," built on AI technology, was formally unveiled and became a focal point of attention. I.C.E. stands for the fundamental AI logic of Identify, Calculate, and Evaluate — corresponding to three intelligent risk control components: "Conan Feature Engineering," "Anubis Big Data Computing Framework," and "D-AI Machine Learning Model."

To date, I.C.E. has accumulated over 1,200 dimensions of effective features, more than 100 machine learning models, and completes 40 model iterations per week. It processes hundreds of millions of data points daily, achieving an average review speed of 8 seconds. Its approval rate is double the industry average, while its overdue rate is only 60% of the industry mean.

3 Strategic Layout Across Three Business Lines

At the press conference, Jiao Ke announced that the "Yongqianbao" brand would officially upgrade to "Zhirong Group" — "Zhirong" deriving from the corporate vision of "enabling everyone to enjoy intelligent finance."

Meanwhile, Zhirong Group's strategic layout came into focus, with future services extending in three directions: First, the Yongqianbao mobile app will soon offer "thousand-person, thousand-face" products with varying credit limits and installment plans, becoming an accessible companion for users. Second, building the I.C.E. risk control system with AI technology at its core, enabling AI-driven risk pricing for individuals — not only for its own products but also as an exportable risk control technology. Third, through "Huicheng Bangbang," a credit process management platform built on big data and AI automation technology, independently providing full-process services throughout the credit lifecycle — improving credit efficiency while fostering societal credit consciousness and a healthy credit environment.

Official data shows that to date, Yongqianbao has surpassed 10 million registered users. In February alone, the platform achieved over 1.2 million transactions in a single month. Qi Peng, CTO of Zhirong Group, noted that serving this large user base has brought back substantial data samples for risk model training and continuous iteration, with precision improving over time — increasing approval rates, lowering bad debt rates, and creating a positive Matthew Effect cycle.

Following the brand upgrade, Zhirong Group's new logo was also unveiled. The logo takes the shape of the letter "Z," the first letter of "Zhi" (intelligence); its circular outline represents "integration and harmony"; the curve symbolizes a path connecting users with financial services; and the overall orange color conveys warmth, reflecting Zhirong Group's aspiration to deliver finance with a human touch.

In traditional finance, a product-centric philosophy can only serve a small segment of the population. Zhirong Group, by contrast, consistently adheres to a people-centric financial philosophy, with each business segment enabling refined specialization across the credit industry to form a complete commercial闭环. This expands financial service coverage, improves efficiency and user experience, and effectively lowers the barriers and costs of financial services.

Jiao Ke stated: "Going forward, Zhirong Group is committed to eliminating information inequality, upgrading services through new financial technologies, creating people-centric products, and striving to realize our vision of 'enabling everyone to enjoy intelligent finance.'"

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